Did some more playtesting last night and I'm still tinkering with some of the dynamics in the game.  I lost another two elections to the tune of 223 and 231 votes.  The last election was even more dismaying as I had campaigned in three smaller states to earn free campaign stops in Ohio, Virginia and New Jersey.  I rolled 1's across the board and I lost each of those states.  I had a few smaller western states reverse themselves as well and once again West Virginia decided to go with my candidate at the end.  I would have won if I had a little more luck toward the end.  I didn't use as much political capital in this game.  I did like the new "small state" rules to allow for more stops at the very end for a chance to sway states that were on the fence.

A few other rules/changes I'm thinking of throwing into the mix:

• If a state that started out liking you ends up in the middle square at the end of the game, you win the state.  I've had a number of election results where a lot of Democrat leaning states decided to bolt.   This doesn't seem entirely realistic to me.
  
  
• Opponent campaigning of moving back stuff 2 squares is pretty brutal.  I've thought about changing this to only 1 square, but coupled with the above rule might make the game too easy.  I am undecided on altering this.
  
  
• I might need to come up with some alternate uses of political capital.  The specialized advertising one never gets used and most of the roles are weak.  The roles are also a little hard to just express.  So, here's what I'm going to experiment with next:

• Keep the $5 cash and temporary $25 spending limit.  I like these and they can be useful for advertising which is used sparingly in the game.
  
  
• Add an for allowing "bullet-proof" campaign stops which are worth a reroll or a set # of squares movement per day.
  
  
• Allow a "safe" state to be moved for a campaign stop.
  
  
• Reduce advertizing to $3 per cube for one week.

• Doubles and triples aren't coming up that often as I don't usually use a 3 stop campaign trip.  This isn't really unfair, but the original use of political capital doesn't come up that often.  Not sure if I need to alter this yet or not.
  
  
• Fundraising feels too random.  Spending three days on fundraising and coming up with lemons just hurts.  Maybe a bonus of 2 for each die + 1d6 makes sense.  It gives a lower range for the higher ranges (3-9, 5-11, 7-13) but makes for an easier to plan.  Another avenue may be to include a bonus for the number of states the candidate is currently carrying plus 1d6, but I think this is harder to express and figure out with the different dice used each time.  Turning it into a fundraising chart is also more of a pain than its worth.
  
  
• Keeping a token out for the Vice President to always campaign.  He's always worth one state and doesn't count against your campaign treasury.

I think a combination of some of these things will make the game a bit more even.  A few more quick tests this afternoon before heading out and getting some fresh air.