During the inauguration of the tenth Congress, something curious happened when Ella Bright-Starr stepped forward to be sworn in. The Judiciary, led by Kylian Clarkson, turned and walked out. It was a silent protest, but one that would foreshadow massive conflict between the Executive branch and the Judiciary — a conflict that would end with the sitting Governor in cuffs, a festival fallout, and a special election to seat three State Representatives.
Shout News has been investigating the tenth Congress, which has been defined by the rapid rise and fall of the Feline Party. With the Governor’s trial still pending, it remains to be seen whether this cat will land on her feet. Shout News spoke with various sources from government agencies, many of whom requested anonymity due to fear of professional retaliation or personal repercussions.
The Best-Laid Plans
In order to understand the chaos of the recent headlines, we need to go back to track the mounting stressors that rapidly impeded the Bright-Starr Administration. According to multiple sources who spoke to Shout News, the Congress started off with the intent of productivity. At a June town hall meeting, Representative Jack Burton stated that the Legislature had “21 bills in various states of preparation of review, many of which are waiting for approval from external departments.”
“I’ve been working with Ella since I was a paralegal at the Public Defender’s Office,” said State Representative Jack Burton in an interview with Shout News. Burton says he maintains a mutually respectful relationship with the Governor. He claims that he did not see or hear any instances in which the Governor was abusive or leveraged the power of the legislature over other members of the government. “Governor Ella Bright-Starr — whether or not that title is in play or not — still counts as someone I look up to as a colleague, a mentor, a friend, and that will not change.”
Shout News has reached out to Governor Bright-Starr multiple times since her arrest on July 3 and did not receive a comment in time for press.
Burton shared the legislative plan with Shout News, which included bills for nearly every government department. He also says that the legislature was working together and proactively doing their jobs, with the exception of Tommy Merlin who was “nearly always absent.” Burton describes an agenda that includes bills on citizens rights, SAMS medical bills, amendments to items in the penal code, and a particular focus on law enforcement.
The Executive Branch focused on other priorities. At the June town hall meeting, Governor Bright-Starr mentioned pushing for a media department to enable government communication.
“I had a very close-knit relationship with the Executive, but it was more along the lines of keeping the Governor and Lt. Governor informed on what we’re actively working on,” says Burton. “We didn’t want this to be a “lame duck” Congress; we had a lot we wanted to get done.”
Despite this initial game plan, things would quickly go off the rails.
Jack Burton has been one of the few government officials making public appearances during the 10th Congress.
Pressure Cooker Politics
The election of Ella Bright-Starr immediately triggered two reactions, both of which led to mounting tensions between the Executive Branch and other departments.
The first is that Bright-Starr became the target of viable threats, some of which were suspected to be issued by the Whisperers. The Whisperers were a cult group active in San Andreas; they are linked with the murder of Bright-Starr’s deceased husband, Richard Starr.
Sources inform Shout News that due to this threat, Bright-Starr employed private security. The Bright-Starr Administration would take meetings in the company of a large task force of personnel wielding shotguns. “It was unexpected,” one source told Shout News. “It definitely gave the meeting an intimidating air. They were nice and professional people, but they still had shotguns.”
The second is that Bright-Starr was in an unprecedented position. The Feline Party was composed of Bright-Starr, Quinn Lillegard-Marino as her Lt. Governor, and two State Representatives in Emilie and Astra Lillegard-Marino. Three State Representatives and the Governor can, if coordinated, pass laws that can only be stopped by federal intervention.
Politpoll data gathered over the 10th Congress shows the decline in public approval of both the Legislative and Executive branches.
Emilie Lillegard-Marino has since legally changed her name to Yukigumi. For clarity, she will be referred to as “Emilie” in this report. Shout News reached out to the Lillegard-Marinos for comment on this report but did not receive a response in time for press.
