Arnold Vinick
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Alan Alda as Senator Arnold Vinick. |
Arnold Vinick was a fictional character on the
television series The West Wing played by
Alan Alda. A former
Republican senator from
California and
Republican presidential nominee, he was narrowly defeated by
Democrat Matt Santos in the
2006 presidential election. He is currently the
Secretary of State-designate in the incoming Santos administration.
He is a
social libertarian and
fiscal conservative with a maverick streak and a direct manner. Vinick seems to be loosely based on Senator
John McCain, although, unlike McCain, Vinick is
pro-choice. He is, however, opposed to
late-term abortion. Vinick has also been described as a
deficit hawk, like McCain.
In one episode, Arnold Vinick mentioned growing up in a "
citrus-growing" community. In response to this, the town of
Santa Paula, which is famous for citrus growing and is often referred to as the "Citrus Capital of the World", wrote to
The West Wing's production company, asking that Santa Paula be made Arnold Vinick's hometown. The production company promised to keep Santa Paula in mind for any campaign filming. In the meantime, the city council decided to organize a campaign for Arnold Vinick, including the opening of an Arnold Vinick presidential campaign headquarters. The town was eventually mentioned as Vinick's hometown in the episode "Two Weeks Out," broadcast on
March 19,
2006.
The son of Richard Vinick, a public school teacher in the
New York City School District, and Patricia Vinick, a community activist, Vinick was born in
New York Methodist Hospital in
Brooklyn. When he was four years old, his younger brother was born and the family relocated to the southern California town of Santa Paula to farm
orange groves. In Santa Paula, Vinick volunteered at the public
library.
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A picture of Vinick with his wife, Catherine. |
After graduating from
Yale and
Stanford Law School, Vinick opened a law practice in Santa Paula. He was eventually elected to the city council in the town's first write-in victory. He served one term on the council before being elected to the
California State Assembly. He then moved on the United States Senate where he won election with 6.9 million votes—the highest total for any Senate candidate at the time (
Barbara Boxer in 2004 is the only Senator to have ever matched this number in the real world). Vinick has served in the Senate for twenty-four years as of the
2006 election (thereby, eliminating the terms of
Pete Wilson,
John F. Seymour, and
Dianne Feinstein in the real world).
Vinick was married to Catherine Vinick for thirty-four years before she died in 2004. He has one brother, four children and nine grandchildren.
Vinick serves as
Chairman of the
Senate Finance Committee and serves on the Committees on
Foreign Relations and
Environment and Public Works. Vinick was offered the post of
Ambassador to the United Nations by President
Josiah Bartlet's Deputy Chief of Staff,
Josh Lyman, but declined as he intended to run for President. Lyman and former
White House Chief of Staff Leo McGarry were concerned that Vinick, as an articulate and appealing centrist, offered the Republicans a real chance to win back the White House after Democrat Bartlet's two terms. However, both wondered if he was conservative enough to win the Republican nomination.
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The Republican ticket: Vinick-Suillivan. |
Vinick opposes federal funding for
ethanol as an
alcohol fuel, considering it a political boondoggle. He once told
Josh Lyman, half-seriously, that he trusts no one who doesn't shine his own shoes. In the primaries, Vinick defeated the Reverend
Don Butler and former
Speaker of the House and
Acting President Glen Allen Walken for the Republican nomination in the
2006 presidential election. Shortly after winning the nomination, Senator Vinick met with President Bartlet, whom he has a mutual measure of respect for, to discuss a deal to raise both the federal
debt ceiling and the national
minimum wage.
After the Reverend Butler declined to be his running mate in the 2006 election, due to Butler's strong
pro-life views, Vinick, who felt he needed a staunch
conservative to
balance the ticket, selected Governor
Ray Sullivan of
West Virginia.
Vinick may be an
atheist or an
agnostic or other religious
skeptic. Though this has been hinted it in his public statements, he has not actually made this public knowledge. Vinick may also be a
book collector, having received a
17th century King James Bible from his late wife. Her untimely death, and the harsh requirements of
Old Testament Judaic law which he discovered when he read the
Bible in depth, made him question his own religious beliefs.
In the seventh season of the show, Senator Vinick and Governor Sullivan are running against
Congressman Matt Santos of
Texas, the
Democratic nominee, and his running mate, former White House Chief of Staff and
Secretary of Labor Leo McGarry. Democratic political consultant
Bruno Gianelli is a consultant on his campaign, initially with an ambitious plan to win all 50 states.
|
Presidential debate between Santos and Vinick. |
At the outset of the first and only Santos-Vinick debate, Vinick proposed to have "a real debate," without time limits on speaking; i.e. to ignore the rules their campaign had agreed to. Santos readily agreed. During the debate, Vinick tried to paint Santos as a typical
liberal Democrat who would raise taxes to pay for intrusive big-government programs while still leaving the
federal budget unbalanced. The senator laid out a
libertarian agenda and reiterated his support for tax cuts, proposed tax-deductibility for
health insurance costs, explained why he had voted for the
Central American Free Trade Agreement, opposed a moratorium on the federal
death penalty, promised to open part of the
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to
oil exploration, and declared his strong support for
nuclear power. He was heckled by a member of the audience for claiming that
Head Start didn't work, but perhaps his most surprising comment and show of blunt honesty was his remark that he would not create any new jobs, saying that in a free society
entrepreneurs, not the government created jobs.
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President Bartlet and Senator Vinick at the San Andreo nuclear power plant. |
In the middle of the campaign, as Vinick enjoyed a huge lead over Santos, a
nuclear reactor in Southern California comes close to
meltdown, creating a panic for millions living in its vicinity. In the episode "Duck and Cover" it is revealed that Vinick, as a Senator from California, pushed for the plant's opening and speedy approval by regulators. The reactor did not melt down, although when the story broke that Vinick was a major supporter of the plant, his poll numbers dropped dramatically, putting numerous states, including
California (which despite leaning Democratic in the show, was thought to be safe for Vinick seeing as it was his home state), into play and causing the election to become too close to call.
After a staff shakeup prompted by the
Republican National Committee, Vinick decided to go to
California, on the heels of the
Santos campaign, and hold a press conference outside of the
San Andreo plant in order to defuse the political fallout from the incident. His strategy seems to have been effective, as he returned to his straight-talking style exhausting reporters of their questions and commandeering live news coverage from his opponent's campaign.
Despite this strategy's success (the Senator won his home state of California), Senator Vinick lost the presidential election to Rep. Santos, 272 electoral votes to 266. Senator Vinick apparently conceded the election after Nevada, the decisive state, was carried by Santos by about 30,000 votes. Although Senator Vinick was urged by his staff to contest the election, he refused to do so.
A
New York Times article published on
April 10,
2006 reported speculatively that, if not for death of actor John Spencer, Vinick would have won the election. According to the article, the writers felt it would be too much for Santos to lose his running mate and the election in one day, so the plot was changed to have Vinick lose, but narrowly. There is considerable doubt as to the veracity of that claim, however.
After the election, Vinick pondered running again in
2010 against Santos, but his advisors tried to convince him he that there were better Republicans who could run and that his age would be a hindrance anyway. Impressed by his mental acuity, President-elect Santos asked Vinick to join his administration as
Secretary of State. Vinick initially turned him down, but then accepted when Santos assured him that he could perform the job on his own terms, without partisan politics.
The West Wing*
The West Wing presidential election, 2006*
List of characters on The West Wing*
List of politicians on The West Wing*
List of The West Wing episodes*
Official Campaign Website*
Santa Paula for Vinick (no longer available; removed by the city)
*
Candidate issue analysis
