https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tsxD2ZkUqE&feature=youtu.be

Summary:

Goal was to keep sophons scientist faction in power after first election.

1. why do the costs of various actions jump?  I get the idea design wise (so that they don't become trivial), but what actually triggers it?  In this case I went into the election stockpiling dust to get the finance campaign (after rushing the tech to use it...maybe..not sure i needed it), but suddenly couldn't afford it because the cost doubled when I wasn't looking.  I don't totally mind that, but at the same time sorta wish I knew when it jumped, and why.

2. From evertying that I can see, scientists should have stayed in power, and I really don't get why they lost.  I can't tell if something is actually bugged or if it's just poorly conveyed that the elections aren't and excat science.  If true that makes sense, but at the same time I still feel it was tremendously off, and maybe that should be better conveyed if its not in fact bugged.

Might be a bug, many have had the same problem. It has been brought up in various threads including one that I opened. (My first game was as Sophons and I ran into the exact same problem you describe.)

I have no idea though how the elections are supposed to work so I don't know if it really is a bug.

Something else that I found weird, is that intimidating candidates from the opposing party (small penalty) seems to have a lot more impact than financial support (average boost) and won me the elections every time I used it, even thought the polls gave a major victory for the opposition.

I mean, it's understandable for intimidation to be more useful when there are more than 2 parties because you leech from all of them, but it shouldn't be as strong when facing only 1 opponent. In that case financial support should have the upper hand.