Chapter 6
“He’s a little upset.” Donna noted.
“He shouldn’t concern himself with the details of the campaign.” Josh countered.
“You set his wife’s speech on fire, Joshua.” Donna pointed out. “A speech he
himself wrote.”
“He should stop doing that too.” Josh mentioned. “Hey, guess who I hired as my
Deputy today?”
“Your mother.” Donna deadpanned.
“Nope. Remember the kids from Presidential Classroom?”
“Excuse me?”
“It was during President Bartlet’s first term and I was all upset about having to
give the Presidential Classroom kids a tour. Then we went into a lockdown and
spent a few hours with them in the mess?”
“Vaguely.” Donna replied.
“There was this kid there…Billy Fernandez. He was…I could just see something
in him, you know? He was bright, articulate, and socially inept.”
“Recognize a few of those qualities do you?”
“I am NOT socially inept.” Josh protested.
“Hello? Speech on fire?” Donna reminded him.
“I’ve seen Toby do that a hundred times.” Josh noted.
“Another prime example of an individual without social skills.” Donna snarked.
“Anyway,” Josh continued, ignoring her interruption. “He came into headquarters
looking for a job with me; he just got his Master’s in Government Studies.”
“So you hired him.” Donna concluded.
“Well, yeah, I kind of buried the lead there didn’t I?”
“Just a bit. He’s got his Master’s? Are we that old, Josh?”
“Just me, Donnatella.” Josh grinned so big both dimples popped out.
“Somebody’s sucking up.”
“A certain candidate for Governor offered to watch Ben tonight so we could have
an evening to ourselves.” Josh told her.
“Yes, but that was before you set his wife’s speech on fire. I wouldn’t be
surprised if that offer’s been withdrawn.”
“Then my mom could-“
“Your mother is exhausted. We spent 5 hours at the airport with a 3 year old
because of the flight delay and that was before the 6 hours of flight time. After
11 hours, your mom has earned herself a drink and a bed. Don’t even think
about asking her to watch Ben tonight.” Donna warned as she finished off Josh’s
pasta salad.
“Not that I didn’t miss you this past week, but I think I should point out that for the
last 6 days no one has stolen any of my food and that aspect of being alone was
nice.”
“I’m eating for two Joshua.” Donna reminded him when she took his bag of chips
to finish those as well.
“Are you sure you’re not eating for 3?” he muttered before Donna hit him.
“Ow!” Josh cried in mock pain. “I thought we had a no hitting policy in our family?”
“Just for the children.” Donna clarified. “So when does the wunderkind start?”
“Tomorrow morning.”
“You didn’t start him at work right away?”
“I was hoping to have plans tonight with my wife.” Josh waggled his eyebrows at
her just as the front door to their rented home burst open.
“Since when is fire considered an editing tool?” Sam asked while Donna shot an
‘I told you so’ look at Josh.
“I wasn’t editing so much as destroying.” Josh replied and took another bite of
the food his wife and yet to pilfer.
“Why?” Sam asked in an impatient tone.
“It wasn’t right for her.” Josh replied. “Want some dinner? I think there’s a little bit
that Donna and her alien baby haven’t devoured yet. Ow!” he cried out again
when she hit him in retaliation.
“No, I had dinner at the thing.” Sam answered shaking his head. “You can’t go
around setting fire to speeches you don’t like, Josh.”
“I haven’t been arrested for arson yet.” Josh noted. “How about some dessert
then? Donna puts all kinds of weird stuff on her ice cream though, I have to warn
you. Ow! Cut it out!” Josh finally got up and moved away from his wife’s killer
swats.
“Josh…”Sam began wearily.
“Have a seat, Sam. You look beat.” Josh instructed and got up to get some
dessert for everyone. Sam collapsed on the couch and looked over at Donna.
“Alien baby?” Sam inquired.
“Josh humor.” Donna replied.
“Sam!” Came a shout from the top of the stairs.
Sam’s tired face broke out in a smile. “Benjamin Lyman, what are you doing in
California?”
“’Lectin’ you Gobernor!” Ben replied as he ran down the stairs and jumped on
Sam.
“You going to vote for me, kiddo?”
“Course.” Ben nodded. “We flewed on the airpane here so we can help. Like our
new house? I got a big boy bed here. Wanna see it?”
