F Ronit

Fiona / Fred Ronit

A Tea Party idealist, running for Senator

Gender: Male Current Quality: Excellent

Played by Duncan

In Game

Plots: Election, The Accident, Board Meeting, Political Money

Character Hint

You are Fred Ronit, State Representative from Violet City and Republican candidate for Senate. It's time to show those RINOs in Congress what a serious conservative looks like.

Today -- well, it's a mess and no doubt. Some kid at Decameron Enterprises, your old company, went and shot the place up. No doubt the liberal media will be trying to leverage this for their anti-Second-Amendment agenda, but you can't show weakness. The primaries are in a couple of weeks, and you need to draw a clear line between yourself and that wimp Newbold, who has been in Washington for way too long.

Character Sheet

You are Fred Ronit, next United States Senator from the great state of Vermillion.

At least, you will be if nothing goes too wrong in the next few weeks. You're pretty sure that you can beat that wimp Ferdinand, but first you've got to keep the lead over Newbold.

Senator Reagan Newbold is the usual sort of establishment RINO that the Tea Party is trying to overturn. For far too long, the Republican Party has let itself get diluted into such a squishy mess that it can barely be told from the Democrats, with no real principles to speak of. Oh, now that he has finally realized that you are a serious challenger, he is tacking hard to the right, trying to claim to be a true conservative. But it's pretty transparent. Someone who spends all their time in Washington may claim to be pro-second-amendment, but if he hasn't actually picked up a gun in 20 years, he's not going to really understand how the people feel. And any politician who has spent decades spending the peoples' money like water isn't going to understand the frustration that the real businessman feels at stifling tax rates.

As for Mayor Jeri Ferdinand, she at least has the honesty to admit that she's a liberal. (If not quite enough courage to use the word much.) You will certainly grant that she cares about people a great deal, and that's not a small thing. But she doesn't know anything about economic reality, much less business reality, and carrying her ideas too far would quickly bankrupt everybody. And you can't help anyone if you can't help yourself.

Not that you dislike either of them -- Father O'Malley always scolds you when you speak ill of people, and you work hard to respect them even if you disagree with them.

You are a diehard Tea Party true-believer. Your campaign priorities, in order, include:

The Constitution is sacrosanct, especially the Second Amendment. They'll pry your guns out of your cold, dead hands. (You actually made an ad just a few weeks ago, highlighting the fact that you and Roger have been going down to the range to practice almost every weekend for decades now.)
Taxes are a necessary evil, but emphasis on the evil part. It is the job of serious people to keep forcing the government to reduce taxes, to counter its natural tendency to keep raising them. Corporate taxes are especially onerous in the US, and are hurting American business.
Family values matter, more than ever. Abortion is murder, and you're kind of mystified by anyone who believes otherwise -- that one is just plain obvious. Gay people aren't evil, but giving away the institution of marriage to them crosses a very serious divinely-inspired line.
Immigration -- well, you're actually fairly moderate on immigration. Oh, the illegals need to get shipped back where they came from: there is no excuse at all for someone to stay in the country without permission. (The heck with legality -- it's just plain rude.) But American immigration policy is pretty stupid when it comes to talented foreigners. If someone has skills we can use, we should be accepting them with open arms, to support our businesses. The American immigration quota needs to be raised, and fast.

[GM NOTE: Feel free to make up other campaign planks that seem appropriate to you: this is just a representative sampling, to give you a taste.]

Yeah, some people think that you are too extreme for them, and they are welcome to their opinions, but you don't apologize for yours. This is a great nation, but it has been under one threat or another since the day it was founded, and as they say, "Eternal vigilance" and all that. What you don't tolerate is people who say that you're just another opportunistic politician. That's a lie, and you won't stand for it: you speak the God-given truth as you see it, and pray that you never become as cynical and jaded as someone like Newbold.

It's been a long road, getting to this point. Oh, you've always been fascinated by politics, and passionate about it (sometimes enough so that your friends have to remind you to tone it down), but you never wanted to become a politician. You always saw yourself as a businessman first and foremost, which is why, when Roger Cameron drew you into his little venture 30 years ago, you were intrigued. Not that you were all that into model rockets, of course -- you were a talker and thinker, not an engineer -- but he convinced you to look into the market, and you found that yes, there clearly was a sizeable market for high-quality model rockets. It seemed a fine way to cut your eyeteeth, so you joined as his co-Founder of Decameron Enterprises (his idea, so you didn't complain about him putting his name into it), and took on the Sales and Marketing job.

Those early years were great: while you and Roger were never exactly best buds, you clicked well together, with you coming up with ideas and marketing strategies, and him dealing with the day-to-day running of the business. The company grew nicely, and you thought you had it made. You were pretty naive.

