Deputy Chancellor

In the final years of the Galactic Republic, many Senators did not trust the Jedi—a sentiment of distrust, however, that many Jedi reciprocated for the Senators. A few years prior to the outbreak of the Clone Wars, Jedi-shamed Senators Sano Sauro and Bog Divinian, along with Jedi-deposed Romin tyrant Roy Teda, tried to stir up anti-Jedi sentiment in the Senate by proposing that the monastic Order should be precluded from all future activities of the Senate. The anti-Jedi faction's claims did little, however, towards achieving its aim of banning the Jedi Order, and the vote on the matter after the Senate's debate, in 24 BBY, ended in favor of the Knights. Senator Sauro even turned his back on Divinian, choosing instead to vote with the Senate majority that favored Jedi support—a choice made, however, only after being bribed by Supreme Chancellor Palpatine with an offer to become Deputy Chancellor.

None of the security measures taken, however, against the growing anti-Jedi sentiment prevented from occurring a vicious attack on the Senate—orchestrated by arch-enemy of the Jedi Order, Force Blank Granta Omega, the true mastermind behind the anti-Jedi faction. The surprise attack in the Senate's Grand Convocation Chamber, by an army of seeker droids, left 46 beings dead, including 21 Senators, 24 Senatorial aides and guards, and Teda himself (for he, too, was betrayed by Omega, the protégé of Sano Sauro in his youth; indeed, the betrayal mimicked Sauro's betrayal of Divinian and served as a rather fitting homage paid to Omega's old patron). Even so, the Senate Building attack could have been much worse, as thousands had been targeted and, thanks to the Jedi who responded, comparatively few of Omega's intended targets were affected. Continued Senatorial support of the Jedi Order after the attack—by the Order's very efforts to thwart and contain it, and by Palpatine's special appointment—was thereafter secure, the anti-Jedi faction having failed in its divisive aims.

Soon after the creation of the Deputy Chancellorship, Jedi Padawan Anakin Skywalker sought to understand Palpatine's reasoning behind the appointment of Sauro to the new office. Sitting alongside the Supreme Chancellor inside his personal office, Skywalker gazed with Palpatine at the temporary garden in the exterior courtyard outside the Galactic Senate complex. There, towering above the colorful, exotic flowers that ran in a square around the silver-barked trees, were twin horns of the bloodred claing bush, native to Sano Sauro's world—and the ominous-looking thorns spawned young Skywalker's inquiry. He wondered why the Chancellor had awarded Senator Sauro the position of Deputy Chancellor when the Jedi were certain that he was part of the plot to assassinate Palpatine: Anakin simply couldn't understand.

The position was offered to Sauro, Palpatine professed, before the vote on the anti-Jedi petition took place, and he therefore knew it was an offer Sauro couldn't refuse. Palpatine claimed foreknowledge that Sauro would betray Divinian: the assurance of a powerful office would be enough to abandon the risky prospect of staying true to a scheme that effectively had already been crushed by the Jedi's impressive thwarting of Omega's Senate Building attack. But Skywalker still couldn't grasp how Palpatine could have ever found it within him to reward Sauro for betraying him. Palpatine explained to the strongly Forceful Jedi Padawan that his generous gesture to Sauro had, in effect, made a friend of a bitter enemy, linking the Senator's fate with his own. Beyond that, the Chancellor would always know what Sauro was up to; Palpatine's action was done to keep this enemy of the Jedi Order and of the Supreme Chancellor close.

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