The voting process for the midterm elections was similar to the presidential elections, with the main difference being that there was no need for a nationwide tally.
After leaving Manhattan, Simon arrived in Greenwich in the afternoon to meet with Joseph Schrap, where they began monitoring the election results coming in from various states.
As usual, the Igrit Portal provided live coverage of the midterm elections.
Although it was only in text and image format, it once again demonstrated the tremendous advantages of internet media over print and television in terms of immediacy and content capacity.
Moreover, Igrit's growing media network across the United States had become an indirect intelligence system for the Westeros system. Through teams of journalists scattered across the country, Simon could get the information he needed from his estate in Greenwich in real-time.
After 6:00 p.m. Eastern Time, the election results began to trickle in.
The Westeros system's primary focus was on the densely populated areas of the East and West Coasts. Consequently, the results of the first relevant congressional elections on the East Coast quickly reached the estate in northern Greenwich.
First on the list of targeted individuals, second only to Wisconsin's Democratic Senator Craig Emms, was Connecticut Congressman David Merose, who suffered a crushing defeat. This Democratic Congressman, being a staunch supporter of the Hearst family, was a key target in this sniping plan.
Despite David Merose quietly offering to back down after the Hearst family's collapse, Simon did not let him off the hook.
If it hadn't been for David Merose's vigorous efforts earlier in the year to push for the House of Representatives to establish a special investigative committee to conduct an antitrust investigation into the Westeros system, the Justice Department wouldn't have formally filed cases against Cisco, America Online, and Igrit.
Having caused significant damage, Merose couldn't expect to get off with just a show of submission.
In the end, Merose suffered a humiliating defeat in his district, losing to his opponent with a 33% to 67% vote ratio.
Around 8:30 p.m., the election results from Wisconsin came in.
Democratic Senator Craig Emms, the top target on the sniping list, was defeated, losing 39% to 61%. It was another crushing loss.
Unwilling to accept defeat, Craig Emms immediately launched an attack on the Westeros system after the election results were announced, claiming the election had been rigged and loudly calling for Congress to investigate the dark secrets behind the Wisconsin Senate election.
Much like the flurry of chaos that often follows a presidential election, Craig Emms' reaction was anticipated.
At the estate in northern Greenwich.
As soon as they received the full transcript of Craig Emms' concession speech, Simon and Joseph Schrap began discussing their response strategy.
They already had a plan.
The Westeros system wouldn't simply ignore the individuals on the sniping list after their defeat; they would continue to follow up to guard against people like Craig Emms who might refuse to let things go.
Due to the connections and influence accumulated during their time in office, former federal congressmen, after losing an election or retiring, typically live quite comfortably, either by joining companies as board members or consultants or by establishing political lobbying firms.
At 56 years old, Craig Emms was in his prime among American congressmen. If not for the Westeros system's targeting, his chances of re-election in Wisconsin were high, given his standing in the state.
Now that he had lost, Emms, who had served as a senator for 12 years, would have to consider his next steps.
Craig Emms was a classic example of someone who came from humble beginnings. Before entering politics, he worked as a regular employee at a chemical plant in Wisconsin. His rise to prominence began when he advocated for several colleagues who were injured at the plant, gaining him local fame. At 32, he successfully ran for state legislator, and from there, his political career took off, eventually leading to the U.S. Senate.
The salary and benefits of a congressman are quite substantial compared to the average person.
Over the years, Craig Emms had purchased homes in both his native Wisconsin and in Washington, with funds that were aboveboard. However, aside from these two properties, he had few other assets and still had mortgages to pay.
Moreover, Emms had a family of five. Except for his eldest daughter, his two younger sons were still in college, and everyone knows how expensive American university tuition can be, especially when paying for two at once, which would be a significant burden for Emms.
If he didn't take up another profession after losing the election, the standard of living for the Emms family would drop significantly.
Furthermore, Simon had also discovered that due to their father's long-standing high position, Emms' three children were not particularly successful. His married daughter and son-in-law had been quietly using Emms' influence to earn extra money—not entirely illegal, but enough to be a serious issue if scrutinized.
His two sons, still in college, were often the targets of flattery and had become accustomed to flaunting their status and acting irresponsibly.
These issues could have been used as ammunition against Craig Emms during the campaign, but Simon had deliberately held them back.
He was waiting for this moment.
The 1994 U.S. midterm elections ultimately resulted in a crushing defeat for the Democratic Party.
In the Senate, the number of Democratic seats dropped from 56 to 47, a loss of nine seats in a single election. This wasn't nine seats lost out of all 100 senators, but nine seats lost out of the 34 seats up for re-election.
Moreover, this defeat marked the first time since 1954 that the Democratic Party had lost its majority in the Senate, ending a 40-year streak.
In the House of Representatives, unlike the one-third rotation in the Senate, all 434 seats were up for re-election.
The Democratic Party's defeat in the House was even more striking.
Before the election, the Democrats held 256 seats, giving them a solid majority.
However, in this midterm election, the Democrats lost a staggering 52 seats, dropping from 256 to 204. In contrast, the Republicans increased their seats from 178 to 230, becoming the majority party in the House.
Not only did the Republicans gain control of both the Senate and the House, but in the 36 gubernatorial elections across the 50 states, the Democrats also suffered a crushing defeat, losing 11 governor seats. As a result, the Democratic Party's previous majority of 29 governors out of 50 states plummeted to 18, while the Republicans gained 30 governor seats, with two more going to third-party candidates.
It's difficult for the average person to grasp what such a widespread political shift really means.
However.
That night, Washington was sleepless.
In Greenwich.
Simon, too, didn't get to rest until after 1:00 a.m.
