What happens to Leo

[dianeduane]

A little more about the details of what's going to happen with The West Wing:

Spencer's absence will be explained by the death of his character -- a plot development that sent West Wing writers scurrying to their constitutional law textbooks. Spencer's character McGarry was Santos' vice presidential running mate, and the writers had to figure out what happens when a vice presidential candidate dies. The answer is, nobody's quite sure.

''There's certainly no constitutional provision with how to deal with the death of a vice presidential candidate during the electoral cycle,'' said Wells.

The closest thing they could find was the 1972 election, when Thomas Eagleton, the Democratic vice presidential candidate, was driven off the ticket of George McGovern by disclosures that he'd undergone electroshock therapy. In that case, several months before Election Day, the Democratic National Committee chose a replacement.

But in a case so close to the election that ballots can't be reprinted, Wells said, the politicians that West Wing writers consulted said the candidate would probably be wise to wait until after the vote to name a replacement, then ask Congress to confirm him under the provisions of the 25th Amendment, which governs presidential succession.

Makes perfect sense. It's still going to be a sad set of events both in the fictional sense and the real-world one: John Spencer was such a tremendous actor... Also interesting to hear that they actually considered ending WW early when he died.

Comments

[dewline.livejournal.com]

I'm glad they didn't take that route of wrapping early when they got the word, as tempting as I'm sure the notion of it was for Wells and crew. I'm also glad they didn't succumb to the pressure from some quarters to simply write around Spencer's death as if Leo were still there. It wouldn't have been right.