Two Weeks Out (originally aired March 19, 2006)
- Issues: electoral map, nuclear power, illegitimate children
Just two weeks away from Election Day, Rep. Matt Santos has built momentum against Sen. Arnold Vinick in the wake of an accident at a California nuclear power plant, but Vinick regains his footing by taking on all questions at a press conference. Vinick's campaign manager Bruno Gianelli finds Santos' briefcase and stumbles upon evidence suggesting that Santos may have an illegitimate child.
- Electoral Map. The race has turned around, with Matt Santos finally taking the lead in terms of electoral votes due to finally gaining the lead in his home state of Texas while Arnold Vinick loses his lead in many states. As of this episode, Santos has the lead in 18 states for a total of 190 electoral votes, Vinick has the lead in 14 states for a total of 104 electoral votes, and 19 states with 244 electoral votes are up for grabs. Whoever gets California and its 55 electoral votes would be a lot closer to winning.
The map below shows Santos states in blue, Vinick states in red, and undecided states in white, and is based on the map shown behind Josh as he plans Santos' trip to California.
- Nuclear Power. There currently are 104 commercial nuclear generating units that are fully licensed for operation. These reactors are located in 31 states and produce about 20 percent of the electricity generated nationwide each year. California has two nuclear plants (San Onofre near San Diego and Diablo Canyon near Santa Barbara). The map below shows the 31 states with nuclear reactors in red (source: EIA). Illinois, considered a swing state in the West Wing election even before the San Andreo incident, has six nuclear power plants and has the most nuclear capacity of any state.
The map below shows net generation of electricity from nuclear power by state in October 2004, with darker red indicating greater net generation (source: EIA).
- Republican Support of Nuclear Power. Senator Arnold Vinick did support nuclear power in his debate with Rep. Matt Santos. His support of nuclear power is similar to that of President George W. Bush, who has pushed for the construction of more reactors, citing advances in safety and the need to develop alternate sources of energy.
"Nuclear power is another of America's most important sources of electricity. Of all our nation's energy sources, only nuclear power plants can generate massive amounts of electricity without emitting an ounce of air pollution or greenhouse gases. And thanks to the advances in science and technology, nuclear plants are far safer than ever before. Yet America has not ordered a nuclear plant since the 1970s," Bush said on August 8, 2005 upon signing energy policy legislation that he said would help restart construction of nuclear power plants (transcript on-line here). "With the practical steps in this bill, America is moving closer to a vital national goal. We will start building nuclear power plants again by the end of this decade."
- Illegitimate Children. If it turns out that Matt Santos did have an illegitimate child, he would not be the first such presidential candidate and perhaps not even the first president. President Grover Cleveland reportedly admitted paying child support to a woman who claimed he was the father of her child, though it was unclear whether he really was the father. There also have been allegations that Presidents Warren Harding and Thomas Jefferson fathered children.
Jefferson in particular is noteworthy because of the continuing controversy as to whether he fathered some or all of the children of Sally Hemings, a slave who worked at Jefferson's home on Monticello and accompanied his family to Paris for a few years in the late 1790s, and who had at least four surviving children.
These charges, first aired in 1802 as part of a political attack, gained some newfound weight and credibility in 1998 when DNA tests published in Nature magazine showed a link between the Hemings and Jefferson descendants, thus showing that an individual carrying the male Jefferson Y chromosome - though not necessarily Thomas Jefferson himself - fathered at least the last known child born to Sally Hemings. With that much shown but so much still left unanswered, scholars as well as Jefferson's accepted and alleged descendants have continued to turn to historical evidence to pinpoint which adult male Jefferson was in fact the father. For more on this, go here.
In addition, the late Senator Strom Thurmond, who ran for president in 1948 after defecting from the Democratic party, had an illegitimate child with his African-American servant, a fact acknowledged by Thurmond's representative after Thurmond's death in 2003. Thurmond took about 2.4 percent of the popular vote and 39 electoral votes in the 1948 election, which Harry Truman won.
As for Europe, French President Francois Mitterand, Belgian King Albert II, and King Albert II of Monaco have all admitted having illegitimate children in the past decade or so.
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West Wing: Santos discusses a lawsuit about intelligent design
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Daily Show: A 2004 study found that 21 percent of young people regularly get their campaign news from comedy shows like the Daily Show with Jon Stewart and Saturday Night Live. So, some footnotes.
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By Stephen Lee
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