By the late 90s, the market for model rocketry was collapsing, and the company started to flail. You'll admit, it was partly your fault for not realizing the sea change that was happening -- you pushed the company to come out with newer, cooler rockets to bring novelty-centric boys back to the fold, not realizing that they were all playing videogames now, and discovering the Internet. But much of it was due to Roger not paying attention, continuing to hire and expand even while sales were dropping. By around 15 years ago, Decameron was on the verge of bankruptcy, and all that stock that you'd been planning to retire on was approaching worthless. (You sold a bunch of it in a panic, to try to get something out of it; you've regretted your haste ever since. You still have a good chunk, but it's a lot less than it should be.)

You, Roger and Helen (the company's first investor, and still at that point the biggest stockholder) were sitting around a conference room in despair. The way you remember it, Roger said something about having millions of dollars in unsold stock in the warehouse, tying up all that cash that you needed. And you joked something like, "Well, we could just burn it down."

You weren't serious. You are sure you weren't serious. But now the idea was in the air, and the three of you spent something like a month arguing about it before Roger declared that he was going to "deal with it". You didn't want to know the details, but a few weeks later, you got word that there had been a terrible fire down at the docks. Thank God nobody got hurt. You confessed that one in church years many ago, but it still weighs on you.

Of course, the insurance company wasn't stupid, and resisted making the full payout, but that's why you had the best lawyer on retainer. Regan Archie has always been worth every penny, and managed to strong-arm them within a few months, knocking away any hint of arson by threatening to sue anyone who would claim such a thing. So it was time for you to get back to work.

By now, your passion for politics had been going on for long enough that you'd built up a fair network, reaching from Vermillion to Washington. And with the election of George W Bush, "defense" was suddenly the word of the day again. You and Roger agreed that the company's best bet was to apply your aeronautic skills to research work for the government. Within six months, you had lined up the first contract -- not a huge one, and it was sad to see so many people laid off, but it was a start. And as the months turned into years, and people started taking Decameron seriously, things began to turn around. The company still isn't as big as it was in its heyday, but it's doing reasonably well these days.

Even now that you're no longer as directly involved with the company, you're still steering business its way. When you heard about the contract that would become Project Sureshot last year, you did your best to get it pointed to Decameron. That went well -- actually, rather suspiciously well. The company got the contract easily and quickly, which was great, but when you talked to some of your contacts in defense, they would only say that they had gotten "pressure" to give the contract to Decameron. Which is pretty weird: as far as you know, you are the company's man in government. Where did this "pressure" come from? Nobody will say. Odd.

Anyway your heart had gone out of the business some time back: frankly, locking up government contracts isn't anywhere near as much fun as the marketing you had been doing before. And having sold a good chunk of your stock too early, you didn't have as much skin in the game any more. So six years ago, you decided to take the plunge, and actually do politics for real.

Even then, you had your eye on Washington. But Roger, Jamie and pretty much everyone else convinced you to go one step at a time, and get your feet wet on the State level first. Jamie donated $50k to your campaign, and that has become its own weight on your conscience.

Jamie Rickie is one of your oldest and most trusted friends. Back in the earlyish days, while the company was still ramping up, you brought him in to become the company's full-time accountant. And he did a good job, making sure there were precise reports of where the money was coming from and going to. It all seemed to make sense, and in your capacity as head of the Board's Audit Committee, you didn't bother to look at it too closely. It wasn't until things were getting pretty dire that you sat down, looked at the accounts in some detail, wanted to know about some of the suppliers who were still being paid a lot, and asked Jamie.

That was when he admitted that he had been quietly -- how did he put it? -- "supplementing his income" for years at that point, in ways that might not be quite legal. He almost begged you not to tell anyone, and promised to stop. But you were angry at Roger, and the amounts weren't enough to be the cause of the company's failure, and at that point it was barely your company any more. So you just told him, whatever, keep doing it if you want, and you left in disgust.

But of course, Jamie is just as good with finance as you are weak at it. By the time you wanted to go into politics, he had done quite well -- you don't know how much money he took, or how much he has now, but it's a lot more than you do. So as a sort of thank-you for not turning him in when you had the chance, he bankrolled your campaign. You've felt a little dirty about that ever since, and recently admitted it to Father O'Malley during confession. He told you to seek ways to make amends for it, and you're not sure what to do with that, aside from trying to do your job to the best of your ability.

