Land of The Free: American Political Roleplay (OOC V)

[Titanne]

does whoever I'm talking to rn have opponents in the democratic primary

[Kargintina the Third]

does whoever I'm talking to rn have opponents in the democratic primary

I have an app pending for a primary challenger

[Bruke]

does whoever I'm talking to rn have opponents in the democratic primary

That exchange was peak Levi without being peak Levi

[Republick Deutschland]

the old lady is a professor

[Kargintina the Third]

(Image)

---

Character Information Sheet

NS Nation Name: me
Character Name: Harold Baines
Character Gender: Male
Character Age: 65
Character Height: 5’9”
Character Weight: 172 lbs
Character Position/Role/Job:

Market Research Analyst (1979-1983)
Economics Professor at Arkansas State University (1984-1989)
Economic Advisor to Governor Clifford (1989-1992)
Member of Clifford Fundraising Committee (1992)
(Representative for Arkansas 1st Congressional District (1995-2009)
United States Under Secretary of Commerce for Economic Affairs (2008-2015)
Mayor of Houston (2016-Present)
Potential Democratic Candidate for Senate (2020)

Appearance:

(Image)

Character State of Origin: Arkansas
Character State of Residence: Texas
Character Party Affiliation: Democratic

Main Strengths: Extremely strong connections to Democratic Establishment, extremely intelligent, wealthy donors like Everytown for Gun Safety and NARAL, savvy on economic issues

Main Weaknesses: Past of anti-LGBT rhetoric, viewed by some as “out of touch”, reputation as a carpet bagger, horrible relationship with Progressives as he views them as “spoilers” and selfish if they holdback their vote for Democrat, also privately hates Conservative and Evangelical voters who he sees as stupid and holding back progress, just a snobby prick in general.

Biography: Harold William Baines was born in Little Rock, Arkansas in April of 1955. He spent most of his childhood life around money, seeing as his father a baker and his mother a school teacher. At only two years old he already had politics shoved into his life as his mother witnessed the National Guard escorting two African-American children to her school after Brown V. Board of Education.

After High School Harold attended college in Texas on a soccer scholarship, getting his BS in Economics from Texas A&M. While there he met his future wife Julia Vargos from Mexico. He started to love Texas and always joked with his parents he’d live there one day.

As he was graduating from college Harold witnessed Richard Nixon announce before the nation that he would resign from office. In response to this Harold registered himself as a Democrat, although he didn’t really know the difference. In 1977 he returned to schooling to receive his MA from Columbia University in New York. He finally returned home to Arkansas to take a job in Fayetteville as a Market Research Analyst.

In 1984 he became a professor at Arkansas State University teaching economics to younger students. He never really felt that satisfied though in his work. In 1988 he was devastated as Democrats lost their third Presidential election in a row in a landslide. He agreed with the idea that the party needed to moderate to appeal to voters again as opposed to running diehard liberals. He applied to get involved in assisting the current Governor of Arkansas, who also happened to be the next President of the United States.

In 1992 Harold was brought on to work with fundraising for the Clifford campaign. He helped work on getting TV ads up during the New Hampshire primary. After Clifford was successfully elected President Harold was convinced by other campaign members to run for office himself. He returned home to Arkansas and was elected to its 1st Congressional District in 1994 despite the GOP landslide that year.

He governed as a New Democrat similar to President Clifford himself. He voted in favor of the Defense of Marriage Act, a decision that still haunts him to this day. He also voted in favor of legislation such as the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998 (although he opposes the new Iran version) and supported intervention in Yugoslavia.

In 1998 he voting against impeaching President Clifford as he felt personal life wasn’t grounds to remove the President from office. In 2000 he was deeply disappointed by the Supreme Court’s decision to give the election to President Burke instead of Not-Gore. However the feelings were quickly replaced as he turned his attention to foreign affairs post 9/11. He voted in favor of invasions of both Afghanistan and Iraq, the latter he would later regret. He also voted in favor of the AWB renewal and voted against raising the debt ceiling.

In 2007 he endorse Diane Clifford for POTUS and supported her all the way until she dropped out, then turning his support to future President Baharia. After Baharia taking office Harold was tapped to serve as Under Secretary of Commerce for Economic Affairs underneath not-Gary Locke. It was during this time that Harold changed his residence from Arkansas to Texas, having been heavily campaigning in the start for Diane in the primary and doing community service work in Houston. He decided to move to Texas from this as well as wanting to escape Arkansas in which political prospects for Democrats was becoming almost non-existant.

