Two of Mayor Winston’s campaign promises have come to an end. First, the swift backlash to the February announcement of adding the ‘H’ back into the spelling of Walesburg resulted in a special citizen vote. The results heavily favored keeping the spelling as is, 68% – 32%. Second, Mayor Winston promised voters she would restore Summer electricity to Walesburg. This motion has been declined by Grover Electric, sole provider of electricity to Walesburg.

“We will not bow to the corporate cronies in lock-step with Mayor Gondola and his criminal administration,” said Mayor Winston in an email to the Chorus. “We don’t care how they run their city, we care about not being able to run our city as planned. This move is illegal and reeks of collusion.”

Grover Electric says it’s not that they won’t supply electricity to Walesburg, it’s simply that they can’t. Jade Gondola, President of Grover Electric said, “The grid is set up with power rolling from our power centers through Cinniapolis into Walesburg. It would be a major reconstruction project to separate Walesburg off of the Cinni grid. It’s an impossible project complete by this Summer. Now, it’s also a multi-year, perhaps, even a decade long project. A project requiring billions of dollars of investment in the infrastructure, equipment, and manpower needed to safely and responsibly install a modern power grid solely for Walesburg. At this time, that type of capital just doesn’t exist at Grover Electric or within the Walesburg bank accounts, from what I understand. I appreciate Mayor Winston’s spirit but it’s all for naught at this point.”

The fallout from these two political defeats are the first challenges facing the Walesburg administration. Given Mayor Winston’s checkered past and current status as political leader, her supporters are confident she will rebound. They also expect this rebound to occur at the expense of Cinniapolis.

CNPS Stream moderators confirmed they have blocked and removed any content related to the short-lived hashtag #BurgPowerSurge because site rules were violated. A CNPS Stream spokesperson said, “We can confirm the scrubbing and blocked status of the #BurgPowerSurge hashtag. The decision was made without hesitation as the hashtag generated fervor, misinformation, and calls for mob action to march on the Cinniapolis Grover Electric power centers until Walesburg is exempted from the Cinniapolis Summer Electricity Savings program. There were concrete plans discussed on our forum. We immediately reported that content to the authorities and removed all content associated with that hashtag. We will continue to monitor and block all content associated with any plans to commit acts of violence or treachery.”

Mayor Winston has been advised of the online threats but has not provided a public response. However, Chorus sources indicate privately she is furious at Grover Electric and Cinniapolis. The same sources also said she expressed a desire to join any march to Grover Electric. The Chorus could not independently verify either claim.