As for today, it's a tragedy and no question about it. You may have had your differences with Roger from time to time, but he was a friend, and when you heard he'd been killed at the office by some employee who went off his rocker, you rushed right over. You will admit that you're kind of shocked the killer got away with it -- Roger was always proud of his gun collection, and kept it in a case in his office. Best you can figure, the guy must have gotten the drop on him, caught him by surprise. And the fact that he managed to kill two more people is a good example of why an armed populace is a safer populace: the rest of the company would have taken him down before he could kill again, if they'd been properly prepared.

So, time to go into the fray. Today isn't going to be fun, but it's necessary to show your respects, both for the friend you've lost and the other victims of this terrible crime. It's an opportunity to get your message out, so time to put on your game face for the cameras. (Not smiling, under the circumstances, but serious and strong.) And maybe get some other business done, while you're at it.

Who You Know

Jamie Rickie: Your oldest and closest friend, who gave you $50k to start off your political career. You wish he hadn't gotten the money through illicit means; someday, you need to convince him to stop this nonsense. He is currently managing your campaign's funds, and has sworn that he will apply all of him skills to making sure that nothing similar happens to them.
Roger Cameron: Your business partner for over 20 years. Good man, if never quite as brilliant as he wanted to believe. Poor bastard, but it shows that you never know what to expect, even within your own walls.
Millie Cameron: Lovely little lady, the model of a dutiful wife and mother -- you sometimes wish your own Fran could take lessons from her. And she was good for the company too, bringing both Helen and Isaiah on board in the early days.
Ainsley Cameron: Roger and Millie's daughter, who must be getting done with high school sometime soon?
Helen Derren: Decameron's first investor, back when this company was just a crazy idea of Roger's. You sometimes resent her just a little bit, for managing to make more money off the firm than either you or Roger ever had -- buying heavily at the beginning, then selling at the peak, then investing again when all looked worst -- but kind of admire her clear-eyed view of the business.
For all her business skill, you are rather uncomfortable with her libertine lifestyle. For example, some years ago she mentioned one evening over drinks that she and Senator Newbold were occasionally sleeping together. Bad enough for her, who is single, but the Senator is married! (You occasionally think about using that against Newbold, but haven't been able to bring yourself to tar Helen publicly like that.)
Isaiah Zubin: The company's first employee, an old flame of Millie's who she brought in as the original engineer on the model rockets. Not exactly a close friend, but you've known him for close to 30 years, and you share similar views on the world.
Jeri Ferdinand: Isaiah brought you an interesting tidbit a few weeks ago: apparently, Mayor Ferdinand has been meeting secretly with some homeless person in the park on a regular basis. That's certainly damned odd, even for an earthy-crunchy liberal like her. What's going on here? Now that you think on it, the homeless are kind of like cats: they're everywhere, underfoot, and nobody ever pays attention to them. They would make great spies, if you wanted to keep an eye on people. Is Ferdinand that clever and devious?
Of course, the main story about the Mayor, which Roger Forrester has been good enough to put in front of the people, is her history as a left-wing violent radical. Back when she was at Violet City U, the Administration Building got burned down. Everyone knew that her radical club on campus did it, but they could never prove anything. The court of public opinion is a lot less forgiving of crimes like that, though.
You're also hammering her over her campaign financing. She has been making lots of noises about turning Violet City into a "tech hub", and trying to those big Internet companies like Google and Facebook to town. They've given her a good deal of money, but she's had to toe their party line with all this "Network Neutrality" bullshit and stuff. So you're pointing out the obvious truth: they are trying to get the American government to heavily regulate the Internet, hitherto the last great bastion of market freedom, turning it into another sleepy backwater like every regulated utility. You're starting to drive home that the Internet needs to stay free if it's going to keep improving and evolving quickly, and not turn into the lapdog of Washington.
Reagan Newbold: The good Senator is, if anything, an easier target -- cynics always are. On pretty much every important issue, you can show a history of hypocrisy and inconsistency:
- On the second amendment, it's easy: in him first term, he voted for the Brady Bill, putting lots of restrictions on handguns. And he's been a fairly limp-wristed defender of gun rights ever since, as you'd expect from someone who has probably never even picked up a rifle outside of a TV commercial. The NRA has never been terribly happy with him, but has never had a serious alternative candidate to back before. They love you, though, and have given you their strong endorsement, and a good deal of advertising money.
- He says that he is anti-tax now, but never did much to fight the Clintons on that point, and was complicit in the huge budget overruns of the second Bush administration. (While you love W's strength, the man did not know how to manage the national checkbook.)
- Everyone knows that he is a philanderer with a wandering eye. Not exactly a poster child for family values.
The list goes on. And the new fun is that he turns out to be heavily backed, this time around, by something called the Modern American Freedom PAC. Nobody knows where their money comes from, which pretty much means it's either shady or controlled by one of the big-money lobbying groups. He can't afford to publicly repudiate them, though, so you get to point out the lack of principles there -- it's all about the money, regardless of where it comes from. (Your backing, by contrast, is all from well-known, established Conservative funds, some of which have abandoned him now that they have a truer champion.)
Nika Stanimir: Newbold's campaign manager. Nice guy, who also manages the NRA's affairs in these parts. Pity that he chose the wrong horse in this race, but these things happen. He's looked downright sheepish once or twice, when he had to act as the go-between for campaign donations to you.
Roger Forrester: The CBS reporter. Kind of squishy-centrist, but not a bad sort so long as you keep him focused on the right subjects.
Vasily Leonard: The reporter from Fox. Much more your speed; you just wish he would convince him network to get behind you more whole-heartedly.
Regan Archie: The company's lawyer, as well as your personal one, who has been with you for many years. She is smart and smooth -- sometimes a bit unsettlingly talented at making problems go away, but you have to admire her competence. She even gives business advice from time to time -- if you recall correctly, Roger said that it was originally her idea to take the investment from Greyrock. (Which you may disagree with, but Roger insisted was important to the smooth running of the firm.)
Samuel Antonino: Decameron's Office Manager, who has been with the company almost as long as Isaiah. Good person, kind of reliable, if a bit of a wimp.
Carla Lennart: Took over as VP of Sales and Marketing when you left Decameron. Seems pretty sharp: a little smoother than you are, not as good at the marketing side but with the right poise to deal with the stuffed shirts in the government.
Aidan O'Malley: The priest down at Lady of Redemption. Young guy, but a good one, with a fine head on his shoulders and a good heart. There aren't many people who you trust with your life; he's the only one you trust with your soul.
Brian Truman: The Board member from Greyrock Investors. Yeah, that's likely to be trouble today. Roger brought Greyrock in a few years ago, to shore up the company's cashflow with a few million in venture money. You argued against it, but he insisted that it was necessary, and now it's a fact on the ground. You're not technically a Board member any more, but you still own about 6% of the company's stock, more than enough to be influential; if Greyrock decides to make trouble over Roger's death, you can see some arguments looming...

