The West Wing (television)

The West Wing is a popular and widely acclaimed American television serial drama created by Aaron Sorkin for NBC which has aired since 1999 and is currently airing shows from its seventh season in its new time slot, 8pm on Sundays (Eastern and Pacific). The show is set in the White House ? which serves as the residence of the President and his family ? during the fictional Democratic administration of Josiah "Jed" Bartlet. The West Wing of the White House is the location of the President's Oval Office and the offices of most of his senior staff. The show is produced and co-written by John Wells.

Presidential elections

Timeline Skew

The last real-life president to have existed in the show's universe is Richard Nixon, although it is unclear if Gerald Ford was President or not. There have been two indirect references to Ford. The first is that of a mention of Donald Rumsfeld who served as Ford's Chief of Staff and later as Secretary of Defense until 1977. The second reference is to Executive Order 11905 which was signed by President Ford in 1976. In the second season President Bartlet and Josh Lyman were treated for gun shot wounds at the Ronald Reagan Institute of Emergency Medicine as can be seen during exterior shots of Toby Ziegler and Ron Butterfield talking outside the hospital. To date, the program has never discussed how the election cycle was altered by two years from reality.

Related Topics:
President - Richard Nixon - Gerald Ford - Donald Rumsfeld - 1977 - 1976 - Ronald Reagan Institute of Emergency Medicine

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An article in the current issue of the British Magazine TV Zone has put forward a reason for the change in the election cycle. It suggests that the 25th Amendment passed in 1967 in the real world wasn't passed in the West Wing so after President Richard Nixon resigned in August 1974 as there was no current Vice President in office as Spiro Agnew had been forced to quit in 1973, the Presidency would have passed to the Speaker of the House Democrat Carl Albert. It suggests that he would have reluctant to effectively reverse the Republican landslide victory of 1972, and announced he would only serve until a special Presidential election could be called for Tuesday November 5 1974.

Related Topics:
1967 - Richard Nixon - 1974 - Vice President - Spiro Agnew - 1973 - Speaker of the House - Carl Albert - 1972 - November 5

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As the magazine is a respected and official publication it seems that this is the reason that NBC is putting forward for the change in the cycle, which does seem to make sense. Of course, the Amendment would have been passed later on, since in 2003 in the West Wing world, the Democrats had to pick a new Vice President following the resignation of John Hoynes.

Related Topics:
NBC - 2003 - Vice President - John Hoynes

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West Wing presidents following Nixon include Democrat D. Wire Newman (played by James Cromwell) and Republican Owen Lassiter (deceased). Newman served one term. Lassiter served two terms. While it never was clarified that Newman and then Lassiter's terms immediately preceded Bartlet's, it is implied in an episode which centered around Lassiter's funeral.

Related Topics:
D. Wire Newman - James Cromwell - Republican - Owen Lassiter

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Bartlet's First Campaign (1998)

Bartlet's 1998 campaign in the general election to win the presidency has never been significantly explained in the series yet, though it is known that he was elected with 48% of the popular vote, 48 million votes and with a 303-235 margin in the Electoral College. It has not been made known who Bartlet`s Republican opponent was, although in the first episode of season 4 the name Richards can be heard as a opponent during a debate. It's not clear if this was a presidential debate. (It is assumed by most fans to have been two-term Republican President Owen Lassister's Vice President.)

Related Topics:
Republican - Vice President

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It is known from some episodes, that Bartlet won Florida, New Hampshire and Oregon (by 10,000 votes), but lost in Maine, and Texas. But thanks to Hoynes' presence on the ticket, Bartlet did very well in the rest of the southern states. Unlike four years later Bartlet faced three Presidential debates with his Republican opponent. The final debate was held in St Louis on October 30 1998. Bartlet was elected on Tuesday November 3 1998.

Related Topics:
Florida - New Hampshire - Oregon - Maine - Texas - October 30 - 1998 - November 3

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The campaign for the Democratic nomination was extensively addressed. In "In the Shadow of Two Gunmen" and "Bartlet for America," extensive flashbacks are used as a vehicle to tell how Bartlet defeated Texas Senator John Hoynes (played by Tim Matheson) and Washington Senator William Wiley. Also stated, as may be expected, is that there were additional less successful primary opponents. The former episode also revealed how Leo McGarry convinced Bartlet around late October or early November 1997 who was then Governor of New Hampshire, to run, how Bartlet didn't expect to win, and how he came to ultimately select Hoynes as his choice for Vice President.

Related Topics:
John Hoynes - Tim Matheson - Washington - New Hampshire - Vice President

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Bartlet's Re-Election (2002)

The West Wing's 2002 presidential election pitted Bartlet and Vice President John Hoynes against Florida Governor Robert Ritchie (played by James Brolin), and his running mate Jeff Heston. Bartlet was unopposed for renomination, while Ritchie emerged from a field of seven other Republican candidates (who are named as Simon, Daniel, Kalmbach, O`Rourke, Ross, Stephens, and Western).

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Democratic Senator Howard Stackhouse launched a third-party candidacy from the left of Bartlet, but withdrew and ultimately endorsed Bartlet. Bartlet's staff contemplated replacing Vice President John Hoynes from the 2002 ticket with Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Percy Fitzwallace (played by John Amos) among others, in April 2002 after it was clear Ritchie would be the Republican nominee but Bartlet vetoed the idea, declaring that he wanted Hoynes in the #2 spot, "Because I could die."

