Karen had been a hellion ever since she was a teen. Her looks had ensured that she never suffered any lack of attention from the opposite sex, and her behavior suggested that she didn’t mind.
“Well, I’m thrilled that you’ll be performing there, Karen.”
“You’re coming?”
“Of course, you know I never miss it.”
“Great. I’ll see you there next week.”
As soon as he hung up the phone, it chimed. Senator Becker hit the blinking light. The voice of his secretary said, “Senator, your next appointment is here.”
Senator Becker looked at his chief of staff.
Ron said, “Sarah.”
“Ah. Yes, please send her in. Clear the room, please. Except for you, Ron.”
The aides shuffled out.
A petite woman in a suit marched in and nodded respectfully. “Good morning, Senator. How are you today?”
“Excellent, thank you.”
She set up her computer on the coffee table, connecting it by wire to the monitor mounted on the wall.
“What have you got for us, Sarah? Any serious challengers pop up while I wasn’t looking?”
While there was a state primary vote in a few weeks that would decide Becker’s opponent for reelection in November, none of the candidates were considered a serious threat. The senator had won each of his last three elections by a minimum of eight points. And the trend was improving.
She lowered her voice. “You asked me to put some polls into the field. Widening the pool of voters past Wisconsin… ”
Ron glanced at the senator. The lightbulb went off in his head. This meeting wasn’t about this year’s election. It was about the future.
“Ah. That time already, is it?”
Becker could see the pleased expression in his chief of staff’s eyes. A kid about to peek behind the wrapping paper on the night before Christmas. Which was good, because Ron had been nothing but a worrywart since the news about Joseph Dahlman.
The monitor showed a red, white, and blue elephant on the screen. There were few things more exciting to a political junkie than new polling data. Ron and Senator Becker were about to see, for the first time, what national polls said about his prospects for the next presidential race.
“Well, don’t keep us waiting.”
Sarah tapped a key on her computer and began showing them a series of charts.
“Overall, the news is good. Among likely voters, your name is within the top three potential presidential contenders in your party.”
They went over top-line results for the next ten minutes.
“Nationally, the antidrug message is playing very well,” said Ron.
Sarah said, “Absolutely. That’s what voters know him for. Taking a tough stance on the war on drugs, and helping to fight the opioid epidemic. He’s going to need a message that will resonate with the base if he’s going to make it past a primary. This could be it.”
“Ron here thinks that’s a problem,” the Senator said.
Ron looked uncomfortable. “I’ve made my views clear, sir. I think you risk alienating the people who got you here if you appear antibusiness.”
“The Opioid Epidemic Act is going to be my signature achievement. You know it’s a winner nationally.”
“It won’t matter if we can’t even get past a national primary… ”
“You see what I’m dealing with, Sarah? My own chief of staff thinks my biggest legislative achievement is going to hurt me. Well, fine. Let’s see if I can’t come up with something a little tougher. Something that adds more meat on the bone for the people Ron is worried about losing,” said the senator.
Senator Becker looked at his computer screen on his desk. His Internet browser was on a news website, showing soldiers riding in Humvees in Afghanistan. “What was that the DEA was saying last week when we went to visit them?”
“The director?”
“No. When they took us on the tour? Do you remember, we spoke to an agent that had been down in El Paso about what he needed?” They had been looking for quotes that might help them support point papers.
“He was talking about the US Special Forces down there in Mexico,” said Ron.
“That’s right,” said Senator Becker. “He was complaining about how Mexico wouldn’t let the US get their hands dirty. We send our DEA agents, military personnel, and all those other agencies down to Mexico, not to mention the billions of dollars in foreign aid… but we’re still at the mercy of the Mexican law enforcement agencies. The DEA has to rely on Mexican authorities to make real progress.”
Sarah said, “I’m not sure that I follow, sir. What are you suggesting?”
The senator said, “What if we were able to use American troops to really go after the cartels in Mexico? To take the gloves off. Just like that DEA agent was saying. Now, policy like that, that’s got some machismo, does it not?”
“It does.”
Becker said, “I like this. Let’s spitball it a bit.”
Ron held up his hands, as if painting it on a billboard. “Stopping the opioid epidemic in the United States means taking the fight to Mexico.”
Senator Becker pointed. “And I’m the only one tough enough to send our military down there to do it.”
“Exactly. Brilliant, Mr. Senator.” Ron held up his hands like he was reading a billboard. “If America is fighting a war on drugs, then it’s time we use our warriors,” said Ron, tagline-testing.
“Very nice.” It needed a little work, but Becker liked it.
Sarah said, “Senator, with all due respect, we would need the permission of the Mexican government. They would never go for it.”
Ron and the senator shared a glance.
Ron said, “That’s irrelevant. We’re just discussing campaign communication strategy. It doesn’t matter whether we actually do it or not.”
Senator Becker sighed. Sarah was good at polling, but he would need to replace her once the midterms were over. If she couldn’t grasp the difference between a campaign message and an actual policy proposal…
“Sarah, we’ll need you to market-test it. But my gut tells me that it’s going to be a winner.”
He looked out the window at his office. The worker bees buzzing around the streets of D.C. outside. It was remarkable to think how far he’d come over the years. His meteoric rise since 9/11.
It hadn’t been that difficult, really. Senator Becker knew he had a way with people. Politics was all about winning hearts and minds. Helping all those unsophisticated voters understand what was really good for them, so that more than half of them approved of how he spent their money. It took oratorical skill. Becker was a masterful speaker. It took intellectual flexibility. Becker was a political yoga master. He had switched parties more than a decade earlier, when he’d seen the tides changing. Becker knew that if you wanted to govern, you couldn’t worry so much about ideology, but you sure as hell better care about polls. And right now, the polls told him that he needed to crack down on drugs. It was a winning bipartisan issue. The kind of platform cornerstone that could propel someone into the oval office.
Sarah was nodding. “Alright, I’ll conduct some more focus groups. And perhaps run another poll. I’ll send you a cost estimate, Ron.”
The senator nodded. “Excellent. Thank you, Sarah. That’ll be all for now.” The messaging might need some work, but they could try a few things. It was still early, but the time to get his ducks in a row was now.
A minute later, Sarah was out the door and Becker was alone with his chief of staff. The chime on his phone and a blinking light told him that his next appointment was ready. He pressed the button and said, “Give us a moment, please.”