Senator Seth Gillette was the Junior Senator from North Dakota during Jed Bartlet's first term in office. He threatened Toby Ziegler with a third party candidacy after the President announced his Blue Ribbon Committee to save Social Security. In order to stave off this, and to win support with the AARP, Toby announced Seth Gillette would be the head of the Blue Ribbon Commission before asking him to be on the Commission.