America the Beautiful: An American Political RP (OOC)

by **Sarenium** » Sat Oct 16, 2021 5:59 am

This WIP exists solely to give Gord a heart attack.

by **Jovuistan** » Sat Oct 16, 2021 6:06 am

WIP

by **Sarenium** » Sat Oct 16, 2021 6:06 am

Jovuistan wrote:WIP

(Image)

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Character Application and Information Sheet

NS Nation Name: Jovuistan
Character Name: Corbin Jeremy
Character Gender: Boy
Character Age: 283
Character Height:
Character Weight:
Character Position/Role/Job: Governor of Texarkana, rival of leviticus Murphy
Character Country/State of Birth: Texarkana
Character State of Residence: Texarkana
Character Party Affiliation: Democratic
Main Strengths: Based, intelligent, strong support from smart people.
Main Weaknesses: Hated by dumbs and racists, black in Texarkana.
Biography: (Minimum 2-3 paragraphs)
Other Info:

I have read and accept the rules of the roleplay: (Your Nation's Name Here)

Do Not Remove: DRAFT87421

Wow I want to accept it.

by **Alozia** » Sat Oct 16, 2021 6:42 am

Congressman Mattox pls fix your damn email.

Remove the box within the box it does not work.

by **Jovuistan** » Sat Oct 16, 2021 6:43 am

WIP me daddy (Not a joke this time)

by **Meretica** » Sat Oct 16, 2021 6:50 am

Alozia wrote:Congressman Mattox pls fix your damn email.

Remove the box within the box it does not work.

Apologies; I copy/pasted.

by **Alozia** » Sat Oct 16, 2021 7:42 am

WIP APP

Character Application and Information Sheet

NS Nation Name: Alozia
Character Name: Charlotte "Charlie" Joanne Tawney
Character Gender: Female
Character Age: 43
Character Height: 5 ft. 3'
Character Weight: 125 lbs
Character Position/Role/Job: Counselor to the President (since February 7th, 2021); Deputy Director of CIA's Office of Congressional Affairs (2019-2021)
Character Country/State of Birth: Tennessee
Character State of Residence: Tennessee/D.C.
Character Party Affiliation: Republican
Main Strengths:

I Know What I'm Doing...

C’est une activité très stimulante et naturelle que les femmes adorent

Main Weaknesses:

A Father's Long Shadow

What Happens in Langley...

Biography: Charlotte J. Tawney was born in Kingsport, Tennessee on April 23, 1978, as the eldest daughter and second child of Richard and Caroline Tawney. Her mother, once an aspiring lawyer, dedicated much of her time to her family, making sure that her children were well taken care of while her husband served first in the Air Force and then the House of Representatives. Charlotte did well in school, taking an interest in history and literature, so much so that she spent most of her childhood years either studying or reading.

Eventually, Charlotte moved out of her childhood home for college, choosing to attend Peabody College of Education and Human Development at the Vanderbilt University, where she pursued a degree in psychology, eventually graduating with a Master's in the aforementioned subject in 2000. During her college years, Charlotte grew as a person, becoming more assertive and social, met her future husband and participated in a CIA program aimed at recruiting university students.

Following her graduation, Charlotte moved to D.C. with the help of her father and began working for the Central Intelligence Agency. Possibly due to her ties to the Congress with Richard Tawney serving as a U.S. Representative, she was assigned to the Office of Congressional Affairs, with her first major test being the handling of the War On Terror-related inquires. Focused more on her career than her morals she sought to withhold information deemed not absolutely necessary for release, especially when it came to controversial matters that could potentially damage the reputation of the Agency or the Republican administration of that time.

Seeking to further grow not only professionally but also personally, Charlotte entered the Foreign Language Incentive Program, exhibiting a talent for foreign languages, learning Spanish followed by French and Russian over the course of her career at the Agency. Later on in her career she sought to learn Mandarin and Arabic to little success.

Charlotte Tawney rose in the ranks of the Agency, eventually becoming the Deputy Office Director of the Office for Congressional Affairs, a position she left in 2021 to join the Richardson administration as the Counselor to the President. There she is tasked with advising the President on matters related to national security and the handling of Congressional Affairs.
Other Info: Charlotte Tawney married Jacob Preisman in 2001, choosing to keep her maiden name. She has two children, the first of which was born in 2002.

Personally, she is more result than ideology focused, however she has her opinions. She generally considers herself a moderate, at times putting her at odds with her more conservative father.

I have read and accept the rules of the roleplay: (Your Nation's Name Here)

Do Not Remove: DRAFT87421

by **Helliniki Katastasis** » Sat Oct 16, 2021 8:09 am

Revoked

by **Gordano and Lysandus** » Sat Oct 16, 2021 10:56 am

Just to clarify, is Kurian pitching indentured servitude to the President?

by **Alozia** » Sat Oct 16, 2021 11:10 am

Alozia wrote:WIP APP
(Image)

(Image)

Character Application and Information Sheet

NS Nation Name: Alozia
Character Name: Charlotte "Charlie" Joanne Tawney
Character Gender: Female
Character Age: 43
Character Height: 5 ft. 3'
Character Weight: 125 lbs
Character Position/Role/Job: Counselor to the President (since February 7th, 2021); Deputy Director of CIA's Office of Congressional Affairs (2019-2021)
Character Country/State of Birth: Tennessee
Character State of Residence: Tennessee/D.C.
Character Party Affiliation: Republican
Main Strengths:
I Know What I'm Doing... - Having worked her way up the ranks of the U.S. Intelligence community, Charlie Tawney has her fair share of knowledge, particularly on matters of national security and the ways to appease Congress.

C’est une activité très stimulante et naturelle que les femmes adorent - Having extensively taken part in CIA's Foreign Language Incentive Program, Mrs. Tawney is fluent in a number of languages, including Russian and French.
Main Weaknesses:
A Father's Long Shadow - With the unexpected career success of her father, Richard G. Tawney - a.k.a. the 46th President of the United States - Charlotte has a long way to go to step out of his shadow, both in her and others' eyes.

What Happens in Langley... - Charlotte hasn't always played fair, nor did she keep her hands clean her entire life. While unlikely, the details of her past may come back to haunt her, one way or another.
Biography: Charlotte J. Tawney was born in Kingsport, Tennessee on April 23, 1978, as the eldest daughter and second child of Richard and Caroline Tawney. Her mother, once an aspiring lawyer, dedicated much of her time to her family, making sure that her children were well taken care of while her husband served first in the Air Force and then the House of Representatives. Charlotte did well in school, taking an interest in history and literature, so much so that she spent most of her childhood years either studying or reading.

Eventually, Charlotte moved out of her childhood home for college, choosing to attend Peabody College of Education and Human Development at the Vanderbilt University, where she pursued a degree in psychology, eventually graduating with a Master's in the aforementioned subject in 2000. During her college years, Charlotte grew as a person, becoming more assertive and social, met her future husband and participated in a CIA program aimed at recruiting university students.

Following her graduation, Charlotte moved to D.C. with the help of her father and began working for the Central Intelligence Agency. Possibly due to her ties to the Congress with Richard Tawney serving as a U.S. Representative, she was assigned to the Office of Congressional Affairs, with her first major test being the handling of the War On Terror-related inquires. Focused more on her career than her morals she sought to withhold information deemed not absolutely necessary for release, especially when it came to controversial matters that could potentially damage the reputation of the Agency or the Republican administration of that time.

