I was away all weekend, wow what a change! I just took out 8 red towns, very high level chars in them (and made 70K gold in the process). The kingdoms are actually quite evenly matched now that Summer Isles is gone. Had I been on during the weekend there'd be a lot more blue.
For the election - if you are going up against an npc, spend about 500 gold, that should clench it.
