Party Leadership

Every party has two leadership layers: national (chair, vice chair, treasurer) and state (chair, vice chair, treasurer per state). Leadership roles unlock party actions, whip authority over NPPs, and control over the party treasury.

Leadership Roles

National Party

Role	Field	Powers
Chair	`chairId` on `PoliticalParty`	Form coalitions, issue national whip directives, create party, recruit NPPs nationally
Vice Chair	`viceChairId`	Assist chair, issue national whip directives in chair's absence
Treasurer	`treasurerId`	Manage national treasury, set national tax rate

State Party

Role	Field	Powers
State Chair	`chairId` on `StatePartyOrg`	Issue state whip directives, set GOTV/suppression/org-building budgets
State Vice Chair	`viceChairId`	Same whip powers as state chair
State Treasurer	`treasurerId`	Set state tax rate, manage state treasury budget allocations

Leadership Elections

State party leadership elections are run through the state party election system (statePartyElections collection). Elections are held for the positions of chair, vice chair, and treasurer separately.

Who Votes

All party members in that state who are in good standing can vote. NPPs in the state do not vote in state party elections.

When They Happen

Leadership elections are triggered by:

A seat becoming vacant (the current holder leaves the party, switches parties, or their term ends)
An existing leader manually triggering a new election
Turn processing detecting a vacant leadership seat

Election Duration

State party elections run for a set number of turns (set in the election's durationTurns field). Players can declare candidacy and vote during the open window. Votes can be cast once per voter; the candidate with the most votes at endTime wins.

Score Formula for State Elections

There is no automatic scoring formula for state leadership elections — it is a direct member vote. Each eligible voter casts one vote for one candidate. Majority wins; ties are broken by earlier entry.

What Leaders Can Do

Whip Authority

State chair and vice chair can issue whip directives to NPPs in their state. Directives tell NPPs how to vote on specific bills or leadership elections. NPP compliance depends on their personality:

complianceChance = (loyalty × 0.7) + ((1 − stubbornness) × 0.3)

Loyalty	Stubbornness	Compliance Chance
100	0	100%
50	50	50%
0	100	0%

Whipping is free — no action cost. But each NPP can only be whipped twice per target per chamber, so choose your directives carefully.

Budget Control

Leadership sets how the state party's income is allocated across three spending buckets (set as percentage of incoming revenue):

GOTV budget — increases voter turnout for your party's demographics
Suppression budget — reduces turnout for targeted opposition demographics
Org building budget — invests in party organization score growth

Only chair, vice chair, treasurer, or national chair can adjust these percentages.

NPP Influence

National chair and vice chair can spend party resources to influence NPPs in states where no player is active. State chairs and vice chairs can influence same-party NPPs in their state using party action pools and treasury.

The chairId vs chairCharacterId Distinction

This is a common point of confusion:

PoliticalParty uses chairId — an ObjectId pointing to a Character document
Coalition uses chairCharacterId — also an ObjectId pointing to a Character, but the field name is different

Always check the actual type definition when writing code that reads leadership fields. The field names are not interchangeable.

Party Membership — Who is eligible to vote in leadership elections.
Party Organization — What org building budget does.
Party Actions — What the action pool funds.
NPP Behavior — Full whip compliance mechanics.
Coalitions — Coalition chair mechanics and succession.