GM Notes

Was a founding partner at Decameron Enterprises. Where Roger was the businessman (and had the initial stake, and therefore got his name on the marquee), F was "the idea person", who came up with many of the original gimmicks that made the company successful.

As the company got successful and (in hir opinion) boring, though, sie began to lose interest, and in the wake of 9/11 began to obsess about politics. In the wake of the 2008 elections, sie finally got sick of it and decided to join the burgeoning Tea Party movement. Friends (including Roger) convinced hir that trying for a Senate seat to start with would be stupid, so sie ran successfully for the State House, and has been quite a noisy figure there ever since. Last year, sie decided that Senator Newbold looked vulnerable, and has been running hard for that seat ever since.

Sie still has a substantial stake in Decameron, although sie had to step down from the Board when sie went into politics.

Sie is a Second Amendment fundamentalist, and was largely responsible for arranging the Sureshot deal with the government in the first place.

Sie was deeply involved in The Accident, and to this day it remains hir worst skeleton in the closet.

Making a big deal about the police not allowing hir to carry hir gun today.

Sie has a messy view on immigration. Sie is passionately against illegal immigrants, on the grounds of fair play (and as a Tea Party politician) -- they are breaking the law, and should be deported on that basis. But sie also believes strongly (as a sometime businessperson) that legal immigration should be significantly expanded, since America has always benefited from immigrants who play by the rules.

Sie is a serious tax warrior, very passionate in hir opinion that corporate and personal taxes in the US are too high, and are stunting growth.

Found out last week (from I Zubin) that Mayor Ferdinand has been meeting with some homeless guy in the park every week. That seems pretty suspicious -- he has been looking for a chink in Ferdinand's good-guy armor. Is he using this homeless person as some kind of spy? The homeless are kind of like cats: they're everywhere, and nobody notices them. It would be kind of horribly brilliant to use them as agents around the city...

Jamie Rickie is a lifelong friend, and Ronit brought him into Decameron in the first place in order to have someone trusted there. Ronit sort of knows that he has been embezzling money for a long time, but was originally pissed enough at Roger for mismanaging the company to not care. And then he bankrolled Ronit's original run for State House (presumably with help from those funds), so one can't complain.

Member of: Politicians

To Do

Felt the lack of a direct assistant. Maybe make Jamie Rickie more directly and explicitly involved in the campaign.

Archetypes: Gun owner, State Rep