Chapter 8
“Billy, are the numbers in yet?” Sam asked first thing Tuesday morning.
“Uh….” Billy looked hesitantly over at Josh’s office.
“Billy, I think we need to have a chat about the chain of command here. Josh is
the campaign manager, but I am the actual candidate. Are the numbers here?”
“I just delivered them to Josh.” Billy admitted and watched Sam go into Josh’s
office, slamming the door closed behind him.
“Morning, Billy.” Donna greeted him. “Can you get those files for me?”
“Sure, Donna.” Billy stood up and climbed up the step stool to reach the files she
was pointing to. “What are all these for?”
“Research on Taylor.” Donna told him. “I’m starting to work on debate prep.”
“Even though we don’t have any debates scheduled at this point?” Billy asked.
“Do you doubt that there will be a debate?” Donna laughed.
“No, but if it isn’t imminent, why waste the time?”
“When someone has been in politics as long as Taylor has, he has quite a bit of
documented history. The more familiar we are with it and his record, the better
prepared Sam will be for the debates. We need plenty of time to comb through it
all.”
“Do you want some help?” Billy offered.
“Sure. Start with this file. It’s from his first campaign as State Assemblymen. What
you’re looking for is any change in his policies. If you see any quotes that raise
red flags, note those too. I use issue note cards, but that’s just me. I know Josh
keeps timelines and Peyton uses a different kind of outline that includes
contributors and initiatives. Everyone has their own system. You’ll have to figure
out what works for you. Donna’s head swung over to Josh’s door when he and
Sam could be heard shouting.
“The new polling data?” she questioned.
“That’s what I’m guessing.” Billy replied. “Josh didn’t want me to show a copy to
Sam. Why is that?”
“Josh…anticipated Sam might be upset about some of the questions and perhaps
some of the results. I’m sure he just wanted to keep you out of the line of fire.”
“I can handle some fire.” Billy muttered.
“It’s not about you, Billy. It’s about Josh and Sam.” Donna assured him. “This
really isn’t your typical campaign when you have two best friends serving as
candidate and campaign manager, so you may have to adjust some of your
expectations in that regard.”
“So you’re warning me that some of the things that may have normally crossed my
desk will be bypassing my desk because of their close friendship?”
“Exactly.” Donna smiled and looked longingly at the box of doughnuts on the
conference table. Billy grabbed one as they spread their files across the table
and then saw the expression on Donna’s face. “I’m sorry, did you want this one?”
“No, I want all of them.” Donna pouted. “But I’ve gained four pounds this week so I
can’t have any of them.”
“But aren’t you supposed to gain weight? I thought that was good in
your…condition.”
“In my condition?” Donna teased. Billy turned a light shade of red. “Yes, I’m
supposed to be gaining some weight, but 4 pounds in one week is too much. It’s
supposed to be a slow and steady gain.”
“Slow and steady isn’t exactly the Lyman style is it?” Billy noted.
“No, it really isn’t. I’ll be sure to point that out to my new OB/GYN. Okay, let’s get
this started. If you have any questions, ask me. I don’t want to miss anything here.”
“Got it.” Billy agreed and they set to work.
**************************************
“Is Peyton going with you to the breakfast, Ainsley?” Julie asked.
“Yes, he should be here any minute.” Ainsley told her assistant.
“Good, because I have the press clipping from the weekend for him.” Julie told her.
“I’ll take those.” Ainsley quickly grabbed them. “In fact, they should go through me
first from now on.”
“Peyton was pretty specific about-“
“Am I being less specific?” Ainsley snapped and immediately regretted it. “I’m
sorry, Julie. It’s just, have you gone through them?”
“No, they just got delivered to my desk.” Julie replied.
“Some of them were pretty…negative about Peyton. He really doesn’t need to see
them, so I want the clippings to come to me first to avoid any...thing.” she finished
lamely. Ainsley tossed the clippings in her bag. She’d edit them later and pass the
relevant ones on to Peyton.
The man himself sauntered in just minutes later.
“Ms. Hayes-Seaborn.” He began. “Are you ready for breakfast with the Trial
Lawyers?”
“As ready as I’ll ever be.” Ainsley replied. “Can you take another look at my
remarks for me?”
“Sure.” He said agreeably. “Let me just get the clippings from the weekend first. I
want to review those on our way down.”
“They’re not ready yet.” Ainsley improvised.
“Are you kidding me?” Peyton complained.
“Julie thought Rebecca was doing them and Rebecca thought Julie was doing
them. I’m sure they’ll pull it all together by the time we get back. Give me your
keys; I’ll drive while you look over the remarks.”
“We’ve had this discussion before, Ains. Nobody drives the convertible but me.”
Peyton reiterated.
“Where is the trust?” Ainsley pretended to be offended.