The Feline Party share a primary residence, along with Representative Jack Burton, who is in a romantic relationship with former Representative Emilie Lillegard-Marino. Burton states that he is not a part of the Feline Party; “I gave them a hard no,” he told Shout News.
Trusted sources inform Shout News that there was a fear across multiple departments and even private industries that the Bright-Starr Administration would force through laws, using a stacked legislature in their failure. It’s a rumor that, while technically possible, Burton strenuously denies.
“The public perception is that Ella is the Governor, she has Quinn Lillegard-Marino as her Lt. Governor, and then we have two Lillegard-Marinos in the legislature, and then Jack Burton is dating one of them,” Burton acknowledges, but he says there was no wrong-doing and he would not vote in line with the Feline Party if his opinion did not genuinely align. “The public perception then is, ‘Oh my god, they have a majority. No matter what Bill comes through, the Governor can make it happen.’ That’s just not the case.”
Either way, these compound factors would put mounting pressure on both the Executive and Legislative branches, causing the cracks that would exacerbate the coming collapse.
The First Catastrophic Failure
There were three successive failures that sealed the fate of the Bright-Starr Administration. The first of these happened outside of the public eye and centers around a conflict between the Judiciary and Governor Bright-Starr.
Chief Justice Kylian J. Clarkson has a long working history with Bright-Starr, including during her tenure,as a public defender, a defense attorney, as part of the now defunct San Andreas Security Services, and now the Governor. According to Clarkson, the two have long had a contentious relationship. This relationship soured further when Bright-Starr, after her election, received sanctions from a disciplinary action panel due to past correspondence sent before Bright-Starr returned to the state to run for election.
According to both Clarkson and other eyewitnesses from the Judiciary, Bright-Starr threatened to impeach Clarkson during an “unproductive” meeting. “I said, and I quote, ‘I don’t like you. But I will work with you.’” Clarkson told Shout News.
An early email between the Governor and Chief Justice which led to the meeting where Bright-Starr allegedly threatened to impeach the Chief Justice
That sentiment was not returned. According to sources in the government, Bright-Starr has deliberately chosen to stop working with the Judiciary in any capacity, including crucial nominations. Bright-Starr has reportedly told her closest staff to not speak to, or work with, Clarkson and the Judiciary lest they fall into a “trap.”
“She’s become totally paranoid,” an anonymous source inside the government tells Shout News. “She lives with the Lillegard-Marinos and Burton, so I don’t know what goes on in that house, but it’s made her totally afraid to talk to anyone outside of her immediate circle. It’s not a good look for a Governor.”
Shout News has acquired emails between the Governor and Chief Justice throughout her administration that showcase the working relationship between the Executive and the Judiciary after the alleged threat of impeachment.
Burton describes the relationship between the Executive and Judiciary as confusing and precarious. He alleges that at the inauguration, a member of the Judiciary — Sunny Dae-Cavanagh — “verbally accosted the Governor.” He also says that emails between the two parties have been “argumentative and confrontational at best.”
Shout News reached out to Ms. Dae-Cavanagh for comment. Dae-Cavanagh claims that she spoke to Bright-Starr in a whisper and a quiet and calm tone. “There I did be recite a letter that I did be take the time to write with her,” Dae-Cavanagh told Shout News over email. “I expressing to her that I did not be appreciating the things she did be say about me and that it was being unprofessional and inappropriate.”
Ms. Dae-Cavanagh claims that in return, Bright-Starr yelled at her to go away while Mr. Burton tried to tell Bright-Starr that she could walk away from the conversation. “I finish to be telling her that I would not be appreciating the continued slander of my character and did be asking her to be stopping. When I did be done I returning to my seat.”
Communication breakdowns
Collector, the Wizard of the City, is a command member of the Department of Human Services. She shared an incident with Shout News where Governor Bright-Starr had swiftly responded to criticism. “Ella made some kind of post about our affordable housing programs, and she hadn’t talked to us or anything, so I did Twitter fingers and gave her an essay back,” Collector said in conversation with Shout News. Collector alleges that minutes afterwards, Bright-Starr called the Director of DHS.
