S Mercer

Sarah / Simon Mercer

Ruthless political handler and campaign manager for the Mayor

Gender: Male Current Quality: Good

In Game

Bluesheets:

Character Hint

You are Simon Mercer, and you are a political fixer. No, you don't call yourself that in public, but you prefer not to lie to yourself: you clean up politicians' messes, and create messes for their enemies. Currently, you are working for Mayor Ferdinand, who is running for Senate and really is too decent for the job. But there are ways to make these things work.

If you have the chance, watching a bit of Scandal is good background for this character -- not in any details, but simply for the sense of the scheming that may be involved.

Character Sheet

You are Simon Mercer, campaign manager for Mayor Jeri Ferdinand. Until today, you were starting to think that that project was doomed. But as you always say, tragedy always provides opportunity.

Man, that sounds cynical, and in your more honest moments you know that you've become a total cynic. It makes you a little sad: you got into this game in the first place when you were such a serious believer in "politics as the art of the possible", thinking that the whole point of the game was to make life better for people, and that you were working to elect politicians who would achieve that.

Then you got to know some politicians, and began to accumulate your now-legendary Database of Doom on all of them.

Yeah, they're not all bad. Hell, the biggest problem the Mayor has is that she is way too honest for this job, genuinely wanting to help people. It's admirable, and it helps make her a good Mayor. And really, if the Senate was full of people like that, it probably would do a lot of good. But it's actually full of people like R Newbold instead.

The hell of it is, you're pretty sure that Reagan was just as sincere when he ran for office the first time. That was back in the early post-Reagan days, when the Republicans believed that they were saving the world from deeply corrupt Democrats, and that they could fill the planet with Light and Joy and Kitten through the proper application of market economics. Back then, the Republican Party was smart, as far as you can tell. (You were still pretty young back then, but your parents were true believers.)

By the time you were working as his campaign manager, though, six years ago, he had been through the ringer three times, and eighteen years in Washington is plenty enough time to take any idealist and burn it out of them. You found him to be the same as most other experienced politicians: a bag of over-inflated ego, convinced that the world needed him, but without much real reason to believe that any more. He was a good politician, mind, and the campaign went decently well, but you certainly didn't come away with any sense of "mission" or bullshit like that. Nowadays, you settle for politicians who aren't complete crooks, and are likely to keep things orderly and functioning in Washington. (And that alone limits the ones you're willing to work with by about half.)

The only real headache in the campaign came when somebody broke into the Democratic opposition headquarters. They tried to make it look like a robbery gone wrong, but the whole thing was botched from beginning to end. It could have gone totally off the rails and cost you the election, but the Senator had been around the block more than a few times, and had people in useful places. He arranged to have a young friend named Bjorn Ari, who was an up-and-comer in the CSI, assigned to the case. Ari found a clue, quietly hid it from his bosses, and tracked one of the thieves down himself.

It turned out that the whole thing was staged by Nika Stanimir, who was then the local NRA rep, a well-intentioned nitwit who wanted to find some dirt to use on the Democratic candidate. You chewed him out about it, and then took possession of the backgrounders on the Democrat that they'd stolen. (Hey, "waste not, want not", right?) Truth is, the stuff was useful, and by the time you were done, Newbold had been elected with a solid 15-point margin, pretty good in Vermillion. (The problem with the "bellweather state" is that the populace is fickle as all hell, and getting them to rally solidly around a candidate is always a bit tricky.)

Of course, Newbold went and decided that he liked that idiot Stanimir, and they wound up buds after that. And now Stanimir is running his re-election campaign this time. Well, more pity for the poor Senator, having a jackass like that on his side.

Not that your job is exactly trivial. The Mayor was far more of a idealist in her youth than you ever were, and was involved with some sort of radical group in college in the 80s. She's never been willing to talk about it in detail, but the Ronit campaign is tying her to a firebombing at Violet City U back when she was a student there. You've been ordered to stonewall the whole thing, so you're pretty sure they've found her weak spot. You probably need to get her to tell you the whole story, and figure out a tactic to turn it around. For that matter, it would be helpful to figure out where the hell Ronit got this in the first place.

As for Fred Ronit himself -- well, there's a good example of the ones who fail the "orderly and functioning" test. Yes, he is clearly sincere, but a sincere Tea Party nutball still has no place in Washington. But he is the most charismatic of the candidates, and doesn't have enough political record to hang around his neck -- State Representatives can only get into so much trouble.

