Yitzchak Feinstein
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Governor Yitzchak "Yitzy" Feinstein | |
|---|---|
| File:Yitzchak Feinstein Governor pic.jpg Governor Feinstein, making a call at a campaign phone bank during his re-election in 2012. | |
| Governor of Arkania | |
| Assumed office January 4th, 2009 | |
| Preceded by | Adam Asimov |
| Senator, Arkanian Senate | |
| In office January 2nd, 2001 – January 3rd, 2009 | |
| Preceded by | Craig Moshe-Cohen |
| Succeeded by | Aaron Asimov |
| Constituency | District 26 |
| Partner, Fox, Zevulun, & Feinstein | |
| In office September 19th, 1997 – January 1st, 2001 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | January 26th, 1965 Netiyot, Arkania |
| Nationality | Belhavian |
| Political party | Conservative Party (1983 - 1991) Independent (1991 - 1992) Liberal Democratic Party (1992 - present) |
| Spouse | Dianne R. Feinstein |
| Residence(s) | Netiyot, Arkania |
| Alma mater | B.A., Political Science, Arkania Provincial University J.D., Imperial Provisa University School of Law |
| Profession | Politician, Lawyer |
Yitzchak Feinstein, J.D. (born January 26th, 1965) is the current Governor of Arkania and a 2016 presidential candidate. He is a member of the Liberal Democratic Party. He is a graduate of the Arkania Provincial University and the Imperial Provisa University School of Law. He is a noted "Conservative Democrat" of the blue province tradition of Liberal Democrats in Arkania, a usually Tory-voting bastion. He is a protégé of former Imperial Senator and conservative Lib Dem banker Joe Manton. His supporters within the Conservatives are termed "Manton-Feinstein Tories."
Early life and education
Yitzchak "Yitzy" Feinstein was born in early 1965 in Netiyot, Arkania, to Uzriel and Mical Feinstein, a doctor and housewife and part-time teacher, respectively. He was raised in the comfortable neighborhood of Yezriah, an inner suburb of Netiyot. He attended a Conservative movement-affiliated Jewish day school for most of his primary and secondary education, later attending Arkania Provincial University for college and Imperial Provisa University School of Law for graduate studies. He graduated from law school in 1990 at age 25.
Legal career
He practiced agricultural and small business law in Netiyot, first hanging out his own shingle and then agreeing to join the large local law firm of Fox and Zevulun, becoming Fox, Zevulun, & Feinstein in late 1997, with Feinstein being made a partner with the other two letterhead firm partners as part of the merger/acquisition of his solo practice.
2000 Provincial Senate campaign
By May 1999, Feinstein was engaged in a series of public service- and civic-minded activities extracurricularly from his legal practice, involving himself strongly in his local community and city social networks. With fellow conservative Lib Dem and banker Joe Manton gearing up for a run for the Imperial Senate and potentially being a strong top-of-the-ballot for the Liberal Democrats in the province, Feinstein was approached by local party leaders, and later Manton himself, gauging his interest for an open swing seat in the Arkanian provincial Senate in District 26 in the Netiyot suburbs that had flipped between the parties since the 1970s.
At that time, incumbent Tory Sen. Yosef Opler was retiring after three terms. After consulting with Dianne about the rigors of a campaign, she signed off and he decided to run. He put together a core campaign team, taking a second mortgage off his family's Netiyot home to raise quick funds for polls and hiring staffers.
He faced a five-person crowded Lib Dem primary, and used his professional legal and business contacts to hold fundraisers and give stump speeches at numerous district community events and meet-and-greets. By January 2000, he had raised $456,000 shekels and was running low-cost radio and print ads, while he took a leave of absence from his firm to campaign full time. He eked out a narrow plurality majority win with 29% in the crowded primary results in March 2000, but because of Arkania's election rules a candidate failing to win 50%+1 had to engage in a runoff election between the top two polling candidate.
Having run a relatively clean and amiable campaign, three of his former primary opponents endorsed his campaign within a week of the first primary results. A second primary election, the runoff, was scheduled for June. His opponent, running more to the left, focused on running up his base of liberals, working-income blue-collar workers, Reform Jews, and first-generation immigrants while Feinstein looked to activate more religious Conservative and Conservadox Jews, white-collar professionals, moderate and conservative Lib Dems, and middle- and higher-income families. In the June 2000 runoff, he edged out his liberal rival 53%-47%, becoming the party's Arkanian senate nominee.