“I don’t trust any Republicans, no matter how smart or beautiful they are.” Peyton
held the door open for Ainsley before getting into the drivers side himself. “It’s
very unusual for Rebecca not to have the clippings ready for me. I’ll have to
speak to her about it.”
“It was just a mistake in communication, Peyton. I’m sure it won’t happen again.”
Ainsley assured him.
“Hmmm…maybe she was concerned about handing over some of the more
negative clippings about me.” Peyton mused aloud. “Probably not. It would be
pretty ridiculous to think my skin wasn’t thick enough to handle some negative
press during a gubernatorial campaign.”
Ainsley slid her eyes over to Peyton who was studiously watching the road in front
of them. “Maybe she wasn’t concerned about whether or not you could handle it.
Maybe she just didn’t want to see you hurt unnecessarily.”
“Well that’s very sweet and considerate of her, but it’s important that I get all the
clippings without them being edited. Otherwise I can’t do my job.” Peyton held his
hand out toward Ainsley.
Ainsley reached into her bag and retrieved the clippings, then handed them to
Peyton.
“You can’t think there’s anything new they could write about me.” Peyton said
quietly. “The propositions I worked on, my personal relationships, and even my
family connections; it’s all old
news.”
“It’s wrong that they use your personal life to try to rally their base.” Ainsley said
unequivocally and if Peyton had been otherwise inclined, he would have fallen for
her right there.
“It’s wrong that they use your personal life and history against Sam, too. The best
way to exact our revenge is to give them a serious pounding on Election Day.”
Peyton advised her. “Now read me your remarks.” Ainsley took that in for a
moment before launching into her remarks for the trial lawyers.
********************************
“From now on, I get a copy of all the poll questions before the fact.” Sam was
laying down the law.
“Yeah…no.” Josh said as he highlighted his copy of the latest polls.
“What do you mean, no? This is my campaign.” Sam shouted.
“And you chose me to run it.” Josh pointed out.
“Not behind my back like this.”
“It’s not behind your back, Sam. It’s technically over your head.” Josh sighed.
“This nuts and bolts campaign stuff shouldn’t even be on your radar.”
“You think this is all nuts and bolts campaign stuff? Asking personal questions
about all of us? This is crap! What the hell do we care about-“
“Personally, we don’t care at all, or we shouldn’t care at all; although it pisses me
off when I read some this trash. Professionally, we have to care; at least I do. You
don’t have to look at this stuff at all.”
“I can see why you’d prefer that. I can at least understand you including Ainsley in
these questions but my parents?”
“Your parents have been noticeably absent during your campaign even though
they both live in the state.”
“My in state parents are divorced, Josh. Am I supposed to pick one over the other
or ask them to appear together even though they’re not speaking to one
another?”
“Family values voters are watching everything and everyone. Taylor has been
married to the same woman for 32 years and has grandkids in every photo op.”
Josh pointed out.
“This is why you’re focusing so many of the news ads on Ainsley and I personally,
isn’t it?”
“Yes, it is. You’re still an unknown quantity to a lot of constituents here and they
know Taylor like the back of their hand. I need to know what the barriers are for
you and I can’t find that out without asking these questions.”
“Not without discussing it with me first.” Sam insisted.
“Are you crazy?” Josh exploded. “Why would you want to wade into this shit?
Look, either you trust me to handle this or you don’t.”
“This has nothing to do with me trusting you and everything to do with you trusting
me.” Sam shouted back. “I’m going to personally approve the poll questions and
you’re going to run the campaign ads through me too.”
“No.” Josh shook his head.
“Excuse me?” Sam exclaimed.
“No. It’s a deal breaker, Sam. You want everything to be run through you then you
have to start with a new campaign manager. You say the word and I’ll resign.”
Josh said quietly.
“You and your ultimatums can go to hell, Josh.” Sam stormed out of Josh’s office
and the outer room went so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Sam continued out
the front door without a word to anyone.
Donna watched the exit and felt her heart speed up. This was not good. “Billy, I’ll
be right back.”
She smiled reassuringly at the staffers outside Josh’s office, knocked twice on
Josh’s door and let herself in, closing the door behind her.
“Hey.” She began, trying to get her husband to look at her, but he kept his eyes
focused on the page in front of him. “How do the numbers look?”
“We got the 4 point bump I predicted. That’s $20 you owe me.” he replied.
“We really need to look at gambler’s anonymous for you.” Donna noted while she
took a seat on Josh’s couch in order to put her feet up. Sometimes being
pregnant really sucked. “If we hadn’t found out the baby’s sex from the amnio, you’
d have bet on that too.”
“You want to bet on whether or not we’re heading back to D.C. this week?” Josh
posed.
“Oh, Joshua. We’re not going back to D.C.” Donna told him. “Not until after
November anyway.”
