‘So what’s the candidate supposed to do all day?’ asked Fletcher, once Harry had come to the end of his briefing.
‘Keep out of the way,’ said Harry, ‘which is why you have a programme of your own. You will visit the forty-four counting houses, because they all expect to see the candidate at some time during the day. Jimmy will act as your driver, known as “the candidate’s friend”, because we certainly can’t afford any spare workers wasting their time on you.’
Once the meeting had broken up, and everyone had dashed off to their new assignments, Jimmy explained just how Fletcher would spend the rest of the day, and he spoke with some experience, because he’d carried out the same exercise for his father during the previous two elections.
‘First the no-no’s,’ said Jimmy when Fletcher joined him in the front of the car. ‘As we have to visit all forty-four houses between now and eight o’clock this evening when the polls close, everyone will offer you a coffee, and between 11.45 and 2.15 lunch, and after 5.30 a drink. You must always reply with a polite but firm no to any such offer. You will only drink water in the car, and we’ll have lunch at 12.30 for thirty minutes back at headquarters, just so they realize they’ve got a candidate, and you won’t eat again until after the polls close.’
Fletcher thought he might become bored, but each visit produced a new cast of characters and a new set of figures. For the first hour, the sheets showed just a few names crossed out, and the captains were quickly able to tell him how the turnout compared with past elections. Fletcher was encouraged by how many blue lines had appeared before ten o’clock, until Jimmy warned him that the time between seven and nine was always good pickings for the Democrats as the industrial and night-shift workers vote before they start, or after they have finished work. ‘Between ten and four, the Republicans should go into the lead,’ Jimmy added, ‘while after five and up until the close of the polls is always the time when the Democrats have to make their comeback. So just pray for rain between ten and five, followed by a fine warm evening.’
By 11 a.m. all the captains were reporting that the poll was slightly down compared with the last election when it had closed on fifty-five per cent. ‘Anything below fifty per cent, we lose, over fifty and we’re in with a shout,’ said Jimmy, ‘above fifty-five and it’s yours by a street.’
‘Why’s that?’ asked Fletcher.
‘Because the Republicans traditionally are more likely to turn out in any weather, so they always benefit from a low turnout. Making sure our people vote has always been the Democrats’ biggest problem.’
Jimmy stuck rigidly to his schedule. Just before arriving he would hand Fletcher a slip of paper with the basic facts on the household running that district. Fletcher would then commit the salient points to memory before he reached the front door.
‘Hi, Dick,’ he said when the door was opened, ‘good of you to allow us to use your house again, because of course this is your fourth election.’ Listen to reply. ‘How’s Ben, is he still at college?’ Listen to reply. ‘I was sorry to hear about Buster — yes, Senator Gates told me.’ Listen to reply. ‘But you have another dog now, Buster Jr — is that right?’
Jimmy also had his own routine. After ten minutes he would whisper, ‘I think you ought to be leaving.’ At twelve, he would begin to sound a little anxious and dispense with think, and at fourteen, he became insistent. After shaking hands and waving, it always took another couple of minutes before they could finally get away. Even with Jimmy keeping to a rigorous schedule, they still arrived back at campaign headquarters twenty minutes late for lunch.
Lunch was a snack rather than a meal, as Fletcher grabbed a sandwich from a table that was heaped with food. He took the occasional bite as he and Annie moved from office to office, shaking hands with as many of the workers as possible.
‘Hi, Martha, what’s Harry up to?’ asked Fletcher as he entered the phone room.
‘He’s outside the old State House doing what he does best, pressing the flesh, dispensing opinions, and making sure people haven’t forgotten to vote. He should be back at any moment.’
Thirty minutes later Fletcher passed Harry in the corridor on his way out, as Jimmy had insisted that, if they were still going to visit every counting house, then they had to leave by 1.10. ‘Good morning, senator,’ said Fletcher.
‘Good afternoon, Fletcher, glad you were able to find time to eat.’
The first house they visited after lunch showed that the Republicans had gone into a slight lead, which continued to increase during the afternoon. By five o’clock there were still fifteen captains left to visit. ‘If you miss one of them,’ said Jimmy, ‘we’ll never hear the end of it, and they sure won’t be there for you next time around.’
By six o’clock the Republicans had a clear lead, and Fletcher tried not to show that he was feeling a little depressed. ‘Relax,’ said Jimmy, and promised him it would look better in a couple of hours’ time; what he didn’t mention was that by this time in the evening, his father always had a small lead and therefore knew he’d won. Fletcher envied those who were running for seats where they weighed the votes.
‘How much easier to relax if you knew you were certain to win, or certain to lose.’
‘I wouldn’t know how that feels,’ said Jimmy, ‘Dad won his first election by 121 votes before I was born, and during the past thirty years built up his majority to just over 11,000, but he always says if sixty-one people had voted the other way, he would have lost that first election, and might never have been given a second chance.’ Jimmy regretted the words the moment he said them.
By seven, Fletcher was relieved to see a few more blue lines appearing on the sheets and although the Republicans were still in the lead, the feeling was that it would go to the line. Jimmy had to cut the last six houses down to eleven minutes each, and even then he didn’t reach the final two until after the poll had closed.
‘What now?’ asked Fletcher as he walked away from the last house.
Jimmy checked his watch. ‘Back to HQ and listen to the tallest stories you’ve ever heard. If you win, they will become folklore, and if you lose, they will be disowned and quickly forgotten.’
‘Like me,’ commented Fletcher.
Jimmy turned out to be right, because back at HQ everyone was talking at once, but only the foolhardy and naturally optimistic were willing to predict what the result would be. The first exit poll was broadcast minutes after the last vote had been cast and showed that Hunter had won by a whisker. The national polls were predicting that Ford had beaten Carter.
‘History repeating itself,’ said Harry as he walked into the room. ‘Those same guys were telling me that Dewey was going to be our next president. They also said I’d lose by a whisker, and we cut both those whiskers off, so don’t worry about straw polls, Fletcher, they’re for straw men.’