Aubrey James

Mayor Aubrey James is the corrupt Mayor of Gotham City, he is in the pocket of mob boss Carmine Falcone, and is a minor recurring villain, being very much a cog in the great machine of corruption that has developed in Gotham.

He truly has very little control of his city, but his lack of proper management is partially why Gotham is such a terrible place to live.

History
Following the death of Thomas and Martha Wayne, Mayor James appeared to convince the public that the killer would be caught, while putting great pressure on the police force to find the killer. Knowing that the death of the cities only beloved philanthropists could cause outright rioting.

Later on, when child abductions of the homeless kids were going on, the Mayor devised a solution were publically he would be sending the few photogenic children. While the rest he would simply have imprisoned in a juvenile detention facility. Never the less he was genuinely horrified when the kidnapers managed to take a whole school bus of children, and demanded they find them. Especially as it would be bad publicity for himself.

However the Mayor was later caught in a power struggle between Don Falcone and Don Maroni over the Arkham land deal. As such Don Maroni but a hit out for him, and sent professional Hitman Richard Gladwell to kill him. Gordon arrived in time to save him, but the Mayor insisted in taking most of his money with them, delaying them long enough for Gladwell to arrive. Bullock managed to kill Gladwell. But fearful of the two crime lords, the Mayor organized a compromise so that both parties would come away with profits.

Later on, as part of there plan to try and bring down Falcon, believing they were both about to die. Harvey Bullock and Jim Gordon arrested Mayor James, and took him with them when they went after Falcone. Falcone however managed to outmaneuver them, and forced them to let the Mayor go.

He then began putting pressure on Captain Essen to find the Russian mafia, who had kidnapped bomb specialist Ian Hargrove. Gordon however called him out on the fact he used Blackgate prison to keep the insane in despite having no facilities for helping them. Which is how they managed to break Ian out. To quite the criticisms, Mayor James reopened Arkham Asylum, to keep the insane of Gotham in. Despite the place not being fully refurbished yet.

Following the murder of Dick Lovecraft the Mayor forced Harvey Dent to stay out, and framed Gordon for it, pushing the idea that Gordon was an overzealous cop who had driven the man to suicide. He then gave him the choice of either quitting the force, or taking a job as head guard of the newly opened Arkham Asylum. Gordon took the job, but promised he would be back.