Against the backdrop of our nation's neck-and-neck Presidential campaign, 18 political strategists vied for the right to occupy the highest office in the land vicariously.

Using the 1967 3M edition with updated Electoral Vote numbers and choosing their two candidates' home states, players then balanced Campaign Ability, Advertising Monies and Debating Skills using a zero sum budget.

Each campaign decided what position to take on each of five issues (Taxes, Social Policy, Military, Government Activism and the Environment), being either right-wing, left-wing or middle-of-the-road.

Action in the first heat saw semi-finalists Ted Drozd and Richard Moyer advancing, while tournament winner Karsten Engelmann unveiled an advertising-heavy Republican strategy that succumbed to GM J. Scarborough's die-roll lucky Democrats.

In the second heat semi-finalists Marshall Collins, Marvin Pinkert, K. Engelmann and Bob Jamelli advanced.

After Dan Henry in the third and Marvin Birnbaum in the fourth heats advanced, the Democrat and Republican sides each boasted six wins.

The single elimination semi-final rounds reduced the field to only two players while leaving the Republicans with 11 wins to the Democrats 7.

Unfortunately, the final round was forfeit due to the GM grabbing lunch while the eventual winner, Mr. Engelmann, waited 15 minutes for his opponent, Mr. Birnbaum, to show. The latter felt his tardiness was relatively minor and was willing to play. The winner, however, was moving on to something else and was not willing to reschedule. So, lessons learned: GMs should be present at critical times and players should be punctual.

Average scores for the two parties were 267 for the Democrats and 271 for the Republicans, out of 538 possible--the official result of the 2000 election!

Candidate home states were chosen for their electoral vote numbers, despite the risk of Opposition Research, one of several Event Chart outcomes. Choices were as follows, with the most popular listed first: CA, FL, TX, OH, MI, NY, PA, IL, MA, NC, IA, CT, LA.

Hand size averaged nearly eight cards, with only five '6's and six '10's. Likewise, there were only seven high Advertising plays of '4' or '5' and the same number of Debate-heavy plays. However, many of these odd-ball candidacies won.

Positions on the issues trended to the Left, with the following averages on a scale of 1 to 3, with '1' being right-wing and '3' being left-wing):

Taxes: 1.84 ('Fewer Taxes' or 'Progressive Taxes')
Social Policy: 2.37 ('Stricter' or 'Hands Off')
Military: 2.18 ('More' or 'Less')
Gov. Activism: 2.18 ('Bad' or 'Good)
The Environment: 2.53 ('Cash In' or 'Conserve It')