Seeking to further grow not only professionally but also personally, Charlotte entered the Foreign Language Incentive Program, exhibiting a talent for foreign languages, learning Spanish followed by French and Russian over the course of her career at the Agency. Later on in her career she sought to learn Mandarin and Arabic to little success.

Charlotte Tawney rose in the ranks of the Agency, eventually becoming the Deputy Office Director of the Office for Congressional Affairs, a position she left in 2021 to join the Richardson administration as the Counselor to the President. There she is tasked with advising the President on matters related to national security and the handling of Congressional Affairs.
Other Info: Charlotte Tawney married Jacob Preisman in 2001, choosing to keep her maiden name. She has two children, the first of which was born in 2002.

Personally, she is more result than ideology focused, however she has her opinions. She generally considers herself a moderate, at times putting her at odds with her more conservative father.

I have read and accept the rules of the roleplay: (Your Nation's Name Here)

Do Not Remove: DRAFT87421

Okay, updated it a bit, feel free to review it and give me suggestions. Especially you, Dent.

by **Cybernetic Socialist Republics** » Sat Oct 16, 2021 11:27 am

Gordano and Lysandus wrote:Just to clarify, is Kurian pitching indentured servitude to the President?

indentured servitude, puh what? are you implying wages and debt as part of a freely agreed upon contract is servitude? Are you some kind of marxist? /s

But seriously, this is Income Share Agreements as conceived of by Milton Friedman combined with workfare as an incentive. Oregon has a publicly ran ISA program, and there was a bipartisan bill for regulating and promote ISAs that Rubio, Young, Warner and Coons sponsored in 2019 and work requirements for welfare and a focus on retraining has been old hat for centrist democrats and everyone to the right of them since the 90s. Kurian is just proposing a workfare/ISA public-private partnership. The novelty is purely in combining to two.

How close or far away it is from indentured servitude/debt slavery is entirely dependent on how the skeleton is filled in. When Friedman proposed ISA's, he saw it as a form of equity investment, Kurian would like to take it to the logical conclusion and allow these ISA equities to be traded. The next step would be creating a quasi-futures market out of people's children's potential future incomes and reform elementary education around that. Basically pay families to educate their children for certain professions and incentivize the children to go in them by making it cheaper for them to follow that path in adult life rather than it'd be to go off that path.

The step after that, years down the line would be private firms working with data from genetics companies to figure out if certain genes align with success in certain professions/trades later in life, then inputting those signals into the process and potentially even providing benefits for getting in a given marriage. Throw in information about environmental factors to in order to pay people for acting certain ways with their kids, within the lives. In general enclose, commodify and marketize reproduction it's self.

This fits with Kurian's religious faith because she is the ultimate in believing in the prosperity gospel implication that the invisible hand of the market = the hand of God and she see's it as her mission to introduce 'God' into ever facet of life.

There's also an irony to her goal leading to a sort of caste system.

by **Alozia** » Sat Oct 16, 2021 11:35 am

Cybernetic Socialist Republics wrote: Basically pay families to educate their children for certain professions and incentivize the children to go in them by making it cheaper for them to follow that path in adult life rather than it'd be to go off that path.

Is Serah not aware that the labor market changes drastically over the span of 17-25 years?

Cybernetic Socialist Republics wrote:The step after that, years down the line would be private firms working with data from genetics companies to figure out if certain genes align with success in certain professions/trades later in life, then inputting those signals into the process and potentially even providing benefits for getting in a given marriage.

THIS IS NOT A NEW, REVOLUTIONARY IDEA; IT'S LITERALLY EUGENICS. I AM LOSING MY MIND.

by **Cybernetic Socialist Republics** » Sat Oct 16, 2021 11:41 am

Alozia wrote:
Cybernetic Socialist Republics wrote: Basically pay families to educate their children for certain professions and incentivize the children to go in them by making it cheaper for them to follow that path in adult life rather than it'd be to go off that path.

Is Serah not aware that the labor market changes drastically over the span of 17-25 years?

Cybernetic Socialist Republics wrote:The step after that, years down the line would be private firms working with data from genetics companies to figure out if certain genes align with success in certain professions/trades later in life, then inputting those signals into the process and potentially even providing benefits for getting in a given marriage.

THIS IS NOT A NEW, REVOLUTIONARY IDEA; IT'S LITERALLY EUGENICS. I AM LOSING MY MIND.

are you getting mad about what I'm having a fictional right winger believe? you think I'm unaware of the problems with any of this?

STEM lords reinvent 19th century concepts every couple days and call it revolutionary. that's just how it is.

by **Alozia** » Sat Oct 16, 2021 11:47 am

Cybernetic Socialist Republics wrote:
Alozia wrote:Is Serah not aware that the labor market changes drastically over the span of 17-25 years?

THIS IS NOT A NEW, REVOLUTIONARY IDEA; IT'S LITERALLY EUGENICS. I AM LOSING MY MIND.

are you getting mad about what I'm having a fictional right winger believe? you think I'm unaware of the problems with any of this?

STEM lords reinvent 19th century concepts every couple days and call it revolutionary. that's just how it is.

I despise Serah Kurian, yes. Also, she's a Congresswoman not a CEO Robber Baron... Come on, Jack.

by **Yaruqo** » Sat Oct 16, 2021 11:52 am

Character Application and Information Sheet

NS Nation Name: Yaruqo
Character Name: Natasha Gauthier (nee Richardson)
Character Gender: Female
Character Age: 52
Character Height: 5'5"
Character Weight: 172 lbs
Character Position/Role/Job: Candidate for US Senate (February 2021), Attorney General of Wisconsin (2019 - Present), District Attorney for Milwaukee County (2011 - 2018)
Character Country/State of Birth: Wisconsin
Character State of Residence: Wisconsin
Character Party Affiliation: Democratic
Main Strengths: Has experience running for and holding statewide office, has a varied background in criminal law as both a public defender and a prosecutor, reputed to be civil and evidence-based.
Main Weaknesses: She faces complaints from the left and the right on her tenure as AG, some saying her reforms didn't go far enough, others saying she went too far. While her family's first scandal from 15 years ago is publicly water under the bridge, perhaps the grass is not greener on the Gauthier lawn.
Biography: Natasha Marienne Richardson was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on December 18th, 1969. Her father was a patrol cop with the MPD, and her mom stayed at home to care for her and her sister. While her childhood was a little difficult, it wasn't that much different than other Black families living within Milwaukee. She went through the public school system, and, inspired by her dad and the realities of the world around her, she decided to go into law. In the fall of 1987, Natasha was admitted into the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she would graduate with a B.A. in Legal Studies in the spring of 1991. She would work a few years as a paralegal in a small legal firm in Madison, around when she would start a relationship with a young up-and-coming pastor, Martin Gauthier. She would return to the University of Wisconsin-Madison to pursue a Juris Doctor, from which she would graduate in the spring of 1997. In early 1998, she would be admitted to the state bar in Wisconsin.