Related Topics:
2002 - Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman - John Amos

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Throughout the season it was anticipated that the race would be close, but a stellar performance by Bartlet in the sole debate between the candidates gave Bartlet a landslide victory in both the popular and electoral vote.

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At 11:01 EST on election night the popular vote stood at:

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• Bartlet (D): 53,766,221
• Ritchie (R): 42,992,342

Based on the states we know Bartlet won and lost a likely electoral college result is 423-115.

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Bartlet won an unusual victory for a modern Democratic presidential nominee. He carried all of the states of the Great Plains and the Midwest, but in the deep South he only carried Louisiana, North Carolina, and South Carolina, losing Hoynes's home state of Texas just as he had in his first race and Florida which was Ritchie's home state and which Bartlet had carried four years before, he also lost Georgia which he also won in 1998. He also carried his home state of New Hampshire as well as Delaware, Maryland and Pennsylvania.

Related Topics:
Great Plains - Midwest - Louisiana - North Carolina - South Carolina - Texas - Florida - Georgia - 1998 - New Hampshire - Delaware - Maryland - Pennsylvania

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Santos vs. Vinick (2006)

:See also: U.S. presidential election, 2005 (fictional)

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According to series producer John Wells, the upcoming election will occur in November of the 2005-2006 season (for United States viewers), with the inauguration happening in January. However, recent press articles have indicated that the timeline may again be altered in order to have the election occur later in the season, thus allowing the Bartlet administration to remain in office for several additional episodes. The altered schedule for the show has the election episode airing in March. Starting with the seventh season, Fall 2005, the show moves to Sunday nights. An article from TV Guide http://www.tvguide.com/News/Insider/2005/0810/02insider.htm revealed that the producers were thinking about broadcasting live an episode centering around a debate between Santos and Vinick.

Related Topics:
2005 - 2006 - TV Guide

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Santos/McGarry

A speed-up in The West Wing's timeline (in part due to the expiration of many cast member's contracts and a desire to continue the program with lower production costs) has resulted in the omission of the 2004 midterm elections and an election during the 2005-2006 season. The recently concluded 2004-2005 season extensively detailed the primary campaigns, while the 2005-2006 season will cover the general election and transition to a new administration, and will slow the timeline down again to concentrate more on the general election race. The upcoming November 2006 election will take place in March of 2006 in real time.

Related Topics:
2004 - 2005 - 2006

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Texas Congressman Matthew Vincente Santos (played by Jimmy Smits) was nominated on the fourth ballot by the Democratic Party at their convention, staged as the 2004-2005 season finale. Santos, who was planning to leave Congress before being recruited to run by Josh Lyman, polled in the low single digits in Iowa and was virtually out of the running in New Hampshire when a last-ditch direct television appeal vaulted him to a third place finish with 19% of the vote.

Related Topics:
Texas - Matthew Vincente Santos - Jimmy Smits - 2004 - 2005 - Congress - Iowa - New Hampshire

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Polling behind incumbent Vice President and early front-runner "Bingo" Bob Russell (played by Gary Cole) and former Vice President Hoynes, Santos surged late in the primaries, picking up delegates (winning among others the California primary). The disclosure of an alleged sexual harassment incident from more than eight years ago involving Hoynes effectively dropped him from serious contention, but no candidate had the 2,162 votes necessary to secure the nomination going into the convention.

Related Topics:
"Bingo" Bob Russell - Gary Cole - California - Sexual harassment

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At the convention Pennsylvania Governor Eric Baker (played by Ed O'Neill), who in November 2005 had announced he would not seek the nomination, announced that if chosen he would accept the nomination after all. Following the first ballot, delegates flocked to Baker from the camps of all three other candidates, and briefly it seemed as if it would be Baker, not Russell, Santos or Hoynes, that would be the nominee. But a disclosure about Baker's wife's health -- more correctly the fact that Baker had failed to disclose the health problem, rather than the problem itself -- slowed his momentum considerably, until he was out of the running completely. Later, Leo once again went to Josh, and told him that Santos would have to step down in order to "save the party". However, Santos instead pulled off a stunning speech in order to rally Democratic support and gain the nomination. After many allusions during the Bartlet administration, Josh convinced Leo to become Santos's running mate.

Related Topics:
Pennsylvania - Eric Baker - Ed O'Neill - 2005

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Vinick/Sullivan

California Senator Arnold Vinick (played by Alan Alda) secured the show's Republican nomination, defeating Glen Allen Walken (played in previous seasons by John Goodman, but unseen during 2004-2005), Rev. Don Butler (played by Don S. Davis) and a host of other, known but not-mentioned-by-name candidates.

Related Topics:
California - Arnold Vinick - Alan Alda - Glen Allen Walken - John Goodman - 2004 - 2005 - Don Butler - Don S. Davis

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West Virginia Governor Ray Sullivan (played by Brett Cullen) was chosen as his running mate after Butler essentially refused the nomination due to a disagreement with Vinick on the issue of abortion. Vinick has been portrayed throughout the 2004-2005 season as virtually unbeatable due to his popularity in California, moderate views, and wide crossover appeal.

Related Topics:
West Virginia - Ray Sullivan - Brett Cullen - Abortion - 2004 - 2005 - California

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