R Newbold

Rebecca / Reagan Newbold

The incumbent Senator, in the middle of a nasty re-election campaign

Gender: Male Current Quality: Good

In Game

Plots: Election, The Break-in, Political Money

Bluesheets:

Character Hint

You are Reagan Newbold, Republican Senator for the great state of Vermillion. Primaries are in a few weeks, and while this is the fifth time you've been through the campaign ringer for Senate, you can't remember it ever being quite such a mess before. You have Mayor Ferdinand of Violet City attacking you from the left, secure as the Democratic candidate, which is normal, but you're also got this Tea Party jackass F Ronit challenging you for the party's nomination, forcing you to tack far more to the right than you ever have before. Were you really able to be that much more sincere in the early days? You can't be sure, but it certainly wasn't this cynical an exercise.

And now there's this tragedy today. A shooting -- great. As if you weren't working hard enough already, keeping the NRA on your side while not alienating the liberal side of Violet City. It's going to be a tricky dance...

Character Sheet

You are Reagan Newbold; you have been one of Vermillion's Senators for the past 24 years, and you are running for re-election. And you're sure that this used to be more fun.

When you first ran for US Senate, during the tenure of Bush Senior, you were fired up and eager. Ronald Reagan had reminded the world that conservatism could be a serious, positive force in the world, improving the US economy and improving our standing in the world with a muscular foreign policy. It was a great time, and you took pride in being one of the "young guns" in the Senate. And you've done your job well, working on a lot of sensible legislation that has been good for the country and for Vermillion. [GM NOTE: feel free to add your name to some appropriate legislation from this time period.]

Nowadays -- well, a lot of your friends in the Senate have been pushed aside by the current partisan wars. Not that Washington's ever been the friendliest place -- you have to have sharp elbows to survive -- but you used to feel like you understood the sides, and there was some collegiality between them. Now it's just a mess. The Tea Party started as a perfectly fine low-tax movement, one that you could understand, but has morphed into a right wing so hardcore it would make Barry Goldwater blush. Some of the policies they advocate on Fox don't even make sense, and a lot of them simply wouldn't work: they just don't get that the real world is complicated, and that you can't just have every easy solution.

Not that you can say any of that in public, especially during the primary season. If you want to keep your seat, you have to keep the Republican nomination, and that is looking in real danger now, what with the challenge from Fred Ronit. He's a local businessman, not new to the scene -- you've been hearing him bloviating at social occasions for many years now. You didn't even notice when he got elected as a State Representative, and probably wouldn't have worried about it if you had -- the State Reps matter a bit, but they're mostly dime-a-dozen. But now he's trying to take your job, and as the local darling of Fox, he's in with a real chance.

You've had to steer to the right on pretty much every issue, and some of them aren't easy. For example, Ronit is a gun nut, so he has a real edge with the Second Amendment crowd, hammering you with your vote for the Brady Bill, way back when (for heaven's sake, the bill was written for Reagan's man!), and accusing you of not loving guns enough. (Which is true, unfortunately: you've really only fired a rifle for publicity shots.) He's a devout Catholic, and once upon a time that would have been a real problem for much of the Protestant electorate, but nowadays they mostly hear the word "devout" and swoon all over him. And he's playing the "successful at business" angle hard, as if that prepares you for government.

So you've accused him of being soft on immigration, which isn't a trivial topic -- Violet City has a lot of illegals, due to its substantial Latino population. That puts you squarely in the current Republican mainstream, but you don't love having to be the asshole in that debate.

You're trying hard to avoid the money from turning into a big scandal, which is a distraction. You've gotten substantial funding and a lot of independent TV ads from a SuperPAC called Modern American Freedom, which like many PACs declines to name its sponsors. The Ronit and Ferdinand campaigns have decided to turn this into a big Thing: they think your backing comes from Big Pharma or Big Oil or something like that -- that you're in the pocket of some big industry.

Hah. Your life would be a lot more comfortable if your backers were simply industrialists.

Back when you were getting started, you were, frankly, too eager and innocent for your own good. You were running for Senate, but didn't have that kind of money; everyone knew that you only had a chance if you could find some backers. So when you were approached by Regan Archie, then a young but already pretty well-known lawyer, telling you that she had a rich patron who saw a lot of promise in you, you really wanted to say yes. You made clear that you couldn't make any promises -- your vote wasn't for sale, at least not then -- but that if the "patron" was willing to back you on those terms, you would happily accept.

It wasn't until months after the election that you found out who your "patron" was: Don Marco Signoretti, Vermillion's leading crime boss.