He faced Tory Aaron Kostler, who himself had faced a runoff election in his party due to the favorability of this rare swing seat opportunity. A Netiyot Herald poll in August 2000 had them roughly equal, with Kostler's 44% to Feinstein's 41%. At this point, both campaigns "went negative", with over $100,000 shekels worth of negative ads and push polls being run between August and October. By late October, Feinstein had edged ahead in his internal polls to the mid-40s while Kostler lagged in the upper 30s. On November 7th, 2000, Feinstein won with 48.9% of the vote, to Kostler's 46.3%. Most of his 2.6% winning margin was attributed in the press to Joe Manton's winning 1.4% margin statewide, with post-election results showing Manton running moderately strong in District 26, which boosted Lib Dem voter turnoff and aided Feinstein's down-ballot race.
Provincial Senator
Governor
2008 and 2012 Gubernatorial campaigns
2016 Presidential campaign
Announcement
Feinstein announced his 2016 presidential candidacy on December 23rd, 2014 in Netiyot, Arkania, after the Liberal Democrats had strong gains in that year's midterm elections. His top staffers leaked to the press that the governor intended to lock up mainstream establishment support within the party's major donor and elected official classes and take the "oxygen out of the room" for several other presidential candidates who were ramping up efforts in the prelude to their own public announcements later in the spring.
An excerpt of his campaign announcement:
"My friends and fellow citizens, our country faces a series of hard challenges ahead. We have leadership in Provisa that are tone-deaf to the real obstacles in our Empire's path that lie ahead in the 21st century...We have marvelous and astounding developments in our economy and workforce, but while those changes and benefits are real and advantageous to our society, they also come with disruptive losses among some sectors of our people who need the most help in achieving the dream and opportunity of a prosperous and successful Belhavia.
My friends, we need new, fresh leadership in Provisa that will reckon with and successfully lead our august nation on the biggest challenges of our time! We need folks who understand Middle Belhavia values, not just social elites' values. We need effective and strong leadership to our friends and foes alike overseas, rather than being passive and indecisive to tyranny, oppression, and injustice across the world. We need renewed national focus here at home to strengthen protections on our way of life and traditions and to fight for Belhavian families, businesses, and workers!
[...]
I, Yitzchak Feinstein, believe I can provide that necessary leadership. With your votes, support, and contributions, we can win the Presidential Palace and restore effective, true Belhavian leadership to our nation's decadent and out-of-touch political class. Thank you, and G-d bless you all and our exceptional nation."
He was immediately endorsed by former Senator and banker Joe Manton and his fellow "New Arkanian Lib Dems" from his home province. Manton was made the national campaign co-chairman.
Themes and narratives
Feinstein is running to the far to the right of the mainstream of his party, banking on several perceived Tory weaknesses that he can exploit and win the election like his political inspiration, former President Garret Holleran, in a year that seemingly favors retention of the Presidential Palace by the Conservatives.
He is running to "out-Tory the Tories", one campaign strategist explained in March 2015. His is hawkish on foreign policy, hitting sitting incumbent President Eli Goldman as insufficiently strong on national security and foreign policy on issues such as Rodarion, its human rights record, the RCO, and crises such as the Bogorian civil war and nearby Estovnian regional aggression.
He is running in part on a hopeful, optimistic future- and youth-oriented message extolling the good outcomes and benefits of the so-called "Information Age", digital media, and emerging technological innovations.
He is an outspoken social conservative and Neo-White, in a party whose platform on social issues veers moderate-to-center-left and is largely indifferent-to-hostile to the White Terror laws. On fiscal issues, he is supportive of fiscal conservatism, but veers left on free trade, supporting mildly higher tariffs and the imposition of environmental and labor standards in trade agreements between Belhavia and other nations.
He defends himself from attack from other Liberal Democratic candidates and figures by citing his electability and ability to "understand and articulate Middle Belhavia values." He retorted to a question on his positions vis-à-vis his party's mainstream at a Liberal Democratic presidential primary debate in December 2015 by replying, "[o]nly a conservative Liberal Democrat can win," sparking a chorus of outrage and dissent from the other candidates on the stage, leading to a 6-minute exchange on the statements between Feinstein and several of his primary opponents.
Primary
Campaign
Endorsements
- Former Imperial Senator Joe Manton (LD/ID-Arkania)
- Arkanian provincial Senator Aaron Asimov (LD-District 26)
- Former Governor Adam Asimov (LD-Arkania)
- Musician Marten Sternberg
Debates
Fundraising totals
Political views
Family and personal life
Feinstein is married to Dianne R. Feinstein (née Levine) since June 1991, celebrating over 24 years of marriage. He has two children, Uzriel Asher (b. 1993) and Shelley (b. 1995). His son is finishing an engineering major at Arkania Provincial University and his daughter is in the middle of a joint B.A./M.A. in early childhood education at Imperial Provisa University in Provisa.