A little bit of Mr. Nice Guy.

 Baxter had realised it a long time ago in the desert and this knowledge was going to serve him now, all these years later.

Lots of people are stupid.

VOTE JEREMIAH BAXTER
FOR COUNCIL
SETTENTRIONALE WARD

All you needed to get onto your local council was a nice picture and a blurb in a little book that almost nobody read.

"Jeremiah Baxter has ancestry from the Middle East and experience doing God's work. He has a lot of experience in leadership and possesses a quick way of problem solving. This is certainly a man who can give you what you want and, for some people, what they may need. Jeremiah is a team player whilst on his way to the top of any organisation. A vote for Jeremiah is a vote for the sword of quick progress."

Jeremiah was in with 8,632 votes. His very long briefcase made him stand out as he strode around the council offices.

At council meetings his sentences were brief and there was an obvious feeling among most councilors, even the mayor, that this was not a guy to mess with. There was another councilor who went by the name of Evan Anhell who was developing a reputation as not the easiest guy to get on with. Some councilors could feel some sort of tie between Evan and Jeremiah. It was an odd thing, after all, that Jeremiah and Evan had both managed to collect 8,632 votes in the same election.

Evan usually left his hoodie top over his head.
This look didn't seem to go down well with 
other councilors but Evan passed it off as 
a cultural thing. 
 

Evan Anhell always seemed to push the point, at meetings, that church shops should be compulsory in all churches in the district.

He also had a slightly weird scheme where all proceeds from these shops should go to certain councilors. He said that councilors should be better paid and that this was a good way to start achieving that goal. He was fervently backed by Councilor Baxter. Evan talked about a new paragraph he was planning to add to The Bible to support this idea. Some of the Christian councilors seemed a bit puzzled by this but, when they tried to object, Jeremiah always picked up his very long briefcase in a threatening sort of a way.

Still, council meetings ticked along.