If you can buy FSS for the state that the recruits are in and FSS will tell you if they are main targets of the sim or not, you might not need to spend a lot if they are not solid. As long as there are no human schools that battle you for those recruits, the prestige advantage and close distance I would "guess" around 15 K should have you in the area of taking the lead. I don't know how much it would take to bump them off totally, but that is a pretty big prestige advantage.