Ruben Blair

**Ruben Blair** was a Coalition for the Republic politician who served as the 2nd National Premier of Orion from 6 to 11, and then as the first Leader of the Opposition from 21 to 25.

Blair served in the Orion House of Executives during the Revolutionary War and was one of the main drafters of the Second Constitution. In the country's first election for National Premier in 5 A.R., Blair unsuccessfully ran for the Coalition's nomination, but lost to Onassis Ruddy. She was instead tapped to run for a seat in the National Senate from Heller Province, which she easily won.

While in the Senate, Blair became the *de facto* leader of the Coalition's caucus, and achieved a reputation as a pragmatic negotiator as Premier Hughes Stone Wheeler sought to implement her agenda. As the party's effective leader on the national stage, she was convinced to run for the party's nomination for National Premier once again in 10 A.R., which she won easily against Ruddy and a handful of other candidates.

In the general election, Blair was originally set to face Deputy National Premier Callis Quinwood as her only main opponent. However, left-wing dissent in the Rally for Orion over social issues led to the creation of the Social Movement, and the leading provocateur, Landrieu Seuele, emerged as the Movement's nominee. Then, to Blair's surprise, centrist opposition to the Coalition for the Republic led to the creation of the centre-right National Alliance. Marston Hattaway, who unsuccessfully ran in the Coalition's convention five years earlier, was the leader of the effort and won the Alliance's nomination. In an unpredictable, four-way election, Blair tried to rise above her rivals' infighting, but quickly found herself slipping behind Quinwood's competent campaign. As the campaign dragged on, Quinwood was viewed as the likeliest winner until the only agreed-upon debate took place. In the debate, Seuele proved herself charismatic, charming, and persuasive, while Quinwood sounded dull and uninspiring. In polls taken after the debate, Seuele surged as Quinwood collapsed, and Blair gained slightly at Hattaway's expense, emerging with a wide lead. The Rally attempted to prevent its looming defeat by bringing Stone Wheeler into the election as an enthusiastic campaigner for her Deputy, which managed to turn the tide a bit. But by Election Day, Blair was sitting on a slim but comfortable lead. After the ballots were tallied, Blair indeed won, 36-29, over Quinwood, with Seuele hitting 22% and Hattaway winning only 10%. Similar splits across the country led to the Coalition winning a narrow majority in the National Senate.

In her premiership, Blair proved popular and launched a set of reforms, most notably, setting the stage for the end of the Second Constitution. Against the fierce opposition of the Rally, the Coalition pushed for a 20 A.R. convention in Mount Heller to decide on a permanent, third constitution. Blair also pushed to solidify the country's national security, dramatically redirecting domestic spending to increase the budget of the intelligence services and increasing the size of the armed forces. She largely pursued the Stone Wheeler administration's policy of supporting the Bossieux government in Cheissia, but demanded that the Cheissian military start to become self-sufficient.

As the 15 A.R. election approached, Blair was term-limited, and endorsed her Deputy, Brannon Mooney. By this point, Blair's popularity had dipped, the Rally for Orion and the Social Movement had decided to merge for the election, and the Coalition's standing had significantly deteriorated. Charron Shanor, Stone Wheeler's National Secretary of the Treasury, emerged as the Rally/Movement nominee, and skated to an easy victory over Mooney in the general election.

After Blair's term ended, she began preparing for her anticipated involvement at the Mount Heller Convention in 20, and was indeed elected as a delegate. At the Convention, Blair was initially elected Chair, but declined the role to instead play a greater role in lower-level negotiations. She brokered an agreement between Carmody Noah and Shanor to create a four-branch parliamentary democracy: the National Minister, the National Assembly, the National Court, and the Armed Forces of Orion.

Fresh off her widely publicized role at the Convention, Blair ran for leadership of the Coalition in advance of the 20 A.R. election. Opinion polls at the time showed that Blair's popularity had rebounded, and the Coalition was a moderate favorite to win the election. But the Rally successfully convinced Hughes Stone Wheeler to run for its leadership, and the Coalition's lead evaporated. Stone Wheeler ran a cautious, measured campaign, and easily won a wide majority over the Coalition.

Blair accepted the Coalition's election as Leader of the Opposition, and once again served as her party's legislative leader opposite Hughes Stone Wheeler. This time, Blair proved less effective at the task, and Stone Wheeler's popularity exploded. Blair, fearful that her reflexive opposition to the Rally's popular proposals would kill the party's chances in the future, only weakly whipped her members against the government. In the 23 A.R. elections, this strategy proved irrelevant, and the party lost ground. Blair switched tactics and launched a more aggressive opposition against Stone Wheeler, but, faced with a smaller caucus, was even less effective. Armed with burgeoning popularity, Stone Wheeler called early elections for 25 A.R.. Blair began preparing the party's response, but struggled to regain footing in polls. The party's members grew irritated with Blair's leadership, and Shadow Justice Minister Lockhart Riley, a hard-line conservative with nationalist tendencies, took advantage of the irritation and called a leadership spill. Faced with looming defeat, Blair bowed out of contention, and Lockhart narrowly defeated Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister Durant Gordon for the spot.

After her defeat, Blair was pressured by Riley to not run for re-election, but she rebuffed the pressure and successfully won her seat again. Without a portfolio, Blair moved to the backbenches and was allegedly seen by the Stone Wheeler government as a swing vote for its proposals. Though Riley gained seats for the Coalition in 25, the party's narrow defeat in 28 A.R. to Charron Shanor aggrieved the party's members again, and a dissident member called a leadership spill. Blair considered running for leadership again, but instead opted to support Durant Gordon, who ended up handily defeating Riley. At this point, Blair had grown old and opted to retire, declining to run for re-election in 31 A.R..