During his time in cabinet Baines worked with banks and other organizations to help pull America out of the Great Recession. He supported the bailouts of banks all through the recession. He also supported the creation of the Trans Pacific Partnership, helping to draft it right before he left the cabinet.

In 2015 he left the Baharia cabinet and decided to run for Mayor of Houston, America’s fourth largest city. He easily defeated his GOP opponent and took office early 2016. During his time as mayor he has overseen the response to Hurricane Harvey, as well as passing sweeping gun laws in the aftermath of Sutherland Springs. He has become an outspoken supporter of gun control after El Paso. He supported not-Beto in the 2018 Senate election and Suraj Shah in the 2019 Special. He has strongly contemplated running in the 2020 race to fill the seat being vacated by Howard Frankston.



Other Info: He is a Centrist New Democrat, Married with no children, hopes for Miguel Velez to win nomination for President, views Dayton and Murphy as too progressive.

Supported for POTUS:
-Jimmy Carter 1976
-Jimmy Carter 1980
-Gary Hart and then Mondale 1984
-Gore and then Dukakis 1988
-Clifford 1992
-Clifford 1996
-Not-Gore 2000
-Not-Gephardt then Not-Kerry 2004
-Diane Clifford and than Baharia 2008
-Baharia 2012
-Clifford 2016
-Likely Miguel Velez 2020

Domestic Issues:
Abortion-Privately he is totally pro-choice til birth, but for political reasons he supports it up til 20 weeks

Gun Control-Ban and buyback assault rifles, background checks, red flag laws, no public carry. F rating from NRA

LGBT Rights-In favor in all cases, although he has a dark past of voting for the Defense of Marriage Act

Healthcare-Doesn't support universal healthcare, is in favor of the ACA with a public option

Climate-Not in favor of Green New Deal but in favor of returning to Paris Agreement and moving towards green energy

UBI-Not in favor

Taxes-Is okay with some taxes to assist social programs, doesn't support taxing the rich.

Trade: Supports free trade, in favor of the TPP and NAFTA

Foreign Policy: Supports re-entering the JCPOA, in favor of withdrawal from Yemen, dislikes Russia strongly, supported Baharia's "Red Line" in Syria, believes in negotiating with Maduro

I have read and accept the rules of the roleplay: no u

Do Not Remove: 84721

Waiting for second review

[Titanne]

does whoever I'm talking to rn have opponents in the democratic primary

That exchange was peak Levi without being peak Levi

That type of thing really annoys me IRL so I channel it here. Anger at AOC makes me strong.

[Sarenium]

Fastest way to become a Libertarian is to be on hold to a government service.

[Bruke]

That exchange was peak Levi without being peak Levi

That type of thing really annoys me IRL so I channel it here. Anger at AOC makes me strong.

I mean, it was pretty exaggerated but spot on with the message

[Titanne]

That type of thing really annoys me IRL so I channel it here. Anger at AOC makes me strong.

I mean, it was pretty exaggerated but spot on with the message

Yes indeed.

[Kargintina the Third]

That type of thing really annoys me IRL so I channel it here. Anger at AOC makes me strong.

I mean, it was pretty exaggerated but spot on with the message

Exaggerated swagger

[Louisianan]

I mean, it was pretty exaggerated but spot on with the message

Yes indeed.

Does the dude actually want to meet with Lazare?

[Kargintina the Third]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-55177586

Tenson laughing

[Lajovic]

---

Character Information Sheet

NS Nation Name: Lajovic
Character Name: Sandra J. Carter
Character Gender: Female
Character Age: 37
Character Height: 5' 8"
Character Weight: 130 lbs.
Character Position/Role/Job: U.S. Representative for Washington's 8th Congressional District, Project Director for the Washington Policy Center Agriculture Initiative on Agriculture, Analyst for U.N. Food and Agriculture Program
Appearance:

Character State of Origin: Washington
Character State of Residence: Washington
Character Party Affiliation: Democrat (2009-), Republican (2001-2009)
Main Strengths: Very thorough, intelligent, detailed, careful about public statements
Main Weaknesses: Boring orator, ties to Big Agriculture lobbyists, past experience in right-wing think tank, black in a heavy white-majority swing district
Biography:

Sandra Josephine Carter was born on May 6th, 1983 in a middle-class suburb of Seattle, which was later incorporated as the City of SeaTac in 1989. Her father was a senior financial accountant at the relatively newly-founded Horizon Air, headquartered in their city. The company was later acquired by Alaska Air Group, and he was employed by them and received a considerable promotion for his hard work, becoming a director of Project Management for the airline. Sandra's mom was an educated Somali immigrant and a librarian at the local public library, so she raised Sandra to be very used to books and reading. They were a classic, industrious middle class American family, who happened to also be black.