Natasha began her legal career as a public defender back home in Milwaukee, and would marry the Reverend Martin Gauthier in 1999. In the ensuing years, she would develop a reputation as a capable attorney, one that would put in the legwork to fight the uphill battles that many public defenders had to fight in a system where the prosecution was almost always better funded and employed than public defenders. She threw herself into her work for years, and one year, it came to a point where it nearly compromised her family. In 2006, Natasha ran for District Attorney for Milwaukee County for the first time, entering the Democratic primary against an established incumbent who was a proponent of the "broken windows" policing and "tough-on-crime" prosecutorial approaches that, in her opinion, devastated communities like her's. A few months into the primary, scandal descended onto the Gauthiers and their young son. A woman had come forward and revealed that she had engaged in an affair with the Reverend Gauthier. Natasha would withdraw from the primary, citing a desire to "focus on her family during this difficult time." It would be some time before the two managed to reconcile, but it was a long, hard process.

In early 2010, this time with the full support of her husband behind her (and assurances that he had not strayed from their marriage), Natasha Gauthier threw her hat into the ring again for District Attorney. Boosted by anti-establishment sentiment, Gauthier won the primary against the incumbent, and managed to win the general election later that November against an independent candidate, becoming the first Black woman to hold the position as DA of Milwaukee County, promising to reform the practices of the District Attorney's office and the introduction of community-based criminal justice reforms. One of her first acts after she was sworn in in 2011 would be the establishment of a public integrity unit, which would go on to aggressively investigate and prosecute public corruption in state and local offices, including two Milwaukee aldermen. She would also introduce policies to emphasize and enact community-based prosecution, evidence-based decision-making, and deferring the prosecution of drug addicts and the mentally ill. While these reforms were lauded by local progressive activists, she would at times find herself at odds with them and the Milwaukee Police Department. In the case of the latter, she stringently prosecuted criminal wrongdoing by police officers, including an infamous incident where four MPD officers were prosecuted in 2015 for sexual assault and misconduct in public office for their involvement in the unlawful and unethical rectal probing of detained suspects. On the flip side, she also stringently prosecuted cop killers, pursuing the harshest sentences available to her. Tensions would continue to persist with the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, as Gauthier struggled to walk the fine line of advocating for the very real reforms she felt were needed, both as a prosecutor with a public defender background and as a Black woman, while maintaining good relations with the MPD, which were crucial for the investigation and prosecution of her cases.

Enter 2018, and anti-Wolf sentiments are encouraging Democrats in battleground states to run for statewide offices. Encouraged by colleagues and allies within Milwaukee and around Wisconsin, Natasha entered the Democratic primary for Attorney General unopposed (after endorsing a protege of hers to run for District Attorney back in Milwaukee). The office of Attorney General had been held by Republicans since 2007, and with the Wisconsin Democrats receiving an influx of funds and support after the DNC's 2016 autopsy report, Gauthier was in a strong position to contend with the Republican incumbent. It was a close race, with both sides, willingly or otherwise, falling into the same discourses that were playing out across all American political races in the 2018 midterms: Wolfism vs. Anti-Wolfism; a perceived threat to democracy vs those who swore to uphold it; strength and stubbornness vs civility and reform. In the end, it was the suburbs and urban strongholds that nudged Gauthier ahead into victory, with 49.4% of the vote to the Republican incumbent's 48.8%.

Assuming office with a Democratic Governor in January 2019, Gauthier, when she could, enacted similar reforms to what she had established in Milwaukee. She pushed for the expedited processing of backlogged rape kits, announced a commitment to prosecute polluters - and ended up doing so in 2020 against a major corporation that had been engaged in air pollution that violated state environmental laws, encouraged police departments to, at the very least, address the worst offenses among their departments as the AG pursued wider reforms, and prosecuted gun crimes and cop killers. Her tenure had not been easy, since the Wisconsin State Legislature had been gerrymandered to nearly guarantee a Republican majority, and (according to Natasha) they were loath to have a Democrat - a Black woman at that - enact reforms and policies that went against their values.

Now, in 2021, halfway into her tenure as AG, Natasha has decided that she must run for the open Senate seat. While she respects Congressman Boyd, she fears that his age and lack of experience in a statewide run in the age of post-Wolf politics might risk the Democrats' chances for flipping the seat.

Other Info: Married to Rev. Martin Gauthier, age 54. They have one son, Martin Jr., age 27 - lives in Chicago, IL with his wife, Tonya, age 26, and their son, Quentin, age 1.

Political Stances:
1. Pro-Choice: "I believe that politicians, especially those in the Republican party, have gotten so enthralled in drawing lines of when a woman may seek an abortion, that they have overlooked that at the end of the day, it is women who should be drawing those lines for themselves. When all is said and done, this decision is up to a woman, her doctors, and anyone else she seeks to involve."

2. Pro-Israel: "I believe that the State of Israel has a right to exist and defend itself. That means we should continue to fund the Iron Dome for Israel's defense against attacks from Hamas. However, we must also encourage that the State of Israel establish a lasting peace with the Palestinians, one that guarantees a two-state solution. The longer this conflict drags on, the harder it will be for peace to take root."

3. Pro-LGBT Rights: "The LGBT community deserves the right to live and participate in their communities without fear of reprisal or discrimination. Their struggle is our struggle, and regardless of one's personal religious beliefs, those beliefs should not trump the legal protections of those who have every right to live freely and without fear."

4. Made in America: "Wisconsin has a proud tradition of manufacturing and industry. Sadly, in the face of the recession and automation, too many Wisconsinites are facing unemployment and closures. We can jumpstart our national and state economy through the American Recovery Act and by promoting Made in America legislation and jobs. If elected, I promise to introduce legislation that would ensure that our nation's drinking water infrastructure is produced with American-made iron and steel, which would create good paying union jobs here in Wisconsin while bringing much needed support to our nation's out of date drinking water systems, which we saw are in drastic need of repair after the revelations in Flint, Michigan."

5. Progressive Taxation: "I am for responsible fiscal stewardship from our federal government. To that end, in order to pay down the deficit that the Wolf Administration saddled with its tax cut for the wealthy and big corporations and irresponsible spending, I am proposing that the Congress pass new legislation that would raise taxes for the super-rich, close tax loopholes that currently allow the super-rich and powerful to avoid paying their fair share to support our communities and families that work hard every day just to get by. If we are going to ensure that all Wisconsinites, from Green Bay and Milwaukee to Eau Claire and Ashland, prosper and have the sufficient resources they need to support their families, then we need to ensure that we have the ability to do just that."

6. Invest in Infrastructure: "Wisconsin is falling behind the rest of the Midwest when it comes to infrastructure development and upkeep. We need to repair our roads and bridges, invest in our waterways, and invest in public transportation and railways to ensure that Wisconsinites and the goods that Wisconsin businesses produce and depend on are able to safely and expeditiously go from point A to point B. Infrastructure is how our state and our country can grow and be a force against the whims of China."

7. Repeal the AUMF: "Now that we have all but pulled out of Iraq and are seeking to do the same in Afghanistan, it is time that Congress no longer neglects its constitutional duties. For too long, American servicemen and women have put their lives on the line, and we have allowed the Executive branch, held by both parties, to expand their mandates without the proper oversight that our laws demand. If I am elected, I will work with Senators across the aisle to repeal the 2001 AUMF so that the White House can no longer engage in reckless adventures without the consent of Congress."