As the Ronit campaign started surging in the polls, you decided it was time for some serious spy work. Jonathan Sheena is a senior at Violet City U, a journalism major with a real talent for digging up dirt, who you met last year and was intrigued by. You knew that much of Ronit's pre-politics career was as a founder of Decameron Enterprises, so that was clearly the place to look if you were going to find any scandal in his background. So you had the Mayor glad-hand Roger Cameron, the company's boss, and recommend Sheena as a promising intern. They duly hired him a couple of months ago, as some kind of office management drone, which was perfect -- it's given him lots of opportunity to poke around and learn more about the company.

There aren't any smoking guns yet, but you've hit one or two promising leads. The most intriguing kind of came by accident. Digging into the DB of Doom, you remembered an incident fifteen years ago, where Decameron was accused of arson, burning down one of their warehouses for the insurance. Nothing came of that (although you've always suspected them of paying somebody off), but you asked Jonathan to take a dig into Decameron's books to see if there were any hints of anything useful. What he noticed there was that Roger Cameron started, shortly after that incident, paying out fairly regular payments (highlighted in the books, no less) to someone named Tagh O'Malley.

Now that was interesting. O'Malley is in the database himself, from way back -- he was an Irish immigrant working as a detective in the VCPD, who was accused of having been an IRA bomber and kicked off the force. Why would Decameron feel that they needed to pay him off?

And better yet, why was his son working there?

So you asked Jonathan to get to know this kid, Seamus O'Malley; it turned out that they already knew each other, and Jonathan (too eagerly?) agreed to get closer to him. Unfortunately, before you got any useful dirt out of that, today happened. You're not at all clear about the details, but the kid apparently flipped out, killed a couple of people and was killed himself. It's a terrible tragedy. Hopefully, it's a tragedy you can turn to advantage...

