Your Characters name: Michael Walsh
Your Characters sex: Male
Your Characters date of birth: January 5, 1956
Your State and Region of Representation: New Jersey's 11th Congressional District
Michael Walsh was born in Jersey City, New Jersey to his father Brian, who was a rail engineer and his mother, Josephine, a social worker. His family was somewhat typical of the Irish-Italian, Catholic middle class of New Jersey. With the continued economic decline of Hudson County due to corruption, mismanagement and social unrest, so did the standard of living and his parents relocated to the middle class suburbs.
He was educated at a private Catholic high school, where he was an excellent student and played on the varsity baseball team. Throughout his childhood, James was interested in history, and this history led him to an interest in economics and commerce: the pursuit of greater wealth and prosperity being a common theme throughout history and, in his opinion, the greatest source of improvement of the state of human society.
He studied Economics at Princeton University, and started his career on Wall Street in the 70s. After meeting initial success, despite the tough economy of the time, he and several of his partners founded a small investment house in Jersey City, focusing on relatively small $5-$50mil ventures in which he would take large equity holdings.
In 1992, he became a silent partner and ran for Congress in his home district of NJ-11, where he won with 65% of the vote.