Presidential question
If Jimmy Smits is destined to become the next U.S. president, he’s not dressing the part.
Wearing a track suit, athletic shoes and slouchy hat pulled low over his forehead, he looks nothing like a candidate for the nation’s highest office.
Is he trying to deflect speculation about whether Matt Santos, his character on “The West Wing,” wins the Democratic presidential nomination in tonight’s season finale?
“Bet on the ‘M*A*S*H’ guy; that’s what I say,” he replies.
Smits is talking about former “M*A*S*H” star Alan Alda, who plays Republican presidential contender Arnold Vinick.
There’s no way he’s giving away next year’s outcome, when viewers will learn who follows two-term President Josiah “Jeb” Bartlet (Martin Sheen) in the Oval Office.
Smits is equally cagey about whether Santos will be the Democrat who faces Vinick in the show’s seventh season. The election will be in an episode airing in late fall, with the inauguration in early 2006.
Last week, Santos rejected the vice presidential spot on a ticket headed by current Vice President Russell (Gary Cole), deciding he couldn’t play second fiddle to the second-rate veep.
A Santos victory would put the fictional world ahead of the real one in giving a Hispanic a chance for the presidency.
“It counts for a lot,” Smits says, especially among young people who can be inspired to aim “for something better.”
A win by Vinick, a moderate U.S. senator from California, would open a new storytelling horizon for the show – and require changes in the White House staff that includes series stars John Spencer, Allison Janney, Bradley Whitford and Richard Schiff.
But the party switch would put the show created by Aaron Sorkin in tune with political reality for the first time in five years. When “The West Wing” debuted in September 1999, Democrat Bill Clinton was in office; since 2001, Republican George W. Bush has been in power.
Vinick is far from a Bush mirror image, however. This season, he’s been portrayed as a man who questions his own faith and refuses to allow religious fervor, or lack thereof, to be a campaign issue.
He’s also an abortion rights supporter, although he tried and failed to draw an anti-abortion candidate onto the ticket as vice president.
John Wells, the show’s executive producer, acknowledges a GOP candidate of Vinick’s stripe would have trouble surviving to a general election. He blames the primary system for encouraging candidates in both parties to embrace an extremism antithetical to most Americans.
This year, as the series has shifted between the campaigns and White House crises, the political machinations have provided a new energy.
“Any time you find a story area you haven’t done before, it’s very exciting. That’s really the challenge in a long-running series,” Wells says.
The hard-fought campaign brought a ratings bounce but, as in the past, the numbers dipped when the Fox hit “American Idol” returned. For the season, “The West Wing’ is averaging 11.2 million weekly viewers; at its peak, it drew 17.2 million.
NBC renewed the show for next season, noting it draws one of television’s most affluent audiences for sponsors.
Television veteran Smits (“L.A. Law,” “NYPD Blue”) – who is contracted to remain with “The West Wing” through next season, as is Alda – says he’ll be happy whether his character wins or not.
During a recent visit to a doctor’s office, Smits was confronted by a man who recognized him from “The West Wing” and who “espoused the whole Republican thing to me.”
“I just say the lines, man,” he replied.