Jonah Prendergast Jr.

NS Nation Name: Gordano and Lysandus Character Name: Jonah Prendergast Jr. Character Gender: Male

Character Age: 71 Character Height: 5'10" Character Weight: 195lbs Character Position/Role/Job: Governor of West Virginia (2017-), CEO of the Covington Coal Corporation(1990-2002/2007-2016), U.S. Secretary of Labor (2002-2007), CFO of the Covington Coal Corporation (1974-1990), lesser roles within the Covington Coal Corporation (1970-1974).

Appearance:

==Character State of Origin: West Virginia Character State of Residence: West Virginia Character Party Affiliation: Republican

Main Strengths: Jonah benefits from a broad coalition of support, from business to key union leaders, and this has allowed him a degree of maverickness when it comes to traditional party boundaries, displaying less fixation on budgetary hawkishness than traditional Republicans. Being fantastically wealthy, among the wealthier of the state, means he is not required to be necessarily beholden to donors. All in all, this makes Jonah a very unchained, unbeholden element. That lineage as a businessman gives him credibility in right wing media, on account of the 'run the state like a business' perspective. Main Weaknesses: Jonah's coal empire has been frequently decried as delinquently unsafe or non-compliant with environmental standards, creating no small amount of scandal that Jonah has been happy to cultivate sympathetic right wing media attention to cover up. No shortage of skeletons lie in his closet with that regards. Between his business and union relationships, there's also a trail of cronyism and skulduggery that would appear quite out of place should it come to light. Having gone from ruthless commercial operator to ruthless political operator, if enough digging was done, a political scandal could surely be dredged up. Jonah's personal abrasiveness can be injurious to relationship building outside of commercial and political dependence, and he's been known to be at least passively bigoted, dismissing the opinions of women and not necessarily all that warm to people of color. Not having hitherto displayed a great deal of public faith or spoken on issues like abortion or LGBT rights, he currently lacks credibility with the evangelical demographic, which is important to Republicans nationwide.

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 C.C.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.

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.

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 that 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.

By 1990, his father passed away and left the then-52 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 the C.C.C. to his son, Noah. 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 against 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 claiming 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's shown an affinity for Wolf's policies and been a vocal supporter of his, inviting him to the state and appearing with him at rallies confidently. His indifference to social policy means that he largely ignores policy changes regarding abortion and LGBT rights, though it is believed he is personally opposed to them. One social policy issue that Governor Prendergast hasn't overlooked, however, is the drugs crisis, which has plagued West Virginia. His response has 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 is an ineffectual placebo, and so in order to improve statistics, he has also championed laws punishing doctors for overprescribing opioids and to make provisions for recovering addicts. A drive to deregulation has provided for a reasonable economic boom in West Virginia, though the resurgence in industry has come with a distinct cost in West Virginia. Ecological damage has increased, health has worsened, and inequality has deepened. Furthermore, he's taken action to confront West Virginia's infrastructure issues by engendering public-private initiatives for roadbuilding - it may not necessarily go unnoticed that the improved roads and railways tend to favor industrial interests over residential ones. These issues will be ones he may have to confront if he wishes to achieve re-election. That said, having secured a change in state law so he could run for re-election as Governor at the same time as a potential run for President (e.g. Cory Booker in New Jersey being able to run for President and Senator), a Presidential run wouldn't necessarily be out of the question.

Other Info: N/A.

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