Sandra's parents had been ardent Democrats in their youth. Her father had voted for Jimmy Carter over Reagan in the 1980 presidential election, citing the wonders that Carter had done for the airline industry with the 1978 Airline Deregulation Act, which had led to the expansion of airline companies all over Washington and had ended up being a boon for his employment prospects. But once the Reagan presidency proved to continue the pro-growth policies that her father so admired, he voted for Reagan in the general election of 1984. Her mother remained a Democratic voter.

Sandra was not shaped by politics as a girl, and had never imagined entering the profession. She was a decent enough student at school, not exceptional but not bad either, and after graduating from her public high school she got into Whitman College, a small liberal arts college. She majored in Economics and did a few internships as an undergraduate student, graduating near the top of her class. In college, influenced more by her father's views than her mom's, she registered as a Republican and only voted in local elections. This was unconventional for a young person in Washington. She realized that economics was something she was good at and wanted to go deeper into, so she applied and got into the Economics Master's degree program at U.C. Berkeley. Her home state of Washington was an agriculture state, and her master's thesis at Berkeley was based on original data from Washington farms. She graduated from Berkeley in 2008. The same year, she voted for [Mitt Romney placeholder] in the Republican presidential primaries, but in the general election she cast her ballot for [Barack Obama placeholder], very inspired by his message and also the prospect of having the first black president of the U.S.

The financial crisis also influenced her thinking in the election. One of the research projects she had conducted in her master's program at Berkeley was specifically focused on the financial sector's impact on the macroeconomy and how policymakers could use it as a tool to spur growth through sound monetary policy. Once the crisis hit in late 2007, she read deeply into the causes and came to the conclusion that lax regulations - on banks, rating agencies, and investment funds - had allowed such a dire situation to develop. As she read more about the crisis she held the Republicans in power, including the Federal Reserve officials they had nominated, partially responsible for the crisis. [Obama's] measured, detailed response and his plan to deal with the crisis gave her more confidence than what she felt was an unprepared attitude by [McCain placeholder].

[Obama] was inaugurated in 2009, much to Sandra's delight, and she was also hired to work in her first full-time job as a junior analyst for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. Her new job, however, required her to move away from California to Washington, D.C. She only worked in the institution for three years before she got bored of the often repetitive empirics-related work on worldwide hunger that she was doing. She moved back to Washington in 2012 and got a job at the right-leaning, Koch brothers financed think tank, the Washington Policy Center. Meanwhile, she was impressed with [Obama] Administration's handling of the recession, and she greatly admired the president for what she thought was a very evidence-based, through approach to his job. Despite the fact that she admired [Romney] a lot, Sandra voted for the incumbent President again in the 2012 election.

At the Washington Policy Center, she was hired to work specifically for the Initiative on Agriculture, which by now she had become an expert on. Sandra was a rising star at the center, becoming known for her unique insight on issues even if she was unconventional for her more liberal tendencies than her colleagues. Still, she advocated a more conservative approach to industry regulation, and was publicly critical of some of the Obama Administration's policies that she felt would inhibit future growth in agriculture. Slowly, she rose through the ranks of the organization until Sandra become the director of the Initiative on Agriculture in 2017.

Meanwhile, her interest in politics was increasing. Despite privately being a registered Democrat, several conservative organizations in Washington reached out to her to run for the 8th Congressional District seat as a Republican, with rumors mounting that the 7-term incumbent Republican Congressman was considering retirement. She considered her options and decided to run as a Democrat instead. The district was as swing as it could get, leaning no particular way, and Sandra was not keen on associating herself with what she found was an abhorrent, disrespectful, and borderline bigoted politics of the Republican Party under President Wolf. When the incumbent officially announced his retirement in September 2017, Sandra decided to jump into the race as a Democrat a week later; analysts said that the state would likely swing towards them in what would be a big midterm year for Democrats, despite having been held by Republicans for its entire existence. She resigned her position from the Washington Policy Center to focus on her campaign.

