Jeff Arnoth
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His Excellency President Jeff Arnoth | |
|---|---|
| File:Jeff Arnoth post presidency 2015 pic.jpg Former President Arnoth testifying in front of the Imperial Senate in favor of tax reform legislation, in September 2015. | |
| President of Belhavia | |
| In office January 21st, 2005 – January 21st, 2009 | |
| Preceded by | Garrett Holleran |
| Succeeded by | Eli Goldman |
| Governor of Rustonia | |
| In office January 1st, 1993 – January 19th, 2005 | |
| Preceded by | Cole Wasserman |
| Succeeded by | Joshua Kubinsky |
| Attorney-General of Rustonia | |
| In office January 1st, 1985 – January 1st, 1993 | |
| Preceded by | Abigail Devorahson |
| Succeeded by | Avraham Steinstalz |
| Personal details | |
| Born | November 4th, 1945 Kiryas Jonah, Rustonia |
| Nationality | Belhavian |
| Political party | Conservative Party |
| Spouse | Deborah H. Arnoth |
| Residence(s) | Ruston, Rustonia |
| Alma mater | B.A., Philosophy, Rustonia University J.D., Imperial Provisa University School of Law |
| Profession | Politician, Lawyer |
Jeff W. Arnoth, J.D. (born November 4th, 1945) is a former President of Belhavia and the former Governor from the Rustonia province. He is a member of the Conservative Party. He is a graduate of the prestigious Imperial Provisa University School of Law.
He had a low-key but successful transactional legal career as a lawyer with philosophical training from 1970 until the early 1980s, when he became politically-active under the Settas Revolution. With anticipations high that 1984 would be a banner election year for the Tories under President Julian Settas, Arnoth was recruited to run for provincial Attorney-General in his home-province of Rustonia by the local Conservative party against four-term incumbent Liberal Democrat Abigail Devorahson, one of the highest-elected female politicians of that time. He won in a landslide, 58%-41%.
After serving two largely-uneventful terms as attorney-general, he ran for governor of Rustonia in 1992. Although 1992 would be a strong Liberal Democratic wave election, due to his uncontroversial and popular tenure as the province's top attorney and judicial watchdog, he narrowly eked out a 51%-48% win. His three terms were characterized as centrist and mild-mannered, with modest adjustments to the provincial government's fiscal policies leading to continuous, 2-3% growth between 1995 and 2003.
With President Garrett Holleran term-limited in 2004, Arnoth competed in the large Tory primary and won by outmaneuvering several conservative candidates, whose fractured vote-shares allowed the Governor to win a minority plurality of primary provinces and delegates and capture the presidential nomination. With Holleran's lagging unpopularity and a sluggish Empire-wide economy, Arnoth won easily by over 10% against his Liberal Democratic and Libertarian opponents.
The Arnoth presidency has been notable for its unremarkable and malaise-like political climate. Arnoth, famous for his centrist political instincts and indecisive temperament, largely angered his Tory base and right-wing by seeking bipartisan legislation with opposition Liberal Democrats, despite the unprecedented schism within Lib Dem Senate ranks that favored the Tories.
On foreign policy, Arnoth is remembered chiefly for his initiation of the so-called "Anti-Communist Project" and his refusal to engage in the Pivot to the East, a policy later adopted by his successor, Eli Goldman. Under his presidency, he distanced and withdrew some Belhavian military deployments to the CDI and conducted efforts to use global bodies against Rodarion and other PECA states for their human rights records. These approaches were praised by moderates and diplomats but panned by defense hawks in both parties as weak and indecisive.
When the Recession of 2006 hit and the Belhavian economy slowed, Arnoth was blamed by both right and left as "inept" and "tepid" in his slow and befuddled reaction to the crisis and for proposing policy changes to ameliorate the economic downturn. By early 2007, his approval, which had hovered generally between 46%-54% for most of his term in office, nose-dived until it ranged between 26%-31% when he left office in January 2009.
A notable part of his legacy was his appointment of Mordecai Podhoretz, a pointedly judicial moderate, onto the Imperial Supreme Court in his first year in office. The choice was met with widespread dissatisfaction among the Tory right, and Podhoretz's appointment was confirmed by a narrow 38-32 vote, with many of Arnoth's fellow Conservatives crossing over to vote against him with the Lib Dems.
In late 2007, he announced his retirement at the end of his first term and declined to seek a second term, hoping to let another, more popular politician within his party try to hold onto the presidency despite his low approval ratings. Public opinion polls and historians have ranked Arnoth as a "middling" and "subpar" president, with few important accomplishments. His unpopularity at the end of his term sparked one of the closest presidential elections in the post-Galarian era.
In his post-presidency, he has largely retired from public life. He did, however, write a memoir called All the Days of My Life: To Be A Public Servant, and has lent his name to several charity and humanitarian causes in the intervening years.