Free Ward Marchers wrote:
NS Nation Name: Free Ward Marchers
Character Name: Julie Margot Littenbaum
Character Gender: Female
Date of Birth (Age): June 15, 1962 (46)
Character Height: 5ft 8in
Character Weight: 150 lbs
Character Position/Role/Job:
Character Country/State of Birth: Paris, France
Character State of Residence: Washington
Character Party Affiliation: Democratic
Faceclaim: Peggy Flanagan
Main Strengths: Bipartisan, Well Liked, Strong Education Ties
Main Weaknesses: Naive, Idealistic, Opportunistic, Weak on foreign policy, easy to anger
Biography: Julie Margot Patenaude was born in 1962, the fourth child of her French father and American mother. During her whole childhood, she and her family would move back and forth between France and the United States, mostly for her father's work. They settled down for the last time when Julie was fourteen years old, making their permanent residence in Tacoma, Washington. As a student, Julie was attentive, and fancied herself somewhat special for enjoying learning. Politically, her family was devoutly Democratic, at least in the United States, though in her youth Julie toyed with many ideologies which she did not fully grasp (she tells nobody of her three-hour long Fascist phase).
Julie attended Mills College in California for a degree in Education with a minor in History, and given the combination, unsurprisingly became a high school history teacher. She was known among her students for being easygoing and a soft grader, but after a number of years in the position, she found it not to be as great as her previous passions may have suggested. Instead, she resigned from her position and ran for the Tacoma City Council, mostly on a whim. She had never previously held much of a desire to enter politics, but she had done it, essentially just because it was there and she could. Given the partisan demographics of Tacoma, and a weak showing of Democratic challengers for the position, she had the job relatively easily.
In 1992, Julie met her future husband, Perry Littenbaum, and the two married just five months after. To do this, Julie had to convert from Roman Catholicism and join his church, the United Church of Christ. Never particularly devout, she did so enthusiastically, having found a rebirth of religious zeal after converting becoming more dedicated to her faith than ever before. She took her husband's last name, and the couple would go on to have three children, Marie (16), Jeremiah (13), and Roy (11).
In 1993, with the incumbent Mayor not running for re-election, Julie scmoozed among the other members of the City Council as well as the City's Democratic Party and won the nomination essentially unopposed, and then the election, though the Republicans put up more of a fight than was expected. As Mayor, she sought to revitalize the struggling industrial port city, presiding over the opening of the University of Washington Tacoma, establishing modern rail networks, and improving the city waterfront. In 1996, she would make a bid for a House seat, and despite the absolute slaughter nationwide, the district's Democratic leans did not fail her, even if the margins were concerning. Even so, over her four elections to the House, she gained more and more of the vote each time, partially out of increased popularity and partially because less Republicans bothered to vote against the person so likely to win. In the House, she was usually a supporter of the (not-Clinton) administration, supporting its actions in Yugoslavia and those at home (so long as they weren't too third way), but she had a difficult relationship with him during the (not-Lewinsky) scandal. Initially, she strongly criticized both the President's perjury and infidelity, and even called on him to resign, before walking back her statements and saying instead that Clinton had a "lapse of judgement" which did not affect his Presidency or the American people anyway. This move was mostly out of political convenience, once the Democratic anger towards (not-Clinton) turned out to be nonexistent, and eventually she got over her internal feelings towards it, but the moralist in her wouldn't let it fully go. During the Cush administration, she voted first in support of the War in Afghanistan, then against the War in Iraq.
In 2004, Julie initially supported (not-John Edwards) for President, followed by (not-Howard Dean), before finally lending her support to (not-Kerry). Simultaneously, she ran for Senate following the incumbent's resignation for health issues, and defeated Republican (not-George Nethercutt). As a Senator, Julie has established herself as a somewhat quirky Democrat, moving leftwards on the whole but rightwards on issues like gay marriage and national security (perhaps being the only person to become more supportive of the Iraq War over time), but is still no conservative and finds herself at most in the center even on those issues. She is considering the idea of a Presidential run this year
Other Info:
I have read and accepted the rules of the roleplay: Free Ward Marchers
Do Not Remove: DRAFT123123
Looks good to me as well.
ACCEPTED