Sandra had a clear advantage in the jungle primary system. She was relatively young, independent-minded, and specialized in agriculture, a big concern for district constituents in what was a heavily rural area. Her campaign emphasized these strengths, honing in on farm policy, decrying the Wolf trade war with China as "anti-farmer," pointing out declining farm prices and promising to return to "market principles and high-prices" for all farmers around the district. She was also helped by good media coverage as one of the young black women running for office in the 2018 midterms, and by the fact that her chief Democratic opponent, a progressive white man, had been caught on camera telling a staffer he wasn't going to come second to "a right wing, Aunt Jemima Democrat," roundly panned in the press as racist. He eventually dropped out, leaving her with several less prominent candidates and the leading Republican candidate. She finished a solid second place in the jungle primary with 26% of the vote and advanced to the general.

Her race ended up becoming the most expensive in state history, attracting $25 million in spending. She kept the focus on farmers, attacking her opponent's allegiance to the Wolf Administration and claiming that the Republican Party's new brand of populism abandoned traditionally American, pro-market principles. She claimed the Democrats were more likely to fight for farmers and middle-class Americans, and hammered on the issue of healthcare where the Republicans had previously attempted to destroy the Affordable Care Act and strip healthcare from 20 million Americans. She framed the ACA as a pro-market solution to the healthcare crisis and promised to build on its success.

She won the election with 52% of the vote, one of the many seats House Democrats managed to flip in the 2018 blue wave. She was one of the quieter, more centrist leaning voices within the party that were overshadowed by newer progressive voices. She was attacked in some leftist circles for her links to Big Ag lobbyists and her stint at the right-wing WPC. She has served as a moderate, rational, but open voice in the House.

Other Info: She is married to a tech executive, with whom she has one daughter.

I have read and accept the rules of the roleplay: Lajovic

Do Not Remove: 84721

[Titanne]

Yes indeed.

Does the dude actually want to meet with Lazare?

Nah

[Louisianan]

Does the dude actually want to meet with Lazare?

Nah

Ok, she would have taken him in the back alley and knocked his ass out.

[Louisianan]

Today, the forum page has been pretty boring, barely any of the regulars posted today.

[Kargintina the Third]

Today, the forum page has been pretty boring, barely any of the regulars posted today.

I got school

[United Hemand Insia]

Today, the forum page has been pretty boring, barely any of the regulars posted today.

I got school

Same

[Sarenium]

Today, the forum page has been pretty boring, barely any of the regulars posted today.

i was on hold to government services

[Louisianan]

Today, the forum page has been pretty boring, barely any of the regulars posted today.

I got school

Eh, I've been busy with campaigning, and today was a lazy day for me, so I got busy with Lazare.

[New Cobastheia]

Today, the forum page has been pretty boring, barely any of the regulars posted today.

It's finals season so that's probably why

[The Orion Islands]

Colbert is going to post this on YouTube while putting a very edited version on TV if Levi wins the primary.
Levi Murphy is too extreme even for Democrats?
Clip of Tim Westra speech.
"Senator Murphy, on the other hand, god bless his heart, he's already vowed to wage war on the Culinary Union's demands here in Nevada! I've spoken with culinary workers in this state. Proud, honorable men and women. They don't want to lose their union healthcare plans! Plans that they went on strike for, that they bargained tirelessly to gain! Especially not for a poorly-thought out, measly, unworkable plan that will increase taxes on 89 million Americans, all earning over the median national income of 30,000 bucks, and the vast majority of those filers paying more in taxes than they currently pay in healthcare costs!"

"Folks, the plan makes no sense! Forcing middle class Americans to pay more for healthcare than they currently are paying, it's just plain crazy! It's not Medicare for All, it's Medicare for More! He has no clue what he's doing. And sadly this is a pattern with my friend Levi. He's never passed a bill in his life, hadn't authored a single piece of legislation this entire year until he was hammered about it at a debate, he has no record to speak of in the Senate other than surviving off the taxpayer buck. And now he wants a promotion!"
Levi Murphy: Too Extreme for Tim Westra, Too Extreme for America

[Kargintina the Third]

Today, the forum page has been pretty boring, barely any of the regulars posted today.

It's finals season so that's probably why

I have six essays due next week

[Meelducan]

Today, the forum page has been pretty boring, barely any of the regulars posted today.

I’m sorry our lives don’t revolve around one forum.

[Louisianan]

Today, the forum page has been pretty boring, barely any of the regulars posted today.

I’m sorry our lives don’t revolve around one forum.

Hey, I didn't piss in your cheerios pal. XD