8. Public Option: "The Affordable Care Act was intended to serve as a viable public option for Americans to opt into as an alternative to more expensive private insurers. Now, with millions of Americans grappling with rising costs in healthcare with little returns from the private sector, Congress should not hesitate in putting real meat and teeth into the ACA. By establishing a viable and competitive public option, private insurers will be forced to compete with the government and decrease health insurance prices. Wisconsinites cannot afford for us to half-ass our implementation of a public option, and we should fight harder than ever before to guarantee affordable, accessible, and viable health insurance for all Americans."

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

Do Not Remove: DRAFT87421

by **Gordano and Lysandus** » Sat Oct 16, 2021 11:57 am

Yaruqo wrote:Still working on this application, gotta dive deep into it some and work out a viable bio and then some strengths and weaknesses.

(Image)

(Image)

Character Application and Information Sheet

NS Nation Name: Yaruqo
Character Name: Natasha Gauthier
Character Gender: Female
Character Age: 52
Character Height: 5'5"
Character Weight: 172 lbs
Character Position/Role/Job: Candidate for US Senate (February 2021), Attorney General of Wisconsin (2019 - Present), District Attorney for Milwaukee County (2011 - 2018)
Character Country/State of Birth: Wisconsin
Character State of Residence: Wisconsin
Character Party Affiliation: Democratic
Main Strengths: WIP
Main Weaknesses: WIP
Biography: Natasha Marienne Richardson was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on December 18th, 1969. Her father was a patrol cop with the MPD, and her mom stayed at home to care for her and her sister. While her childhood was a little difficult, it wasn't that much different than other Black families living within Milwaukee. She went through the public school system, and, inspired by her dad and the realities of the world around her, she decided to go into law. In the fall of 1987, Natasha was admitted into the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she would graduate from with a B.A. in Legal Studies in the spring of 1991. She would work a few years as a paralegal in a small legal firm in Madison before returning to the University of Wisconsin-Madison to pursue a Juris Doctor, from which she would graduate in the spring of 1997. In early 1998, she would be admitted to the state bar in Wisconsin, and a short time later, she would begin a relationship with a young up-and-coming pastor, Martin Gauthier. ---WIP---
Other Info: WIP

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

Do Not Remove: DRAFT87421

Good to see you throwing your hat into this particular ring! I'd recommend you consider laying out a timetable, some rough bullet points first, and then work from there to really plump it out. I find that really helps me when it comes to getting applications written up.

by **Meretica** » Sat Oct 16, 2021 11:58 am

Are positions on the Supreme Court allowed? I was thinking about taking up Kagan's position.

by **Cybernetic Socialist Republics** » Sat Oct 16, 2021 11:59 am

Alozia wrote:
Cybernetic Socialist Republics wrote:
are you getting mad about what I'm having a fictional right winger believe? you think I'm unaware of the problems with any of this?

STEM lords reinvent 19th century concepts every couple days and call it revolutionary. that's just how it is.

I despise Serah Kurian, yes. Also, she's a Congresswoman not a CEO Robber Baron... Come on, Jack.

No, but she has to make herself stand out to win the support of psychopathic CEOs, or more importantly, the shareholders that employ them. Be the attractive WoC face of a soft landing into neofeudalism.

At some point I'll have to figure out what a federal, bolder version of Real life Democratic Governor Sisolak's 'innovation zones' which proposed tech companies getting to create their own local governments would look like.

gonna dig up every dystopian radical centrist plan by dems and republicans and give it a light right-populist gloss.

by **Gordano and Lysandus** » Sat Oct 16, 2021 12:01 pm

Meretica wrote:Are positions on the Supreme Court allowed? I was thinking about taking up Kagan's position.

I'm assuming it's carried over from previous iteration that it is not.

by **Alozia** » Sat Oct 16, 2021 12:05 pm

Cybernetic Socialist Republics wrote:
Alozia wrote:I despise Serah Kurian, yes. Also, she's a Congresswoman not a CEO Robber Baron... Come on, Jack.

No, but she has to make herself stand out to win the support of psychopathic CEOs, or more importantly, the shareholders that employ them. Be the attractive WoC face of a soft landing into neofeudalism.

At some point I'll have to figure out what a federal, bolder version of Real life Democratic Governor Sisolak's 'innovation zones' which proposed tech companies getting to create their own local governments would look like.

gonna dig up every dystopian radical centrist plan by dems and republicans and give it a light right-populist gloss.

Big money fundraising is a game of balance, you need to court big money to give you cash without alienating the voters. Otherwise you get neither.

by **Alozia** » Sat Oct 16, 2021 12:05 pm

Gordano and Lysandus wrote:
Meretica wrote:Are positions on the Supreme Court allowed? I was thinking about taking up Kagan's position.

I'm assuming it's carried over from previous iteration that it is not.

It is not, you are correct.

by **Meretica** » Sat Oct 16, 2021 12:06 pm

Alozia wrote:
Gordano and Lysandus wrote:
I'm assuming it's carried over from previous iteration that it is not.

It is not, you are correct.

Okay, thanks!

by **Yaruqo** » Sat Oct 16, 2021 4:51 pm

Yaruqo wrote:
(Image)

(Image)

Character Application and Information Sheet

NS Nation Name: Yaruqo
Character Name: Natasha Gauthier
Character Gender: Female
Character Age: 52
Character Height: 5'5"
Character Weight: 172 lbs
Character Position/Role/Job: Candidate for US Senate (February 2021), Attorney General of Wisconsin (2019 - Present), District Attorney for Milwaukee County (2011 - 2018)
Character Country/State of Birth: Wisconsin
Character State of Residence: Wisconsin
Character Party Affiliation: Democratic
Main Strengths: WIP
Main Weaknesses: WIP
Biography: Natasha Marienne Richardson was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on December 18th, 1969. Her father was a patrol cop with the MPD, and her mom stayed at home to care for her and her sister. While her childhood was a little difficult, it wasn't that much different than other Black families living within Milwaukee. She went through the public school system, and, inspired by her dad and the realities of the world around her, she decided to go into law. In the fall of 1987, Natasha was admitted into the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she would graduate with a B.A. in Legal Studies in the spring of 1991. She would work a few years as a paralegal in a small legal firm in Madison, around when she would start a relationship with a young up-and-coming pastor, Martin Gauthier. She would return to the University of Wisconsin-Madison to pursue a Juris Doctor, from which she would graduate in the spring of 1997. In early 1998, she would be admitted to the state bar in Wisconsin.

Natasha began her legal career as a public defender back home in Milwaukee, and would marry the Reverend Martin Gauthier in 1999. In the ensuing years, she would develop a reputation as a capable attorney, one that would put in the legwork to fight the uphill battles that many public defenders had to fight in a system where the prosecution was almost always better funded and employed than public defenders. She threw herself into her work for years, and one year, it came to a point where it nearly compromised her family. In 2006, Natasha ran for District Attorney for Milwaukee County for the first time, entering the Democratic primary against an established incumbent who was a proponent of the "broken windows" policing and "tough-on-crime" prosecutorial approaches that, in her opinion, devastated communities like her's. A few months into the primary, scandal descended onto the Gauthiers and their young son. A woman had come forward and revealed that she had engaged in an affair with the Reverend Gauthier. Natasha would withdraw from the primary, citing a desire to "focus on her family during this difficult time." It would be some time before the two managed to reconcile, but it was a long, hard process.