The Westeros system's "sniping plan" and "maintaining the base" plan were both successfully concluded.
The two plans involved a total of 45 congressional seats, with 39 targets achieved and only 6 seats lost. Of the 7 Senate seats, the Westeros system won 6. Of the 38 House seats, the Westeros system secured 33.
Although the 21 seats targeted by the "sniping plan" were primarily about eliminating opposition, the beneficiaries on the other side didn't necessarily have to align themselves completely with the Westeros system. However, a sense of gratitude was inevitable. As a result, after this midterm election, nearly 10% of the members of Congress could speak on behalf of the Westeros system.
10% may not seem like much, but it's enough to influence many decisions.
In comparison, the National Rifle Association (NRA), which had targeted a total of 23 seats, only achieved 18.
Although the plans were successful, there was no room for complacency.
The next step was to handle the aftermath.
This involved diverting public attention and letting the NRA take the lead.
As for Washington.
With nearly 10% of Congress members directly involved, this was perhaps the least worrisome aspect.
Early the next morning, the headlines of mainstream newspapers were dominated by phrases like "Democratic Party Crushed," accompanied by extensive analysis of the reasons behind the Democrats' defeat.
Such significant news couldn't be suppressed.
However, there was interference, of course.
The key lay in the "extensive" nature of the coverage. The related reports in major newspapers like *The New York Times* and *The Los Angeles Times* spanned entire pages of editorials and analyses. Anyone with even a slight aversion to large blocks of text would feel overwhelmed by these lengthy articles, and Simon doubted many would have the patience to read through several pages of such dense material.
On the Igrit Portal, the headline was similarly a lengthy analysis of the midterm election results.
However, following the midterm election news were two entertainment stories that were sure to capture the public's attention.
First was the news about the third annual Victoria's Secret Fashion Show. The official team had deliberately released a large batch of carefully shot photos of the Victoria's Secret Angels in advance. When it comes to choosing between beautiful women and political editorials, the readers' choice is obvious.
The other entertainment story was also of national interest.
Stephen King, the famous American horror novelist, had signed with Igrit's online radio platform, Broadcast. Many of King's horror novels would be produced as audiobooks and made available for subscription on Broadcast.
In the original timeline, the online radio platform Broadcast was a typical internet bubble failure.
This time, Simon planned to model Broadcast more on the lines of the Xiami Music platform, while also making it the platform for legal audio downloads for the iPlayer digital player that Tingkobail would
launch next year.
Legal audio, not just legal music, and the difference is significant.
Music is just music.
Audio can cover a lot more—besides music, there's talk shows, audiobooks, educational courses, and more.
Just as operating systems need ecosystems, content is key to the rapid promotion of digital players.
The iPlayer digital player that Tingkobail is set to release next year, with its microdrive design, will have considerable storage capacity.
In contrast, because the record industry instinctively protects the interests of traditional sales channels, legal online music resources will be relatively scarce in the short term. As a result, various talk shows, audiobooks, educational courses, and especially audiobooks will be a substantial content supplement for promoting digital players.
And listening to a song doesn't take much time, but a book can take hours without you even noticing.
This is clearly another form of "nurturing."
Therefore, in addition to the headline-grabbing promotion of Stephen King's novels joining the platform, Broadcast will also be signing more authors and producing a batch of free public domain audiobooks.
Simon had even privately written a memo to C-girl, suggesting that she develop an automatic speech reading engine.
It might not be as good as a real person reading aloud, but once the automatic speech reading engine is released, a text file, which is only about 1% the size of an audio file, can be stored on the iPlayer, allowing the player to automatically read the book aloud. This would undoubtedly be a small but significant revolution.
After Wednesday, early Thursday morning, the Igrit Portal, in collaboration with various newspapers, released another major news story.
The "Information Age" marketing campaign, which started on October 31, had led to over 500,000 personal computers being sold nationwide in just 10 days, thanks to strong promotions by various brands.
In comparison, the total domestic personal computer shipments in October had only been 460,000 units.
It's expected that the ongoing two-month "Information Age" marketing campaign, combined with the usual end-of-year sales boom, will lead to a staggering 1.5 million units being shipped in a single month in the U.S.
Moreover, since the marketing campaign began, the number of internet users in the U.S. has also surged.
At the beginning of 1994, the industry had predicted that the number of internet users in the U.S. would reach around 71 million by the end of the year, with a total of 120 million netizens. However, due to the unexpectedly rapid growth of the internet industry, this target was already met by the end of October.
In just the last 10 days, due to the efforts of America Online, AT&T, and various other internet service providers who joined the large-scale marketing campaign, the number of new internet users in the U.S. reached 1.1 million. By the end of the two-month campaign, it's expected that the number of new internet users will reach around 7 million.
By the end of this year, the total number of internet users in the U.S. is expected to reach 78 million, with the total number of netizens at 140 million.
The current population of the U.S. is 260 million.
A total of 140 million netizens means that the internet penetration rate in the U.S. has officially surpassed 50%, reaching 53%, the highest in the world.
As a large number of old PCs finally connect to the internet and the internet penetration rate exceeds 50%, from next year, in pursuit of better hardware experiences, the pace of PC upgrades will accelerate, and sales will continue to grow significantly. However, the rate of new internet connections in the U.S. will inevitably slow.
Overall, however, especially globally, the new technology industry will surge even more powerfully.
As the arrival of a new era became apparent, the "Information Age" marketing campaign, as Simon had anticipated, quickly shifted the public's focus away from the midterm elections.
However, the political earthquake that completely altered the power structure at the federal level couldn't be easily overshadowed.
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