Plot

As Super Tuesday

Super Tuesday

In the United States, Super Tuesday, in general, refers to the Tuesday in February or March of a presidential election year when the greatest number of states hold primary elections to select delegates to national conventions at which each party's presidential candidates are officially nominated...

 approaches, the three Democratic nominees battle it out to win California as the state legislature passes a controversial anti-immigrant bill. The Latino voters headed by Eddie Garcia from La Palabra are expecting Santos to condemn the bill that will ban illegal immigrants from carrying a driver's license. But Santos refuses to be drawn in: he wants education and health care as his key issues, and he worries that he will be racially pigeonholed if he speaks out on Latino issues. However, financially, he's in trouble, and is considering a remortgage on his house to carry on, at least until Texas. Josh feels terrible about this development.

Donna senses all is not well in the Hoynes camp and finds out that his staff are not leaving New York, and insists Russell's campaign move to California instead of remaining in New York. Santos has been there for three days trying to make headway on the important issues. Will appoints Donna as the spokesperson for the Russell campaign. He does this by thrusting a statement into her hands and telling her to read it to the rapidly approaching herd of press. Initially fazed, she very quickly gets into her stride.

Sure enough, Hoynes becomes engulfed in another sex scandal. Santos and his team can't believe they could definitely come in second now that Hoynes is out.
Russell wants the Governor of California to endorse his campaign, but now the Hoynes scandal has erupted he's not endorsing anyone. However Santos comes up with a move that vetoes the controversial bill, without him having to say a word condemning it. The press are full of questions for the Governor who gave Santos the pen he signed the veto with, but he tells them "Ask Matt Santos about his health care plan". It's as good as an endorsement.

Amazingly, Santos wins the California primary.

Trivia

The Opening Scene where a member of the press sends a message to Josh by writing on a piece of fruit is identical to Richard North Patterson's novel, No Safe Place. It is also – perhaps unknowingly – similar to the 1984 election, when those on Air Force One celebrated the last day of the campaign by rolling oranges down the aisle.

The bill presented in this episode seeks to require proof of residency in order to obtain a CA driver's license. In real life, this has been the law in CA since January 1994, because of SB 976. State Senator Gil Cedillo

Gil Cedillo

Gilbert Anthony Cedillo is a politician and a member of the Democratic Party. He is currently serving in the California State Assembly....

, among others, has been trying to pass the opposite of the bill described in the episode – a bill seeking to remove the requirement of proof of residency.

External links

• The West Wing Episode Guide