In early 2010, this time with the full support of her husband behind her (and assurances that he had not strayed from their marriage), Natasha Gauthier threw her hat into the ring again for District Attorney. Boosted by anti-establishment sentiment, Gauthier won the primary against the incumbent, and managed to win the general election later that November against an independent candidate, becoming the first Black woman to hold the position as DA of Milwaukee County, promising to reform the practices of the District Attorney's office and the introduction of community-based criminal justice reforms. One of her first acts after she was sworn in in 2011 would be the establishment of a public integrity unit, which would go on to aggressively investigate and prosecute public corruption in state and local offices, including two Milwaukee aldermen. She would also introduce policies to emphasize and enact community-based prosecution, evidence-based decision-making, and deferring the prosecution of drug addicts and the mentally ill. While these reforms were lauded by local progressive activists, she would at times find herself at odds with them and the Milwaukee Police Department. In the case of the latter, she stringently prosecuted criminal wrongdoing by police officers, including an infamous incident where four MPD officers were prosecuted in 2015 for sexual assault and misconduct in public office for their involvement in the unlawful and unethical rectal probing of detained suspects. On the flip side, she also stringently prosecuted cop killers, pursuing the harshest sentences available to her. Tensions would continue to persist with the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, as Gauthier struggled to walk the fine line of advocating for the very real reforms she felt were needed, both as a prosecutor with a public defender background and as a Black woman, while maintaining good relations with the MPD, which were crucial for the investigation and prosecution of her cases.

Enter 2018, and anti-Wolf sentiments are encouraging Democrats in battleground states to run for statewide offices. Encouraged by colleagues and allies within Milwaukee and around Wisconsin, Natasha entered the Democratic primary for Attorney General unopposed (after endorsing a protege of hers to run for District Attorney back in Milwaukee). The office of Attorney General had been held by Republicans since 2007, and with the Wisconsin Democrats receiving an influx of funds and support after the DNC's 2016 autopsy report, Gauthier was in a strong position to contend with the Republican incumbent. It was a close race, with both sides, willingly or otherwise, falling into the same discourses that were playing out across all American political races in the 2018 midterms: Wolfism vs. Anti-Wolfism; a perceived threat to democracy vs those who swore to uphold it; strength and stubbornness vs civility and reform. In the end, it was the suburbs and urban strongholds that nudged Gauthier ahead into victory, with 49.4% of the vote to the Republican incumbent's 48.8%.

Assuming office with a Democratic Governor in January 2019, Gauthier, when she could, enacted similar reforms to what she had established in Milwaukee. She pushed for the expedited processing of backlogged rape kits, announced a commitment to prosecute polluters - and ended up doing so in 2020 against a major corporation that had been engaged in air pollution that violated state environmental laws, encouraged police departments to, at the very least, address the worst offenses among their departments as the AG pursued wider reforms, and prosecuted gun crimes and cop killers. Her tenure had not been easy, since the Wisconsin State Legislature had been gerrymandered to nearly guarantee a Republican majority, and (according to Natasha) they were loath to have a Democrat - a Black woman at that - enact reforms and policies that went against their values.

Now, in 2021, halfway into her tenure as AG, Natasha has decided that she must run for the open Senate seat. While she respects Congressman Boyd, she fears that his age and lack of experience in a statewide run in the age of post-Wolf politics might risk the Democrats' chances for flipping the seat.

Other Info: Married to Rev. Martin Gauthier, age 54. They have one son, Martin Jr., age 27 - lives in Chicago, IL with his wife, Tonya, age 26, and their son, Quentin, age 1.

Political Stances:
1. Pro-Choice: "I believe that politicians, especially those in the Republican party, have gotten so enthralled in drawing lines of when a woman may seek an abortion, that they have overlooked that at the end of the day, it is women who should be drawing those lines for themselves. When all is said and done, this decision is up to a woman, her doctors, and anyone else she seeks to involve."

2. Pro-Israel: "I believe that the State of Israel has a right to exist and defend itself. That means we should continue to fund the Iron Dome for Israel's defense against attacks from Hamas. However, we must also encourage that the State of Israel establish a lasting peace with the Palestinians, one that guarantees a two-state solution. The longer this conflict drags on, the harder it will be for peace to take root."

3. Pro-LGBT Rights: "The LGBT community deserves the right to live and participate in their communities without fear of reprisal or discrimination. Their struggle is our struggle, and regardless of one's personal religious beliefs, those beliefs should not trump the legal protections of those who have every right to live freely and without fear."

4. Made in America: "Wisconsin has a proud tradition of manufacturing and industry. Sadly, in the face of the recession and automation, too many Wisconsinites are facing unemployment and closures. We can jumpstart our national and state economy through the American Recovery Act and by promoting Made in America legislation and jobs. If elected, I promise to introduce legislation that would ensure that our nation's drinking water infrastructure is produced with American-made iron and steel, which would create good paying union jobs here in Wisconsin while bringing much needed support to our nation's out of date drinking water systems, which we saw are in drastic need of repair after the revelations in Flint, Michigan."

5. Progressive Taxation: "I am for responsible fiscal stewardship from our federal government. To that end, in order to pay down the deficit that the Wolf Administration saddled with its tax cut for the wealthy and big corporations and irresponsible spending, I am proposing that the Congress pass new legislation that would raise taxes for the super-rich, close tax loopholes that currently allow the super-rich and powerful to avoid paying their fair share to support our communities and families that work hard every day just to get by. If we are going to ensure that all Wisconsinites, from Green Bay and Milwaukee to Eau Claire and Ashland, prosper and have the sufficient resources they need to support their families, then we need to ensure that we have the ability to do just that."

6. Invest in Infrastructure: "Wisconsin is falling behind the rest of the Midwest when it comes to infrastructure development and upkeep. We need to repair our roads and bridges, invest in our waterways, and invest in public transportation and railways to ensure that Wisconsinites and the goods that Wisconsin businesses produce and depend on are able to safely and expeditiously go from point A to point B. Infrastructure is how our state and our country can grow and be a force against the whims of China."

7. Repeal the AUMF: "Now that we have all but pulled out of Iraq and are seeking to do the same in Afghanistan, it is time that Congress no longer neglects its constitutional duties. For too long, American servicemen and women have put their lives on the line, and we have allowed the Executive branch, held by both parties, to expand their mandates without the proper oversight that our laws demand. If I am elected, I will work with Senators across the aisle to repeal the 2001 AUMF so that the White House can no longer engage in reckless adventures without the consent of Congress."

8. Public Option: "The American Care Act was intended to serve as a viable public option for Americans to opt into as an alternative to more expensive private insurers. Now, with millions of Americans grappling with rising costs in healthcare with little returns from the private sector, Congress should not hesitate in putting real meat and teeth into the ACA. By establishing a viable and competitive public option, private insurers will be forced to compete with the government and decrease health insurance prices. Wisconsinites cannot afford for us to half-ass our implementation of a public option, and we should fight harder than ever before to guarantee affordable, accessible, and viable health insurance for all Americans."