“Slow down, tiger, Sam just got here.” Donna took Ben’s hand from Sam’s where
he was tugging on the candidate to get up. “Daddy’s getting ice cream. Why
don’t you go help him carry it?”
“’Kay.” Ben scrambled off Sam to run to the kitchen. “Daddy, I’m helping now!”
“Does that kid ever walk?” Sam shook his head.
“He’s just like his father. He has two settings; fast and fast asleep.” Donna
replied.
“You look like you could use some sleep. I hear you had flight delays?”
“It was a long day. Ruth is probably asleep already.” Donna looked a little closer
at Sam. “You could use some rest too.”
“I promised Josh I’d watch Ben for you guys.”
“Go home, Sam. I’m too tired to go anywhere tonight.” Donna explained.
“I’m not leaving without my ice cream.” Sam protested.
“Here, Sam. I brung yours.” Ben handed the candidate a messy looking sundae
before digging into his own.
“Thanks, Ben.” Sam took a bite. “It’s delicious.”
“Turn on the news. Let’s see if your wife got some face time.” Josh ordered when
he returned carrying sundae’s for himself and Donna. Donna’s appeared to
have several different toppings.
“What exactly is all that?” Sam asked curiously.
“You don’t want to know.” Josh muttered.
“There she is!” Ben cried happily when he spotted Ainsley on the local broadcast.
“Sharp eyes, buddy.” Josh complimented his son and turned up the volume.
“Ainsley Hayes-Seaborn, wife of Democratic Gubernatorial candidate Sam
Seaborn, attended the Innovations in business conference today to see some of
the ways local businesses are changing the way they operate.” The newscaster
relayed. “When asked her opinion about what she saw today, here’s what she
had to say.”
“I love to see businesses taking the initiative to change their operations for the
betterment of the state and the people who live here. Sam has spent his
professional career protecting our air and water from dangerous pollutants.
When business steps up to the plate to partner with Government rather than
fight against it; everyone benefits.” Ainsley was captured stating.
“The Seaborn’s have been quite a draw across the state, Alan.” The co-anchor
mentioned. “Sam Seaborn is still maintaining his lead in the Democratic primary
and is expected to capture the nomination 6 days from now.”
“That’s right, Jim. It looks like Seaborn will be facing off against State Senator
Taylor in the general. It should be quite a match up.” Todd replied. “Today, his
media strategist Kevin Kahn had this to say.”
“When the people of California learn exactly what Sam Seaborn has done while
he worked for the past two liberal Presidents, they’ll be running to vote for
Senator Taylor.” Kahn predicted with a cocky grin.
“It should be something to see.” Alan noted. “We’ll be right back with the
weather.”
Josh used the remote to shut off the TV. “She did great.”
“Yeah, she did.” Sam agreed. “Are we ready for this?”
“Of course.” Josh beamed and Sam got to see father and son with matching
dimples flashing. It was quite a sight.
“Okay, Benjamin. Show me this big boy bed of yours. Maybe we could read a
story or two before I go home.” Sam led his Godson upstairs.
******************************************
“Sit down for a bit, Donna.” Ainsley set her friend in a chair.
“I’m okay. I just need to put my feet up for a bit. They’ve really been swollen this
week.”
“I remember it well.” Ainsley commiserated. “What are they holed up in the
conference room about?”
“Money matters.” Donna explained. “That guy there, Allen Porter, is a number
savant.”
“Why aren’t we in the money meeting?” Ainsley asked.
“We were at the luncheon.” Donna answered. “Besides, I’m not sure we want to
be in a room with Josh AND Allen. Look, you can see Sam’s temples pounding
from here.”
“I think we should join them.” Ainsley decided. “We could make a contribution to
the conversation, so to speak.”
“You know, maybe we should.” Donna agreed
Ainsley and Donna walked into the conference room. “I hear there’s some
serious money talk happening in here.”
“Uh….yeah. We’re just going over the media buys.” Sam replied.
“You must be Allen Porter. I’m Ainsley Hayes-Seaborn.”
“Nice to meet you.” Allen responded.
“Don’t you need to get on the road for the ribbon cutting thing?” Josh asked.
