Arnold Vinick is a fictional character on the television series The West Wing played by Alan Alda.

A Republican senator from California and Republican presidential nominee, he is narrowly defeated by Democrat Matt Santos in the 2006 presidential election, with Vinick winning the popular vote but Santos winning the electoral college.

He is a social moderate and fiscal conservative with a maverick streak and a direct manner whose politics are loosely based on those of former Arizona senator Barry Goldwater. Vinick is pro-choice. He is, however, opposed to partial birth abortion and in favor of parental consent laws. He is also in favor of immigration reform and is reluctant to use gay marriage as a campaign issue. Vinick (like Goldwater) opposes the Religious Right's influence in the Republican Party, and wants to return to more traditional, limited government conservatism. Vinick has also been described as a deficit hawk, supporting "two-for-one" tax and spending cuts, and he also favors free trade agreements, school vouchers and tort reform, while opposing ethanol subsidies in the Midwest as corporate welfare. He is also conservative on law and order issues, such as gun control, border security and the death penalty. Vinick is mixed on foreign policy, as he believes in a strong national defense and supports tough action against Iran, but was also described as an ally of Democratic President Josiah Bartlet on foreign policy issues and potentially an advocate of loosening the embargo on Cuba. It is stated that in his 2006 campaign, Vinick has strong support from corporate conservatives, neoconservatives, libertarians, Independents and "Bruno Gianelli" moderate Democrats, but that his support is weak among social and religious conservatives (7.06).

Matthew Vincente "Matt" Santos is a fictional character on the American television show The West Wing, played by Jimmy Smits. His initial appearance is as a Democratic U.S. Representative from Houston, Texas. According to West Wing writer and producer Eli Attie, Santos was partly based on the then Illinois State Senator (and later U.S. Senator and President) Barack Obama.

Santos, a Catholic, was born at St. Joseph's Hospital in Houston, Texas. He was born in either 1963 (in 2005, Josh says Santos is 42) or in 1961 (in 2006, Santos himself says he is 45). One of seven children born to Luis and Marita Santos, he grew up in the Second Ward — the oldest Mexican-American neighborhood in Houston and home to six generations of the Santos family. Luis Santos was a barber, while Marita Santos was a domestic servant.

He has been married to Helen Santos (played by Teri Polo) for fifteen years, and they have two young children, Peter and Miranda, who are eleven and five, respectively, at the time of their father's inauguration.

Alfred Emanuel "Al" Smith (December 30, 1873 – October 4, 1944) was an American statesman who was elected the 42nd Governor of New York three times, and was the Democratic U.S. presidential candidate in 1928. He was the foremost urban leader of the efficiency-oriented Progressive Movement, and was noted for achieving a wide range of reforms as governor in the 1920s. He was also linked to the notorious Tammany Hall machine that controlled Manhattan politics; he was a strong opponent of prohibition.

As a committed "wet" (anti-Prohibition candidate), he attracted millions of voters of all backgrounds, particularly those concerned about the corruption and lawlessness brought about by the Eighteenth Amendment. However he was unpopular among certain segments, including Southern Baptists and German Lutherans, who believed the Catholic Church and the Pope would dictate his policies. Most importantly, this was a time of national prosperity under a Republican Presidency, and Smith lost in a landslide to Republican Herbert Hoover. Smith attempted the 1932 nomination, but was defeated by his former ally and successor as New York Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt. Smith entered business in New York City, and became an increasingly vocal opponent of Roosevelt's New Deal.

Leo Thomas McGarry is a fictional character played by John Spencer on the television serial drama The West Wing. The role earned Spencer the 2002 Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. McGarry's character, the former United States Secretary of Labor, begins the series as the White House Chief of Staff. He is President Josiah Bartlet's best friend and a father figure to the Senior Staff, particularly Deputy Chief of Staff Josh Lyman and Deputy Communications Director Sam Seaborn.

In crafting the character of Leo McGarry, series creator Aaron Sorkin says he envisioned John Spencer in the part but had not imagined he would be available. Although he had recently decided he did not want to do another TV drama series due to the long hours, Spencer was so impressed by the pilot script that he took the part. Like the character, Spencer was a recovering alcoholic, and said he found he could relate to McGarry because "Leo's in recovery, too."

In an earlier draft of the pilot script, dated February 6, 1998, McGarry is called "Leo Jacobi" and is described as being aged 55 and "professorial".

Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo (born January 28, 1936), better known as Alan Alda, is an American actor, director, screenwriter, and author. A six-time Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award winner, he is best known for his role as Hawkeye Pierce in the TV series M*A*S*H. He is currently a Visiting Professor at the State University of New York at Stony Brook School of Journalism and a member of the advisory board of The Center for Communicating Science.

In 1996, Alda was ranked #41 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time.

Alda was born Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo in The Bronx, New York City. His father, Robert Alda (born Alphonso Giuseppe Giovanni Roberto D'Abruzzo), was an actor and singer, and his mother, Joan Browne, was a former showgirl. His father was of Italian descent and his mother was of Irish ancestry. His adopted surname, "Alda," is a portmanteau of ALphonso and D'Abruzzo. When Alda was seven years old, he contracted Poliomyelitis. To combat the disease, his parents administered a painful treatment regimen developed by Sister Elizabeth Kenny that consisted of applying hot woolen blankets to his limbs and stretching his muscles. Alda attended Archbishop Stepinac High School in White Plains, New York. In 1956, he received his Bachelor of Science degree in English from Fordham College of Fordham University in the Bronx, where he was a student staff member of its FM radio station, WFUV. Alda's half-brother, Antony Alda, was born the same year and would also become an actor.