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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
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