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

Do Not Remove: DRAFT87421

Still figuring out strengths and weaknesses - I'm honestly the worst at putting those together - so if anyone has any ideas they'd like to pitch, I'd be open to hearing them

by **Helliniki Katastasis** » Sat Oct 16, 2021 5:15 pm

Doherty responded to Richardson a while back on the phone call, don't know if you saw it Dentali.

by **Vaquas** » Sat Oct 16, 2021 7:35 pm

Gordano and Lysandus wrote:On the basis of the interpretation on the exemptions to the character limit rules as they have been clarified to me by Vaquas, I'm going to drop the rest of my apps.

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Character Application and Information Sheet

NS Nation Name: Gordano and Lysandus
Character Name: Jonah Prendergast Jr.
Character Gender: Male
Character Age: 72
Character Height: 5’11”
Character Weight: 195lbs

Character Position/Role/Job: Governor of West Virginia (2017-); CEO, Covington Coal Corporation (1990-2002, 2007-2016); Secretary of Labor (2002-2007), CFO, Covington Coal Corporation (1974-1990); Executive, Covington Coal Corporation (1970-1974).
Character Country/State of Birth: West Virginia, United States
Character State of Residence: West Virginia
Character Party Affiliation: Republican

Main Strengths: Strong in-state coalition gives him leeway to be maverick in certain policy areas; free from donor baggage due to significant personal wealth; viewed with credibility by the right wing media for “running West Virginia like a business”.
Main Weaknesses: Skeletons in his closet regarding safety and environmental impact of his industrial interests; viewed as the archetypal crony capitalist and well of political corruption due to his influence over business and local union leaders; record of campaign gaffes regarding socially conservative positions; loss of heart in the Republican cause has killed his presidential ambitions permanently.

Biography:
Born in South Charleston, West Virginia on October 4th 1948 as the heir to the Covington coal empire, Jonah's life was reasonably predetermined by his privileged circumstances. The Covington coal empire had passed into his family through his father's mother, Dorothea Covington, and the Prendergasts had taken what could be considered very good care of that empire. Whilst his father, Jonah Prendergast Sr. owned and was CEO of the Covington Coal Corporation (Triple C), his mother was - herself - something of a political operative, of the dining circuit variety, influencing West Virginian politics through who she knew rather than what she knew. It was in this atmosphere that Jonah Jr. was raised, poisoned by the corporate-political swamp that made up his family and their immediate surroundings. The benefits of the family's wealth saw him enjoy a high class education, boarding at the Linsly School and then continuing in private high school until graduation in 1966, with good results sufficient - with his family’s influence - to see him to a good college.

Money, it seems, really can take you anywhere, and it was a relatively small matter to see Jonah to a high class university. Economics and Entrepreneurship at Princeton proved to be an interesting undergraduate course, though this'd be Jonah's first exposure to the 'real world'. Academically, he struggled in comparison to students who had worked significantly harder than him to get to this point. Whilst he would pass his degree (barely), he had no inclination to take further education. Withdrawn and socially stunted in an environment where he felt he had no 'supremacy', he failed to make many lasting connections at Princeton to anyone in a friendly or romantic manner, and relied much more heavily on those he made later through business and politics.

It was after college that Jonah returned to Charleston, and in 1970, he began to 'learn the ropes' in the family business, familiarizing himself with the operations of the vast mining operations and subsidiary businesses and industries that the Prendergasts had inherited from the Covingtons. This practical experience was, to an extent, more useful to him than his academic life, albeit it didn't require what could necessarily be described as a great deal of business acumen. The support of good, well paid advisers served him well, especially when he became Chief Financial Officer in 1974. As a high ranking member of the business hierarchy, it was here that he began to be involved more in both union negotiations and state and local politics. It was not high minded academic ideals that served him well here, but ruthlessness and cronyism, which came second nature to him. The backing of the Prendergasts was a useful commodity in West Virginian politics, for both their money and reach, and Jonah adapted well to the almost mafia-like application of that power to get what he wanted.

During a litigation against Triple C in 1974, not long after becoming CFO, Jonah met the young Martha Williamson, four years his junior, a highly capable conservative legalist with whom he had a very positive chemistry. Pursuing a relationship with her after the litigation was settled, he found in her a partner that helped drive and nurture his latent ambitions, and she found in him a generally adoring and supportive partner, their compatibility coming as some surprise considering his previously poor relationships. Marrying in 1975, they both focused on their professional work and it wouldn’t be until the mid-1980s that they had their two sons, Noah and Jonah III.

By 1990, his father had passed away and left the then-42 year old Jonah Jr in charge of the Covington Coal Corporation, operating as owner and CEO as his father did. Showing a greater loyalty to Republican Presidents, he gave generously to the doomed Burke Sr campaign in 1992, and then to the Burke Jr campaign in 2000, hoping to ensure both relaxed environmental and safety laws, and a more sympathetic eye from the Justice Department, but this didn't stop him from backing state and local Democrats who he felt could be convinced to ensure favorable circumstances for him.

He would be rewarded in 2002 with the position of U.S. Secretary of Labor, not merely on account of his political patronage but also his ability to push a hard deal with union bosses (occasionally through less than legitimate means). During his tenure as Secretary of Labor, he divested himself of his ownership and executive positions in Triple C to his brother, Jacob. Whilst Secretary Prendergast served business interests comfortably, ignoring regulatory obligation where possible and particularly neglecting the Wage and Hour Division, he was able to broker confidently with unions in some areas and did direct the Department to pursue some legal action for workers where it was particularly politically advantageous to do so. With this regard, he ran the Department with the same attitudes of patronage and access that he applied to his business interests.

By 2007, he moved away from the role and resigned to return to his businesses, spending more time in the private sector until 2016, when he once again divested himself of his business portfolio to run as the Republican candidate for Governor of West Virginia. Standing on a pro-business, pro-industry platform, he displayed what could be described as a 'moderate indifference' to social politics whilst focusing on economics, bigging up his business ability through his family's coal empire and decrying Democrats for their 'war' on the coal industry. Only he, he argued, could protect West Virginian jobs, and claimed he'd fight until he was "cold, dead in the goddamned ground before he let anyone take away the hard, black lifeblood of West Virginia". He would use some bribery and old-fashioned arm twisting to help reduce any backlash from union leaders, though some outcry still existed and the rank-and-file couldn't be so simply silenced. Upsetting the chain of right-leaning Democrats who'd governed the state for some time, he would go on to win office.

In office, Governor Prendergast indeed continued to apply his politics of patronage to dealing with both business and union interests, and twisting the arms of state legislators. With the election of President Wolf, he showed an affinity for Wolf's policies and was a vocal supporter of his, inviting him to the state and appearing with him at rallies confidently. His indifference to social policy meant that he largely ignored policy changes regarding abortion and LGBT rights for the bulk of his first term, though made efforts to ensure it was known that he is personally opposed to them. One social policy issue that Governor Prendergast hadn't overlooked, however, is the drugs crisis, which had plagued West Virginia. His response had been to respond with force, for the most part, pushing to loosen laws restricting police powers and increasing police funding. Controversially, Governor Prendergast has embraced racial profiling, with a public record of refusing to 'believe good local West Virginians are to blame' for the drug crisis. That said, trying to blame the drug crisis on matters of race wasn’t a solution, and so along with that obfuscation, and in order to improve statistics, he championed laws punishing doctors for overprescribing opioids and to make provisions for recovering addicts. A drive to deregulation had provided for a reasonable economic boom in West Virginia during his early first term, though the resurgence in industry has come with a distinct cost in West Virginia. Ecological damage increased, health worsened, and inequality deepened. Furthermore, he took action to confront West Virginia's infrastructure issues by engendering public-private initiatives for road-building - though it may not necessarily go unnoticed that the improved roads and railways tend to favor industrial interests over residential ones.