“I’ve got plenty of time. Peyton, may I look on with you?” Ainsley indicated his
copy of the media buy packet. Peyton grinned. Donna sat next to Josh and put
her feet in his lap. He rolled his eyes, but wisely said nothing.
“Always happy to share.” Peyton told her. “Sit right here.”
Ainsley began paging through the report and tuned out the conversation around
her while she did so. Now that they had the nomination from the Democratic
party there seemed to be a lot more money in the coffers.
“…so if we look at the projections-“ Allen was saying.
“Excuse me, Allen.” Ainsley interrupted. “Are these projections for the rest of the
campaign?”
“No, Ma’am. They’re for the next 45 days.” Allen told her and had her eyebrows
winging up.
“We can afford this kind of spending?” Ainsley followed up.
“Yes, Ma’am. Both President Bartlet and President Santos will be doing
fundraisers in the next month and we’ll be able to replace what we’ve spent with
no trouble at all.” Allen assured her.
“That’s an ungodly amount of money to spend on TV ads in 45 days.” Ainsley
muttered.
“Television ads are ungodly expensive in California.” Josh piped up. “We’ll tap
into free media as much as we can, but we need to at least keep up with Taylor
on the ad buys.”
“Has there been a decision about the new ads?” Ainsley inquired. Since Sam
captured the nomination a new series of ads had been designed.
“Our team selected 6 new ads and part of the purpose of today’s meeting is to
decide what plays where.” Josh illuminated her.
“There are five major media markets; the Bay Area, Fresno, Los Angeles,
Sacramento, and San Diego. There are 6 secondary markets in Bakersfield,
Chico, Inland Empire, Monterey, Redding, and Santa Barbara.” Allen added.
“The breakdown on pages 9-18 give the demo’s we’re trying to hit and the
percentages of each of those demo’s in each media market.”
“Wait a second; you’ve undersampled Fresno and San Diego.” Josh chimed in.
“Josh, we talked about this.” Allen said wearily.
“And I told you to use the ‘registered voter’ stats.” Josh was getting heated.
“That simply isn’t an accurate barometer in California.” Allen disputed. “The
‘likely voter’ stats are far more accurate.”
“In the past, maybe, but this is a different- Look, I don’t want the debate. I want
the figures I asked for.” Josh and Allen engaged in a battle of wills for a moment,
before Allen opened his lap top and began typing. An awkward silence
descended on the group for the few minutes it took for Allen to reconfigure the
data. Then he plugged something into his lap top and his screen was duplicated
on the wall of the conference room.
“Here. Those are the stats for the registered voters, but-“ Allen conceded.
“Thanks.” Josh said sardonically. “Now with these numbers, you can see why it’s
more significant to spend our ad money in those two markets.”
“Josh…you might as well buy ad time in Orange County.” Sam quipped.
“We MAY buy ad time in Orange County, Sam.” Josh replied. “But right now I
want to concentrate on Fresno. It’s Taylor’s home district and it’s ripe for the
picking.”
“The numbers do NOT support that, Josh.” Allen interjected. “You’ve got a 54-44
favorable unfavorable for Taylor there and that’s-“
“Not relevant to this discussion.” Josh interrupted. “Look at the voter stats. 20%
of that district isn’t even going to the polls. You know why? Because no one has
convinced them it’s worth the bother.”
“20% aren’t voting, but that’s not statistically significant when compared to the
rest of the state.” Allen argued. Billy shot his head back and forth between Allen
and Josh like he was at Wimbledon and didn’t want to miss a single swing.
“It’s incredibly significant. Taylor is counting on that 20% staying home and we’re
going to confound those expectations. This is a different campaign from what
Californian’s are used to seeing. We’re going to tap into the Fresno community,
which Taylor has owned for some unknown reason. We’re going to tap into
women that make up the majority of the population here and an even greater
majority of the people who actually show up at the polls. And Ainsley here is
going to deliver Independents and Republicans like Domino’s delivers pizza.”
Josh stated with utter conviction.
“Wait just a second. I’m delivering what? What am I supposedly delivering?”
Ainsley asked.
“Independents and Republicans, apparently.” Billy supplied helpfully.
