Bethany Snow

Early Life
Bethany Snow was born on Handooine in 7 BBY to Jonathan and Corinne Snow. Her father Jonathan ran Snow Industries, a company with diversified holdings around the planet, ranging from Phellem Medical Supplies to Gwynhes Manufacturing. Her mother was the daughter of a member of the Imperial governor's staff during the times of the Clone Wars. Some speculate their marriage was purely a pragmatic business decision, yet even with the Imperial government and with it the influence of her father, the two have remained together. They are both known for being rather private people, and rarely leave the Snow Industries' owned Neige Islands, both the base of operations for the company and an exclusive resort for some of the sector's most wealthy and powerful.

Needless to say, their only daughter also rarely left the islands as well, and found herself frequently rubbing shoulders with the children of other powerful people throughout her childhood. Growing up in such opulent surroundings has made Bethany something of hedonist, yet at the same time made her acutely aware of power struggles which seemed to dominate the social climate of this upper strata. After finishing high school, she enrolled at the University of Handooine - Jelwick and studied political science. There she was exposed to a great many plights of the common people and met many more common folks. Most of her friends at school were commoners, and they exposed her to the reality of life for most people on Handooine. She quickly became involved in the Liberty Party once on campus, and rose through its grassroots ranks aided by both her family name and its connections, as well as some social guile learned during her childhood.

Rise of the Politician
Once she graduated, her father offered her a position within the family company, which she turned down. Instead, she became a full-time staffer for the lead council member of the Liberty Party. From there, she spring-boarded to become a junior councilor representing the Niege Islands and the Maghony Coast. From there, aided by her reputation at the University and her family connections, she won a hard-fought campaign against the incumbent senator to the New Republic, Steven Studesky. She almost loss the campaign, but more people rallied to her cause after Studesky was found to not only be cheating on his wife, but also massively indebt to a loan shark. Studesky's fate has influenced Bethany to keep many of her natural impulses in check, though there still some allegations by fringe critics that she's carrying on a romance with her chief aide. Neither Snow or her aide have commented on it.

Senator of the New Republic
Snow inherited Studesky's spot on the Science and Technology Council, where she maintains a relatively low profile to the public. To the actual council itself, Snow is known as an innovator, often trying to come up with solutions to various problems by mating democratic values to technology. Few of them have actually been implemented, but they have influenced several decisions made by the Council. To the senate at large, she has up until recently been a fairly quiet senator politically, known to take pains to not take hard stances on nearly any issue. She has attempted to come up with compromises for opposing parties, which has given some political commentators to think of her as being unusually conflict-avoident and even somewhat passive. Behind the scenes, she works with several other independent senators who share broadly similar philosophies. Like the Foundation, they tend to be fiscally conservative and socially moderate, but they espouse the use of more diplomacy and subterfuge to solve problems rather than a strong military. They tend to prefer to devote their energy to building up a strong economy internally, and tend to be distrustful of the normal avenues of state power, including not only the New Republic, but often the political units which form the Senate, especially the Foundation Party itself.