Who You Know

Jeri Ferdinand: Your current boss, the Democratic Mayor of Violet City, too earnest and sincere for her own good, who is running for Senate. Currently down in the polls, so you have your work cut out for you. You are currently trying to convince her that, now that the Democratic primary is past and she won in a walk, it's time to tack to the center for the main election.
Reagan Newbold: The incumbent four-term Republican Senator. You worked for him last time around, and came away neither impressed nor disgusted -- he is a pretty ordinary politician, trying to hold onto his job.
Weaknesses:
- Has a long-standing reputation for philandering. (Can you dig up a recent affair to pin on him?)
- Is backed by the shadowy Modern American Freedom PAC, and even you don't know where their funding comes from. Keep hammering him to disclose the source of that money, and asking why he is so desperate to conceal it.
- Has shown himself to be a hypocrite who doesn't stand for anything, tacking way to the right now because of the Ronit campaign and the Tea Party.
- Maybe hang the break-in during the last campaign around him neck? Yeah, you might get some mud yourself, but most of it should stick to Stanimir.
Fred Ronit: The Tea Party loon who is trying to beat Newbold in the primary. Almost disturbingly sincere. He would probably make a really fun dinner-party guest to argue with, but you don't want him anywhere near the levers of power. One of the founders of Decameron Enterprises.
Weaknesses:
- Right-wing loony. Seriously, that's the big one, and should be driven home: he cannot be trusted with the levers of power.
- That likely arson at Decameron, fifteen years ago, if you can show something concrete.
- Maybe Tagh O'Malley? Maybe today's shooting?
- Gun nut -- use today to show that that is simply too dangerous in today's society.
Nika Stanimir: Senator Newbold's current campaign manager. Six years ago, you were pretty certain he was a nitwit, but that doesn't mean he should be ignored, either. Hmm. Does he have any dirt that could be used against Newbold? Worth thinking about -- you haven't really looked into Stanimir yet. At the least, there was that stupid break-in six years ago: while you're not eager to use a piece of scandal that you were close to, the dirt ought to stick to Stanimir and Newbold a lot more than you, if you played it right.
Jonathan Sheena: Your secret spy at Decameron Enterprises. Young, energetic, a bit intense. Rather progressive, but that's typical of kids his age.
Roger Forrester: Long-time reporter from CBS. Kind of a pain in the ass, but helpfully predictable: he is very proudly "old school", determined to stick to the whole unbiased-journalist fiction. He gets in your face sometimes, but he gets in everyone's face sometimes, so that's okay. He can be a very useful weapon, if pointed properly.
Vasily Leonard: The reporter from Fox. Not nearly as much fun as Forrester: he is the kind of ideologue that Fox are so fond of. Sometimes can be manipulated into following a scandal in the right direction, but is always going to take the right-wingiest angle around. Probably should be counted as reliably in Ronit's pocket, but might be pointed at Newbold, who is really Ronit's main concern right now. If Ronit takes out Newbold, you can probably beat Ronit.
Christina Nikolaus: Violet City's own online progressive looney. She is one of those people who believes that running a blog makes you a "journalist". You find her really annoying sometimes -- a bit of eager naivete is fine if you outgrow it eventually, but hardcore left-wingers irk you even more than the Tea Party goons. That said, she is probably the nearest thing you have to an ally in the media, since the Mayor is the nearest thing the left has to a champion, so she is a necessary evil. Just make sure she stays focused on the Republicans, and doesn't get distracted onto the usual "all politicians are the enemy" BS that the progressives hound Democrats with nowadays.
Bjorn Ari: A CSI investigator at VCPD. Was in Newbold's pocket six years ago, so you assume he probably still is.
Tagh O'Malley: A sometime VCPD detective who resigned in disgrace after being accused of having been an IRA bomber decades ago. What is his connection with Roger Cameron?
Robert Gervasio: Another possible weakness for the Mayor? Ferdinand was on this "help the homeless" kick a while back, and went out glad-handing the homeless population, trying to understand them personally with a camera crew in tow. (You cringe at the whole thing in retrospect, but nothing horrible went wrong.) She encountered Gervasio living in the park, and they hit it off weirdly well. You've been careful to make sure nobody knows about it, but she has been going to the park every week to visit him. You find the whole thing a bit weird and cringe-worthy, but she is insistent about it. So you just need to make sure this doesn't become a Thing.
Regan Archie: The figure at the head of Archie and Associates, Violet City's top legal firm, personal lawyer to many of the most powerful people in the City.
None of which would be interesting, except that your contacts inside the FBI recently told you that one of those "powerful people" is Don Marco Signoretti, boss of Vermillion's main Mob. Fascinating. Someone like that is usually a nexus -- if one of her clients is the Don, that almost certainly means that some of her other clients are also tied into organized crime. The question is, which ones?

GM Notes

This might be a combination of Olivia and Si. Don't think just in terms of one of them, steal character elements from both to get something more interesting.

Sie is a bit of a political cynic: a true believer in hir youth, but long since convinced that all politicians and parties are largely alike. Sie has worked for both left and right: the details vary, but the broad strokes and tactics really don't. Fundamentally, sie believe in Power and Order, and favors whoever seems likeliest to provide those. Six years ago, he was working for R Newbold on the Senate election; now, he is working against him.

Has a semi-legendary Database of Doom, where he stores dirt on everyone. He stockpiles all potentially scandalous news and rumors, to leverage if and when they become relevant.

Sie might be working for any of the politicians, but the Mayor seems most promising. Since J Ferdinand is the sympathetic Democrat, we really need to give hir some darkness, and having a brilliantly ruthless campaign manager should help there. The election is blowing in a Republican direction, and even a good and successful Democrat has been trailing in the polls. So a couple of months ago, Ferdinand hired hir as "assistant" campaign manager (really, running the show but leaving Ferdinand's friendly but ineffective manager officially in charge), to turn things around.

Sie needs to derail both opposition campaigns. In the case of F Ronit, that has involved sending Jonathan Sheena undercover, posing as an intern in order to learn as much as possible about Decameron, specifically looking for dirt that might discredit Ronit. After realizing about a month back that Tagh O'Malley might be a vulnerability for Decameron, sie asked Jannine to try to get closer to Seamus and dig for dirt.

There should be a back-story affair that R Newbold was having during the election six years ago. Of course, he didn't do anything about it at the time -- it wasn't his business -- but now? Might be something to talk with the Mayor about.

Due to The Break-in, he knows that B Ari is loyal to R Newbold. But Simon also has leverage over him (that he withheld information from an investigation), so has a lot of incentive to make the point that anything found should go through Simon first.

Member of: Politicians