“Miles [Matthews, Director of DHS] asked, so why don’t you talk with [Collector]? She didn’t want to. Then he tried to schedule a meeting, and she said something about getting ganged up on in return.”
“I don’t know if she was coming for my job — I think she just didn’t want to deal with the confrontation,” adds Collector. “She wanted to see if she could go around it. I’ve heard this from others; she’ll not call someone she should’ves, call members of a department to see what they need instead of the department head, and so on.”
Annie Lamb, Chief of Staff with San Andreas Medical Services, also described the communication with members of the Legislative and Executive branch as difficult. “We haven’t had any formal meetings with the Governor, the Lt. Governor, or spoken with her as a government department,” said Lamb in conversation with Shout News.
Instead, changes were pushed through the legislature, which Lamb described as both surprising and confusing. “Obviously, we’re all like — ‘What the fuck is going on? Why are you touching our shit?’” While multiple Representatives reached out to introduce themselves, Lamb says “they basically made a bunch of changes that they thought were really great without talking to us.”
Lamb also noted that some of the context of some conversations was unusual. For instance, when it comes to Power of Attorney and Do Not Resuscitate Orders, Lamb says San Andreas Medical Services and Kylian Clarkson both agreed those should be handled under the Judiciary. The Legislature, however, stated that this would not be possible.
Behind bars and blasted by Extra
With this amount of private dysfunction, it’s no surprise that the Executive branch’s troubles would go public. However, no one could have predicted the one-two punch of her arrest on felony charges on July 3, followed by the public failure of the 4th of July event.
On July 3, Doc Hillard and Kylian Clarkson approached Ella Bright-Starr’s residential address with an olive branch; a card congratulating her on purchasing the home, and opened the mailbox to deliver the card. That card was never delivered, and now has now become evidence in a sordid political scandal.
Clarkson and Hillard describe Bright-Starr’s reaction to the delivery as frightening and aggressive. “I see her jump down from the top of her house on her second floor, reach into her rear pocket, and pull out a red, white, and blue pistol with a flashlight attachment,” says HIllard. “I can see the silhouette of it right now. She put it right in my fucking face and said, “What the fuck do you think you’re doing here?”
According to Hillard, there was a brief back-and-forth of conversation wherein the Governor told Clarkson and Hillard to stay on her property. “She was screaming, very loudly, apoplectic,” said Hillard. “Her voice was shaky. I thought she was accidentally going to pull the trigger.”
It remains to be seen whether Bright-Starr is found guilty on these charges, but sources tell Shout News that they suspect more charges may be incoming in the future.
The arrest was followed by the 4th of July event, which was another catastrophic failure. According to Weazel News, the Events Committee failed to pay out to vendors in an amount totaling $120,000. Weazel also reported that a bill to Kokoro went unpaid; Shout News has learned that this bill totaled approximately $150,000. The Chief of Staff immediately resigned after the event, writing on Twitter that: “”I’m not working for someone who leaves me in the dark and use me as a scapegoat.”
The event was so rough it inspired a press release from the Extra events team decrying the Governor, and it seems unlikely we’ll see any more collaborations between this Administration and any events-oriented company.
San Andreas is left with a shaky political future. Representative Burton, during the July town hall, would not commit to impeaching Governor Bright-Starr.
“I understand fully that people are looking at this situation, and they want the Governor removed,” said Burton in conversation with Shout News. “Maybe they’re justified in that, they think not enough is being done and the fiasco with the Fourth of July event sits wholly on her head. But our legal system is based on innocence until proven guilty, and it feels very much like a lot of individuals have already said the Governor is guilty.”
Burton added, “They have not heard all the facts of the case. The Governor is going to have her day in court. Let’s see how this all plays out.”
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