On my first full run, I kept Mirelle as Commerce Logothete. Expected her to be really good given the mining world, and I didn't understand what 30 meant on the minister scale yet. Later, discovered she was very good at Law, and started picking her up for this whenever I wasn't planning to pick Rejt.
Similarly, I took Ozara for Law early on, before discovering she was very good at Bureaucracy and taking her for that whenever I wasn't routing through the Heru system for Grojdana.
Science pretty much always goes to Stoyan or Lorkas, depending on my starting angle. Lorkas is the best I've found for Media, though Sola seems indistinguishably close if I need Lorkas for Science.
I haven't found anyone better than Khdarr for economics. Every time I've tried to offer her Law, she's indicated that there could be some very interesting things which happen, but I haven't yet found a way to win her approval enough to have that as an option.
Speaking of spicier options, Erilott was quite good at Bureaucracy, and is absolutely radiating ulterior motives. I want to find out what happens there. Radomil has the best Galactic Relations of anyone I've found, but is extremely unhappy at the callout needed to make it possible. I want to find out what happens, but it's going to take a lot of planning to have the skills needed to bring him in early. I reverted a run where I picked up Krovos for Spiritual advisor after the backlash, but I want to find out what happens. I've mostly been investigating my Novan heritage, so I think I want to finish that before I start bypassing his personal quest. Very keen to see if having Krovos on board makes something interesting happen when meeting Stoyan or doing their personal quest.
Letting Kxenia go makes me feel like a terrible friend, so I haven't experimented much without her, unless I avoid appointing her in the first place. Having her around for her interest in Nova seems pretty important, too, though exactly what I learn can be masked by how or whether I interact with Nova or the shamans, or if we pursue a dramatic roleplay marriage instead. Out of character, I think I have a pretty good idea of what's up with my heritage and why, though I can't get myself to realize much before the election, and learning the most in a single run leaves me deeply upset and traumatized at the end.
I haven't had much luck trying to get anything out of the rumor Vasilly gave me after the opera. Going back with all-around high arts and maxed music wasn't enough, so I might see if I can make something happen by being in a particular mood. I wonder if something more happens if I'm crushing on him rather than Kxenia.
Most of the romance options have been unappealing. I tried an engagement with Fire to make would-be grandma happy, and mostly to see if anything interesting happens during the "exchange" if I already had test results by then. I don't think anything changed, though. I'm not unhappy with the finale with Fire, though the final transmission's commentary hurt, when I certainly didn't feel any shame with Kxenia.
The prospect of romance with Jade seems both scandalous, and extremely funny. I definitely didn't have the build for it at the time, but it is one of the first things I want to try on the next mechabird run. I don't know if I'll feel shame or pride at the end!
Sometimes I see the option of a romance with Krovos, sometimes I don't. I guess that depends on the skills taken before I first meet him? That might end up being even more of a wild run than a heretical advisor, though at least so far I haven't had an engagement be enough for someone to travel with you.
Generally, I don't think I've had any trouble with the election itself. Pretty much all of my runs involved taking basic empathy and etiquette, and just not being obviously rude when meeting people seems to be enough. On a very recent and unexpectedly lethal run, I was still facing assassins after publicly unmasking one conspirator, and Korundi couldn't say anything any more specific than ~"danger is everywhere don't take any risks be mindful of everything everywhere". I assume I somehow tripped quite a lot of flags. I finally managed to thread the needle through to the election, and despite the extremely intense electoral anger leading up to it, still got the rather interesting result of 20 votes for, 9 against, 0 abstentions.
In the one run I made since, I was deliberately rude I think greeting the mostly uncourted Myrkkans last while favouring all the races I didn't need to worry about, actively full passing social phases in the deep space spot nearest the removed neutral zone for every turn after the opera, giving terrible or "don't care" responses to the "what is your stance" questions, taking the "final chance to sway" option of giving a tone deaf speech with fairly low social skills about Novan heritage that ended in closing my eyes and standing presumably uncomfortably silent and still in front of everyone pretending I was radiating light (I assume it was pretending, given prior attempts had me opening my eyes to nothing) in the engineering outfit (which is absolutely adorable and I think I will struggle to not wear it even in very inappropriate situations when available oh my goodness even the screwdrivers are colorful and coordinated aaaaaa), fully prepared to deliberately lose the vote to smash, grab, and run for Nova with top tier understanding of operational systems, layout, and getaway piloting, still made me Empress with 18 votes in favour! I think I might rollback and try again after mentally bracing myself to deliberately denounce allies, but I've never lost the vote in any run, even actively trying here. I don't think this was intentional, but this feels much less a dramatic finale than the duel for the fate of Nova in OG LTTQ. Maybe I'm just not being evil enough? :(