The announcement of President Wolf’s illness came as a significant surprise to Jonah. Despite his closeness to that President, he had been caught entirely unawares by it. With the political situation opening up, he became one of the earliest people to throw their hats into the ring for the opened up nomination, announcing his run with a large launch event at the Greenbrier Hotel in White Sulphur Springs. Over the course of his campaign, he baked the rather nebulous Wolfist dogma with a strands of other economic thought and a generally populist message, along with some personal eccentricities (a fondness for naval expansion, for example). Briefly for a time achieving frontrunner status with a potent ground campaign, he faced a personal challenge in confronting the real face of a poor America that had been hidden from view from him for many, many years. Unable to fully sustain his Republican ideologies in the face of genuine poverty and economic devastation, he embraced higher government spending, setting him apart from a number of other candidates. At times, also, his lack of conviction (or interest) on social policies bled through in less guarded or rehearsed moments, including an incident where he described an embryo as a “cluster of cells”. During this period, he had various testy exchanges with the other Republican frontrunner, Governor Richardson of Florida; though would later reconcile with him in opposition to more rabid, far-right voices, preferring a Republican Party fit to govern in the 21st century. It would be a personal tragedy, however, that would knock Governor Prendergast out of the 2020 presidential cycle. The serious injury, and eventual death, of his grandson Adam in an accident at one of the Triple C mines in West Virginia forced him to prioritize the needs of his family over his political ambitions, and he returned to the State to be with his family. Adam, sadly, would not survive.

When the financial crash struck the United States, the Governor’s response was active and firm. Drawing on his solidified belief in higher wages and lower taxes, he pushed a recovery plan in state that would both raise the state minimum wage and slash business and income taxes, sacrificing an in-state surplus to try to stimulate a response. This has helped inure West Virginia against the most severe peaks of poverty, but the already brittle condition of the state means that it has not weathered the crisis well. Unemployment continued to be an issue, along with other social ills surrounding poverty. Infrastructure schemes in the state have helped fill some of the blanks, but on the whole, West Virginia was entering 2021 limbing rather than walking tall. That said, Jonah’s willingness to dedicate significant hours and energy to fostering a significant state-level response helped to secure for him the re-election he now sought in-state after dropping out of presidential considerations. He also, in the 2020 election cycle, promoted his wife Martha as a viable candidate to replace Senator (not-Shelley Moore Capito), saying that a Republican “fit to meet the economic challenge” was needed, and - with the power of the political machinery he had developed behind them - succeeded in securing for her the primary, and then the election. His program of government did not come without costs, however, as he has now wholly defunded the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, has sacrificed his own salary, and has moved to have the Executive Mansion taken away from the office of the Governor and sold, along with a whole tranche of state assets and lands to fund his recovery plan.

Having since reconciled with the now-President Richardson, he has been a vocal supporter of his plan to ramp up spending to address the economic crisis, and has campaigned hard to attempt to give him the political cover needed to defy usual Republican deficit hawk-ism. Through the campaign apparatus he built up to support his presidential run, including the Greater America PAC, he has attempted to nurture more Republican candidates of solid social conservative credentials, but willing to sign up A) to more stimulus spending and B) a low-tax, high-wage economy, which he views as necessary for turning the tide against the anti-capitalist movement, which is still a significant concern to his Cold War mindset, especially with recent events in China. He also sees his political apparatus as a way to help guard against the conspiracist right, trying to sever populism away from lunacy.

Other Info: Practising Southern Baptist. Married to Martha Prendergast. Has two sons: Noah (b. 1986) and Jonah Jr. (b. 1988).

I have read and accept the rules of the roleplay: Gordano and Lysandus

Do Not Remove: DRAFT87421

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Character Application and Information Sheet

NS Nation Name: Gordano and Lysandus
Character Name: Charlotte Sutherland
Character Gender: Female
Character Age: 58
Character Height: 5’8”
Character Weight: 141lbs

Character Position/Role/Job: Attorney General of Pennsylvania (2013-2021); Associate General Counsel, NLRB (2009-2012); Associate General Counsel, AFL-CIO (2004-2009); Attorney, Willig, Williams & Davidson (1988-2004).
Character Country/State of Birth: Pennsylvania, United States
Character State of Residence: Pennsylvania
Character Party Affiliation: Democratic

Main Strengths: Attractive despite her years; good connections with both national and local labor organizations; close to the national Democratic establishment and donations.
Main Weaknesses: Touched by various scandals from within the Pennsylvania DOJ from her time as Attorney General; openly feuding with the Catholic Church in America (strong presence in Pennsylvania); rhetoric has not matched achievements on criminal justice reform.

Biography:
Born in Wilkes-Barre, in the coal mining regions of northeastern Pennsylvania, on August 16th, 1962 to Douglas Sutherland, a coal miner, and his wife Bea, who was a stay-at-home wife, Charlotte Sutherland was born into a time of great economic anxiety and transition in the region. With the Knox Mine disaster only a few years before, the turbulent mine closures and move away from deep pit to strip mining threw the local economy into chaos, and resulted in the loss of her father’s job. Her mother was forced to take up secretarial work, and her father ended up working as a low-wage handyman. This experience was formative for the young Charlotte, who struggled emotionally with the burden of seeing her parents near-constantly exhausted by poor paying work.

Despite her humble upbringings, Charlotte proved to be an above average student, driven and opinionated, and clearly interested in fighting to not be trapped in the same cycle of poverty that consumed her parents. By the time she graduated from high school in 1980, she was not only a capable academician but already firmly interested in local affairs. She invested more than enough time into securing all the relevant grants and scholarships she needed to cover the bulk of her costs to attend the University of Pennsylvania, and was accepted into a Political Science course for her undergraduate years.

Whilst at the University of Pennsylvania, she became increasingly active as an activist alongside her studies. She protested Reagan’s anti-union stance in 1981, actively campaigned for Democratic candidates in the 1982 midterms, and in 1983, was elected as the Undergraduate Assembly President as part of the Student Government at UPenn. Enjoying a number of personal romances at this time, none settled into a serious, long term relationship. Following graduation, she chose to continue to pursue her education, remaining at UPenn for her Juris Doctor. Despite the great burden of her legal studies, she continued to be politically active, supporting Walter Mondale in the election of 1984, and again campaigning for Democrats across Pennsylvania in the 1986 midterms, as well as for Bob Casey Sr. for Governor that year.