“I wouldn’t be too sure.” Josh warned her. “The Democratic nominee isn’t too
happy with my management style.”
“There’s the Lyman ego again.” Donna rolled her eyes. “This isn’t about you, you
moron.”
“Did you hear him yelling a few minutes ago? It really is about me, Donna.” Josh
got up to pace around the office before picking up the Nerf basketball his wife had
bought for him and shooting for 3 points.
“You were just collateral damage.” Donna said. “Sam’s feeling out of control in
every facet of his life. Every mistake he’s ever made is being plastered in the
papers and on TV. His wife is being raked over the coals by Democrats who think
she’s a spy and Republicans who think she’s a traitor. He has an infant daughter
at home and you should remember well enough how that translates into lack of
sleep. And his best friend is running his campaign but his best friend is keeping
things from him and that feels like more of a betrayal than all the other betrayals
put together.”
“He can’t be involved in every piece of campaign minutiae, and he shouldn’t have
to look at the crappy stuff that will only distract him.” Josh took another shot at the
basket.
“I get that, and so does Sam. Just give him a little bit of time to remember that.”
Donna suggested. “He wasn’t with us when you ran President Santos. It’s been
awhile since he was this involved in any campaign and this one is his own.”
Josh gave up on basketball since he’d missed every freaking shot and took a seat
next to his wife. “He was pretty mad about the questions I included about Ainsley
and President Bartlet.”
“He’ll get over it.”
“Maybe this was a mistake.” Josh admitted quietly. “Maybe I am too close to this in
all the wrong ways.”
“Give Sam a little time to cool off and think things through.” Donna offered.
“I’ve got a meeting with Adams in half an hour.”
“Then you had better get going; traffic’s going to be hell.” Donna hated the traffic
in California. Josh nodded and kissed her before grabbing his backpack and
heading out the door.
*********************************
“What we need to keep in mind is that as litigators, we have a reputation as
bottom dwelling sharks.” Ainsley noted. “Whatever we can to do negate that
opinion, we should do. Sam not only took on pro bono work, but also used his
skills to train and mentor attorneys that were new to the field and introduced them
to the concept of pro bono work as an expectation.”
“Will your husband support the repeal of caps on medical malpractice cases?”
One of the members asked.
“Sam feels that putting an arbitrary cap on medical malpractice suits is unfair to
the litigants.” Ainsley replied.
“Is that your opinion?” Asked another guest. “I read that when you clerked for
Dreifert you supported the caps.”
“As a law clerk, you merely provide precedent and supporting documentation for
the judge that you clerk for.”
“But where do you stand on the issue?”
“I’m not running for Governor, sir.”
“But you influence the man running for Governor. Do you support the cap?”
Ainsley sighed. “It seems to me that an increasing number of juries are coming
back with decisions that are being overturned by the courts as excessive. One
has to wonder about the average lay person’s ability to accurately assess
damages in highly complicated medical malpractice suits. Personally, I think
incremental caps based on the type of malpractice would be the most effective
way to deal with this issue.”
“Is it hard to campaign for your husband when you disagree with him on so many
issues?” A female attorney queried.
“Sometimes the way we approach an issue is different but the end result we’re
working towards is most often the same. The integrity and honor he has always
displayed in his public service is something I could never have difficulty
endorsing. Thank you for your invitation today, I hope that we can count on your
vote this November.”
“Nicely done.” Peyton complimented her and led her back to his car but they were
waylaid by some of the more voracious members of the press.
“Mrs. Seaborn, do have any qualms about the campaign staff your husband has
assembled? It seems like every person working on your campaign has some
checkered past.”
“We have the utmost confidence in the team that’s been put together.” Ainsley
touted the company line.
“A pardoned felon?”
“I believe the key word is pardoned.” Ainsley shot back keeping a smile in place.
“Peyton, do you feel comfortable working day and night with a woman who has
actively worked to limit the rights of homosexuals?”
“I’m not a single issue voter; I leave that kind of thing to the Republicans.” Peyton
replied.
“Do you have any comment on the quote your father gave to the Philadelphia
paper?”
Peyton schooled his features to remain calm. “I’m flattered when my father
acknowledges me in any way.”
Peyton and Ainsley got into the car and drove off without another word. “I take it
that’s what you were trying to hide from me in the clippings?”
“He said you had a predilection for lost causes and unpopular opinions so it was
no surprise that you were working for Sam.” Ainsley summarized.
“Dad has never gotten the concept that any press is good press.” Peyton told
her. “This is his way of telling me that I’m making too many waves for his comfort.
His country club friends are giving him grief about me.”
“I’m sorry.” Ainsley said sincerely.
“It’s going to get us some more free media, so it’s all good.”
“Yeah, all good.” Ainsley repeated half heartedly.