Tokoga

=Early Life= The open-access public records system on Dac is more more than sufficent to paint a detailed picture of the Senator's early and formative years. His birth occured roughly 40 years before the Battle of Yavin, which would later give him a unique experience in life, under the final years of the failing Old Republic, the Imperial Period, and the developmental years of the New Republic.

His father was a scholar of classical literature, and his mother was a contemporary writer and former student of Tokoga's father. Solidly in the upper middle class of Mon Calamari society, Tokoga didn't want for much. The free-spirited education system of the Mon Calamari proved to be the perfect environment for him to flex his developing philosophical muscles fairly well removed from the string of events that would later be known as the seeds that led to the eventual downfall of the Old Republic.

His formative years occured under the failing years of the Old Republic, while its institutions, including its educational systems, were still functioning on all of its member planets.

Proving himself even at a young age in debates, he wrote a number of political speeches on various Dac-specific issues for which he won a number of awards, despite the regular pushing of his parents in the direction of more purely literary interests. His continued education in philosophy and argument served him well as his interests began learning toward political science and government.

While he was young, he participated in a number of youth civil service, including one where children are trained to perform some of the less complicated tasks onn the ever-present, ever-operational orbital construction platforms in the space around Dac.

While never a brilliant star of the meritocratic, achievement-oriented academic system that produces the educated among Mon Calamari society, he was nonetheless still able to win attention from other scholars with his research; to date, his papers on argument forms are regularly cited in the literature of the day.

His later academic years were punctuated by the myriad internships that one would expect of an aspiring civil servant, compared to the lengthy esoteric publications that would accompany a future academic.

=The Council of Dac= After his education, working as an aid for one of the Councilors seated in the Council of Dac representing his home district He quickly adapted to the red tape of bureaucracy and gained a reputation as the kind of person who could be counted on to get around them. The end of his employer's first term in office two years later saw him promoted to the councillor's chief assistant.

Although Councilor Rekara lost the following re-election campaign, Tokoga was offered the same position with the former financial consultant that took his place. It didn't take long for him to realize that he was working under someone who wasn't above using her position for her own gain. She funneled contracts to carefully hidden subsidiary companies of her own, neglecting other, more qualified entities.

When the substandard construction of one of the contracts, designed to a hospital for the more impoverished of the Quarren population in the area collapsed and caused the death of seventeen individuals, Tokoga went to both the press and the Council's ethical board. A highly publicized and charged series of events followed, ending with the Councilor's suspension from the body. An emergency election was held, and Tokoga decided to campaign, capitalizing on the reputation he had at the time. It turned out to have been an excellent decision, as he won his first election on the Council by a larger margin in the district than had happened happened in the previous twenty years.

As a freshman councilor, Tokoga emphasized transparency in process and proceedings, beitwng nominated onto the exact same ethical board that had pushed for the disenfranchisement of his predecessor. The same skills that he had developed as an aide navigating the various filing and record-keeping requirements gave him an edge and a reputation for his success in punishing the few, yet highly-publicized cases that came before him while he was seated on the board.

While his activities on the Ethics Board made him something of a figure of reform on the council, the remainder of his service on the Council was just as punctuated and colorful. His appointment to the Senate Liason Committee, a common career path for those who plan on later vying for the Senate chair, gave him the interaction with the Senate and its activities that he would later need to secure his own bid for the position.

Tokoga began connecting more and more with the political world outside of the Council, garnering the acquaintances and connections that make a politician effective: the representatives of others, both legitimate and illegitimate businessmen, and an assortment of random individuals with a knack for finding information that others wouldn't like to have found.

=Election to the Senate=

The opportunity for Tokoga to occupy Dac's seat on the Senate came with the retirement of the previous world of political life, by which time he had spent 7 years on the Council. As was traditionally done in that event, the Council of Dac prepared its list of potential replacements based on its own experience and the input of the people. Tokoga was placed on the list at the begenning, as were a few other veteran members of the Council, a diplomat, and one of Mon Calamari's regional governors. The wide popular appeal that Tokoga had cultivated over the years came to fruition, and when the Council conducted its final vote on the matter, he held the majority by no small amount, and was subsequently elevated to become the next Senator of Mon Calamari.