Following the achievement of her JD, she remained in Philadelphia to join Willig, Williams & Davidson in 1988, the prestigious labor law firm. It was at WWD that she met Hank Freeman, a fellow colleague who had grown up in Philadelphia, and developed a relationship with him. Marrying in 1990, there were attempts to have children before it became apparent that Charlotte was - in fact - infertile. During her time at WWD, she continued to do political work on the side, with more time to dedicate to serious campaigning by the election of 1992, where she was an early and fervent supporter of Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, but moved over to the campaign of Arkansas Governor James Clifford after Harkin withdrew on March 9th; and she would go on to support then President Clifford’s re-election in 1996.

In 1998, she was retained by the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers (a chapter of the American Federation of Teachers) due to the ongoing disputes between the union and state and local entities regarding the long-running schools crisis in the Philadelphia district. The underfunded, unsupported school district ended up in the middle of a number of protracted crises, from the Mayor’s usage of the district for political patronage to the Governor’s intent to see the district’s schools placed in the hands of private firms. Active in both behind the scenes negotiations and public litigations on the matter, she was ultimately unable to prevent the partial privatization of the district following the assumption of its operations by the state, but she did manage to significantly support resistance to layoffs of school staff. Her time with the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers (on behalf of WWD) would come to an end in 2004, when the AFL-CIO invited her to serve as an Associate General Counsel for the labor organization.

Her political advocacy did not stop in this period, working on both the campaigns of (not-Al Gore) in 2000, and (not-John Kerry) in 2004, deepening her ties with the national Democratic establishment. Her legal work for the AFL-CIO largely began to revolve more around national labor rights cases, where she worked on a number of submissions for the AFL-CIO as amicus curiae in a number of high profile cases. Her work in this area was considered good, despite the fact that the (not-Roberts) court often struck down employee protections. She presented the AFL-CIO’s amicus brief in the Burlington Northern & Santa Fe (BNSF) Railway Co. v. White case in 2006, facing off against the Burke Administration’s Deputy Solicitor General who was a friend of the railway company.

Although she had supported Diane Clifford in the Pennsylvania primaries in 2008, she was an advocate of party unity after the closely fought and somewhat fractious primary, and worked hard on Rashid Baharia’s campaign to defeat (not-John McCain) in the election of 2008. Her eventual reward for this long standing support was to be tapped for an Associate General Counsel’s position in the National Labor Relations Board in 2009. Her work here was often frustrated by the deliberate obstructionism against the NLRB that had continued before and after President Baharia’s assumption of office, and in general, she found the NLRB to be toothless and moribund on numerous issues. She nonetheless applied herself hard to the task where she could, and avoided making any statements in violation of federal statutes regarding politics for appointed government officers. Nonetheless, by late 2011, she had resolved that she would do more good if she were to run for statewide office in her native Pennsylvania, and after moving from D.C. to Harrisburg, she resigned from the NLRB effective January 2012, and geared up for a campaign for Attorney General in that state, with the support of national Democrats and both state and national labor advocates with whom she had developed close ties.

Although she had no difficulty securing political support to win the primary for that race, the actual general was significantly tighter. She was attacked for having no experience litigating criminal law, and her opponent attempted to make out that she was wholly in the pocket of political and union interests, and could not run the Office impartially. She made a public commitment to recuse herself from any case where it might be seen that she had a conflict of interest, but doubled down on her belief that it would not be a bad thing for a pro-labor candidate to become Attorney General, and pointed out that (not-Corbett), as the last elected Republican Attorney General, had joined the suit to try to kill Bahariacare. In the general of that year, she managed to eke out a win 52.5% to 47.5%, underperforming both Senator (not-Casey) and President Baharia, but securing a victory nonetheless.

In office at Attorney General, she was generally standoffish and managerial, rather than overly active in the litigation of cases, preferring to delegate in areas where she was less confident (criminal prosecution) and focus more on civil matters affecting Pennsylvania. Nonetheless, she was still fully qualified to pursue criminal matters, and in 2014, led a strong and renewed legal response to the ongoing Catholic Church child sex scandal that had been particularly fierce in the state of Pennsylvania, pushing for the establishment of a state-wide grand jury, and set up both a telephone helpline and online reporting system. Her aggressive pursuit of this case earned criticism from the National Catholic Register and a number of US Catholic bishops, both inside and outside of Pennsylvania, who tried to cast her as “innately hateful and suspicious towards the Church”. True to her word, she remained uninvolved with a number of cases that involved Democratic politicians and corruption within Pennsylvania, though one of her deputies proceeded to close a sting probe into a number of Democrats in the state involved in corrupt practises. Although she initially signalled her willingness to investigate and clean house herself, when the state legislature appointed a special counsel to investigate itself, she stated that she didn’t want to take “any action which might pre-empt the special counsel”. This was largely considered a misstep, and her popularity took an uncomfortable hit. Also during her first term, she made the choice not to defend Pennsylvania’s statutory ban on same-sex marriage, further earning criticism from the Catholic Church, but earning liberal plaudits from national and state commentators.

By the time of the 2016 election, she was again an active supporter of the Democratic candidate, firmly backing Secretary Clifford for President, whilst also having to weigh her own re-election concerns, especially in the wake of the corruption scandal in the AG’s Office. Both she and her opponent ran on campaigns promising to clear up the Office in the wake of the scandal, and she unveiled a broad based plan to tackle the opioid epidemic, gun violence, and police brutality. 2016 was a bad year for Democrats, and her race was initially called by the Associated Press for the Republican, though as the night continued, she eventually pulled ahead by around 100,000 votes. A recount followed, which confirmed her victory by a sliver, and she remained in office.

During her second term as Attorney General, she took a more active role in cases than in her previous term, abandoning her prior standoffishness. Her investigations into child sex abuse in the Catholic Church continued, culminating in the controversial statement of her belief that “the seal of confessional does not, in my opinion, fall within the protections of the First Amendment, but in fact stands as a violation of that constitutional principle”. The report of the investigation into child sex abuse was released in 2018, and Attorney General Sutherland set up an entire section of the Attorney General’s office to work off of its recommendations and seek prosecutions. Her response to the opioid crisis was two pronged, seeking to both prosecute those involved in distributing illegal opioids, as well as supporting civil litigation against opioid producers. On violent crime, she supported higher sentences for violent offenders, and unlike many Democrats, did not shirk from supporting the death penalty for particularly violent offenders. On racial justice, her record was more mixed. Despite promises made, she made little progress with a number of cases to do with police brutality on account of both legal obstacles and threats by police unions to stop enforcement should action be taken. She did, however, join Governor (not-Tom Wolf) in calling for the federal legalization of marijuana, and supports the legalization of recreational marijuana in Pennsylvania. She has also advocated for expunging non-violent drugs-based charges, and for rectifying the disparity in sentencing between crack and powder cocaine.

With the end of her two consecutive terms in January 2021, and thus term limited out of office, she announced that she was going to establish an exploratory committee to run for Senate in 2022.

Other Info: Practicing Episcopalian. Married to Hank Freeman (m. 1990). Has no children on account of infertility.

I have read and accept the rules of the roleplay: Gordano and Lysandus

Do Not Remove: DRAFT87421

Jonah looks good, will look over his wife promptly and leave him to a second admin opinion. We can put the Pennsylvania candidate on hold for now and deal with that as the race gets closer.

America the Beautiful: An American Political RP (OOC)

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