This was the point at which you realized that your statement of not making promises was completely hollow. Nobody refuses Don Signoretti -- you don't know much about crime, but even then you knew that. And it wasn't as if he would have to threaten to kill you: all it would take would be exposing that you were in hock to the Mob, and your career would be instantly over. One anonymous phone call to a TV crew, and you would be finished.

To be fair to the Don, he hasn't used you as some sort of hand-puppet -- in 24 years in the Senate, he has asked for "favors" fewer than ten times, and none of those have been to do anything terrible. There was his request to influence one or two promotions in the Violet City Police. In recent years, he has been trying to influence which companies get government contracts for some reason. Lately, he's been insisting that you get more hard-core about illegal immigration. (That one kind of mystified you at first -- after all, many of his customers and hookers are illegals -- so you asked Archie about it, and got a rather scornful lecture about the Latino gangs that are eating into the Don's business.)

The Don has made quite clear that you are to be re-elected, whether you like it or not: he hates Mayor Ferdinand with a passion you have rarely seen from him (apparently due to her support for immigration reform), and distrusts Ronit. Hence, Modern American Freedom, a shell PAC backed mainly by him and his cronies, to get you and a few others like you elected. It makes you sick, but you are far too old and involved to back out at this point: given the choice between the Senate and probably spending years behind bars (if you survive to get to prison), even the Senate seems like the lesser evil.

You are also trying to not get too pissed off at your campaign manager, Nika Stanimir. You've known each other for some years, but really interacted seriously for the first time during the fuckup six years ago.

During your last election campaign, somebody broke into the Democratic headquarters. It appeared to just be a robbery, but the Democrats made a huge deal about this being Watergate redux, and claiming that you were playing dirty tricks, which was news to you. So you quietly asked the Chief of the VCPD to assign Bjorn Ari to the case. You've known him since he was a kid -- his parents were avid supporters of your from the start, and he stayed in touch as he got involved with the police department. He had joined the CSI unit, and was reputed to be pretty good at it, so you asked him to look into the truth of the matter.

He found some evidence and did some private digging, and that eventually led to Nika, who in a fit of over-eagerness to help your cause had hired some people to look for dirt on the Democratic candidate. Simon Mercer, then your campaign manager, chewed him out and sent him on his way, but you found the sincerity charming, if a bit misguided -- it was a pleasant change from Simon's tiring cynicism. You wound up getting to know each other better in the ensuing years, and a couple of years ago you invited him to run your next campaign.

The hell of it was, the dirt that Nika dug up was actually pretty useful: it turned out that your honorable opponent's aunt was an illegal immigrant. So Simon quietly leaked that to Vasily Leonard over at Fox, and it all turned into a beautiful little scandal. You won that election in a walk.

So right now you're playing a tactical game, looking for similar weaknesses in Ronit's armor. One approach is to appeal to Republicans' desire to capture the Senate. People like to believe that yours is a safe seat, but you know that's not true: Jeri Ferdinand isn't going to just roll over and die. She's been Mayor of Violet City for years now, and is certain to win the urban vote heavily -- she's just the sort of "centrist" liberal who plays well with the young and techie crowd. You would defeat her handily, but Ronit not so much -- the head-to-head polls last week show you winning 59/41, but Ronit a much closer and dicier 53/47, which means all of those undeclared swing voters could easily turn the election away from the Republicans. Nobody has forgotten that Tea Party idiots lost some very winnable races two years ago.

Another might be the business angle, although that's going to be a delicate sell today. Ronit likes to make a big deal about how he and Roger Cameron build Decameron Enterprises from nothing into a vibrant local employer, but that leaves out lots of details, including the way the company nearly went bankrupt back around 2000, and only survived thanks to a terribly convenient warehouse fire. Roger's never admitted setting it deliberately, but long years in Washington have made you pretty good at reading people -- it was no accident.

Not clear how best to deal with the gun thing today, but a shooting at Ronit's old company has to provide some kind of opportunity to turn the conversation.

And God, when did you turn into the kind of person who thinks of a mass shooting in terms of political spin?