“Apparently, Josh has not been watching the news around here.” Ainsley
countered. “I can deliver legal opinions. I can deliver bad news to friends with
compassion and verbosity. I have even, ladies and gentlemen, delivered a baby
in recent history, although I am not anxious to repeat that experience; sorry
Donna. But I am in no position to deliver voters, particularly Independent and
Republican voters to anyone.”
“Yes, you are.” Josh argued. “I’m going to help you; me and Fred here.”
"I thought his name was Billy.." Ainsley noted.
"It is." Billy replied.
"Fred is his nickname." Josh explained. "Tell it to her, Fred."
“Two of the new ads are going to feature Ainsley Hayes-Seaborne.” Billy took up
the narrative. “A lifelong Republican touting the reasons she’s supporting Sam
Seaborn’s campaign for Governor.”
“You mean besides the fact that she’s married to him?” Donna quipped.
“Uh, yeah, besides that.” Billy confirmed.
“Isn’t there any food at this meeting?” Ainsley interrupted. “Shouldn’t we have
some kind of food here?”
Donna passed a bowl of pretzels over to her friend. “Such as? The reasons?”
Donna reminded Billy.
“Oh, right.” Billy, transfixed by the sight of Ainsley stuffing her mouth with
pretzels, recovered his speech. “She’ll be an influential voice in the executive
branch of California and that will give Independents and Republicans the political
cover to vote for, what they perceive to be, a bi-partisan candidate.”
“That still doesn’t mean that we can count on those demographics for financial
support or actual voting.” Allen mentioned.
“Ye of little faith.” Josh muttered. “Act as if ye have faith and faith shall be given
to you.” Josh quoted.
“This coming from my Jewish campaign director.” Sam noted.
“We spend the next two days shooting the new ads and start playing them next
week in conjunction with the visit from President Santos.” Josh announced.
“Do you even want my input on where they should play?” Allen asked.
“Sure I do.” Josh replied. “I want everyone’s input. That doesn’t mean I’m going
to follow you blindly here.”
“Due respect; maybe you should.” Allen pointed out. “Anyone would have to be a
fool to question your instincts on national politics, but this is statewide politics in
California. We have some of the largest, most diverse populations in the country.
This isn’t your forte.”
“No, California is your forte; yours and Peyton’s.” Josh acknowledged. “But I
know Sam and Ainsley better than either of you and I know how to play it here
well enough to fudge the rest with your help. Have I got that, Allen?”
“Yeah…you’ve got that.” Allen agreed.
“Peyton?” Josh checked in with his Deputy.
“You know I’m game.” Peyton responded.
“Ainsley?” Josh interrupted her pretzel spree.
“I’m just here for the food.” Ainsley insisted.
“Good enough. Let’s talk about the event I want to do in Modesto on Saturday.”
Josh began. Modesto was Taylor’s home town and Josh was anxious to bring the
fight to him. “Whatcha got for me Fred?”
“Modesto has some of the worst air pollution in the country; it sometimes
surpasses Los Angeles. But my personal favorite is that Modesto is the car theft
capitol of the country.” Billy replied without a mention that his name was not Fred.
“So if we’re going there Saturday, we should take the train?” Josh joked.
“Why would we be going there on Saturday?” Sam asked. “I mean besides
wanting to piss off Taylor.”
“That isn’t enough?” Josh replied. “Seems to me that the air pollution issue
should be addressed by our candidate. What better place to address it than in
Modesto? And since about a quarter of Modesto residents are Hispanic-“
“25.58% are Hispanic.” Allen threw out the figure easily.
“I stand corrected.” Josh rolled his eyes. “It seems like the perfect opportunity for
Sam to show off his Spanish skills.”
“Ainsley, do you know any Spanish?” Allen asked.
“I grew up in North Carolina; no, I don’t know any Spanish.” Ainsley replied.
“You know a LITTLE Spanish.” Sam prodded her with a teasing glint in his eyes.
“I don’t know any Spanish I could use in front of a group…or outside a very
personal conversation.” Ainsley corrected and had Peyton laughing.
“Maybe we can build on that.” Peyton noted. “Think of all the additional
opportunities you’d have to order food in Spanish.”
“Sounds like a starting point.” Josh agreed. “I want a full schedule for Sam and
Ainsley on Saturday, in Modesto, by dinner.”