Bergen Vinny
 | |
| Era | The Nineties |
|---|---|
| Age | 30-42 |
| Home | Bergen County, NJ |
| Demographic | suburban white ethnic, sales, family man |
| Lean | Swing voter |
| Race | white |
| Successor | NASCAR Doug |
Vinny is a suburban sales manager in his thirties, with a mortgage, two children and no strong political attachments. He decides late, based on prices, interest rates and whether the president seems steady, and has voted for both parties in different elections.
Who they stand for
Vinny stands for the suburban white ethnic voters of the Northeast, third-generation Italian or Irish Americans with two incomes in the household, a commute into the city, and a property tax bill that dominates conversation at the kitchen table. New Jersey voters gave the state to George H. W. Bush in 1988 and to Bill Clinton in 1992 and 1996. They voted out Governor Jim Florio in 1993 after he raised taxes, and elected Christine Todd Whitman on a promise to cut the state income tax by 30 per cent. New Jersey's property taxes are among the highest in the country, and its swing suburbs, particularly Bergen County, decide the state's elections. Vinny has no fixed ideology. He wants a low mortgage rate and a secure job, and the economic boom of the 1990s delivers both, which is why voters like him lean toward Clinton. His successor, NASCAR Doug, supports George W. Bush and the Iraq War for several years after the September 11 attacks. By 2019, his successor Grill Dad Greg votes against whichever party seems more extreme. Vinny represents the baseline political position that both later personas return to.
Playing to them
Vinny is won by economic conditions rather than by argument. Low interest rates, low unemployment, steady petrol prices and a tax bill that does not rise are the whole of what he wants, and a president who can point to a balanced budget and a falling mortgage rate wins his support. He is lost by anything that makes the month more expensive, and he blames whoever holds office at the time. He has no interest in social issues and is put off by a president who spends time discussing them; a campaign focused on abortion or gun control wastes his attention.
Vinny is the cheapest swing voter in the cast to keep. He comes into conflict with Country Club Chip and Dot-Com Drew only if closing the budget deficit means raising his taxes, and with Castro Marty and Madison Steph only if the president spends the year focused on their concerns instead of the economy. A president who loses Vinny's support has lost the argument about the economy generally, and Levittown Maureen and Columbus Sherry tend to leave alongside him.
Where they live
The five states where Bergen Vinny makes up the largest share of the electorate in the nineties:
- New Jersey
- Connecticut
- Rhode Island
- Massachusetts
- Pennsylvania
Lineage
Bergen Vinny → NASCAR Doug → Grill Dad Greg
The suburban father without an ideology, the same in every decade. He votes on the property tax, his health premium, interest rates and whether the president seems steady, and the only thing that changes is which cost is rising: petrol in 1995, the premium in 2006, inflation in 2019. The one exception is Doug, who supported Bush and the Iraq war after 9/11 for about three years. Greg has no such cause and votes for whichever party seems less extreme.