Who You Know

Fred Ronit: Your opponent in the Republican Primary. He is basically an extreme right-wing nut; unfortunately, that doesn't automatically disqualify him from the election. He has strong political backing from many of the hard-right PACs, including the NRA, which is annoying as hell -- you had assumed that Nika would at least deliver them to you.
You've actually known him for many years, and used to be fairly cordial, from the days when he was doing sales at Decameron. But he's always been a boor when it comes to politics.
Jeri Ferdinand: Mayor of Violet City, a bleeding-heart liberal wrapped up in Clintonian moderation. Apparently used to be some kind of radical who tried to burn down Violet City University, from what you're hearing on Roger Forrester's newscasts. You've asked Nika to look for more dirt on that, but so far he's come up surprisingly empty -- you may need to hit him with a 2x4 and remind him that you can't forget that the fight against Ferdinand is right around the corner.
Simon Mercer: Ferdinand's turncoast campaign manager. He worked for you on your last campaign, and did a pretty good job on it -- he makes a specialty of keeping track of everyone's dirt, and using it all as weapons. That's part of why you are taking the Ferdinand campaign so seriously: while Jeri Ferdinand herself can be a naif sometimes, Simon Mercer never is.
Nika Stanimir: Your current campaign manager, who is reminding you what you get when you opt for sincere eagerness over cynical experience. He was the NRA's lead representative in Vermillion for many years, and still does a lot with them.
He knows nothing about your connection to Don Signoretti, or who is behind Modern American Freedom, and probably needs to stay in ignorance: he is just a little too honest and eager, and just might get you both killed if you're not careful.
Roger Forrester: The reporter from CBS. Good fellow, who you've known for many years. Unfortunately, he is currently leading the hounds baying at you for information about the Modern American Freedom PAC, which you don't have.
Vasily Leonard: The reporter from Fox: like most of him breed, more of a right-wing ideologue than most of the politicians he covers. It would be very useful to keep him on-side -- you need the Fox viewership if you're to win the primary.
Roger Cameron: The CEO of Decameron Enterprises. You've heard that he was one of the victims of this morning's shooting, which would be sad -- he struck you as a decent fellow.
Millie Cameron: Roger's wife, who you've met socially a few times.
Bjorn Ari: Your in at the Police Department. He has always proven to be loyal to you, and that can be quite useful in circumstances like these. If he is here, he might be able to find some useful dirt to throw at Ronit.
Helen Derren: One of the city's leading socialites -- born rich, with a talent for investing. You've been close friends for many years: she has backed your campaigns, and been there to blow off steam when your wife Meredith is being especially shrewish. You and Meredith still love each other, but you can't say your marriage has been all that solid for a long time now, so it shouldn't be surprising that you've found comfort elsewhere from time to time. Helen has been one of those occasional playmates, and probably the one you most respect: it's delightful to know someone you can screw all night and then have a good conversation with in the morning.
She's looking awfully unhappy today, no surprise -- she's known Roger Cameron even longer than she's known you. Wouldn't be a bad idea to provide a shoulder for her to cry on, if need be. And really, you could use someone to blow off steam with about now.
Brian Truman: One of the folks from Greyrock Investments, one of the leading venture and private equity firms in Vermillion. They've been good people, and respectable businessmen, and have helped back your campaign. Mayor Ferdinand has been using them as punching-bags lately, so a measured and careful defense might improve your standing with the business community.
Regan Archie: Your connection to the Don. You honestly don't know many details, and prefer it that way: you just get your marching orders from her, and follow them. Officially, she is one of your personal lawyers, and the truth is, her advice is usually right, but that's largely a cover story for your meetings.

GM Notes

In public, is currently viciously anti-immigration. This is entirely a political ploy -- the truth is, sie just plain doesn't care about the issue, and in more moderate days was a supporter of amnesty. Sie firmly believes that this is one of those examples where the winds of public opinion are extreme, fickle and stupid.

The parents of B Ari were long-time and ardent campaign supporters, so when Bjorn graduated from college and wanted to get into law enforcement about eight years ago, he put in a good word with the powers that be. Since then, they've maintained some contact, although they aren't terribly close.

The one time when that relationship mattered was the last time around, six years ago; there was a break-in at the Democratic party's headquarters, and his Democratic opponent alleged that the Senator was responsible for stealing key campaign documents. This was flatly untrue, but Reagan was concerned that one of his supporting conservative groups might have been responsible. So he asked the Chief of Police (an old drinking buddy) to put Bjorn, at that point new to the CSI task force, onto the investigation, to make sure there were no shenanigans. Bjorn found one or two minor circumstantial details that suggested that N Stanimir might have been involved, but kept them quiet.

Has had a few brief flings with H Derren, who is an old friend and rather good in bed.

Knows Roger and Millie socially, but they aren't close. Roger has been trying to turn him into a tax warrior for years; with the growing Tea Party threat, he has started to take that seriously.

Did vote for the Brady Bill, back in him early days in the Senate. Ronit is now hanging that around him neck.

Member of: Politicians