Florentyna flew to Boston and retreated to Cape Cod the next morning after a nauseating press conference with the Democratic Presidential candidate, who kept referring to her as ‘that great little lady from Illinois.’
When they parted, in full view of the press, he kissed her on the cheek. She felt like a prostitute who had accepted his money and found it was too late to change her mind about going to bed.
Chapter thirty-six
Taking advantage of the fact that the campaign did not start until after Labor Day, Florentyna returned to Washington to catch up on her neglected senatorial duties. She even found time to visit Chicago.
She spoke to Pete Parkin on the phone every day and certainly he could not have been more friendly and cooperative about fitting in with her arrangements. They agreed to meet at his White House office to discuss the final plan for the campaign. Florentyna tried to fulfill all her other commitments before the meeting so she could devote herself entirely to electioneering during the last nine weeks.
On September 2, accompanied by Edward and Janet, Florentyna arrived at the west wing of the White House to be greeted by Ralph Brooks, who clearly remained a trusted lieutenant of the candidate. She was determined not to be the cause of any friction between herself and Brooks so near the election, especially because she knew that Brooks had expected to be the Vice Presidential candidate himself. Senator Brooks took them from the reception area through to Pete Parkin’s office. It was the first time Florentyna had seen the room she might occupy in a few weeks and she was surprised by the warmth, with its yellow walls and ivory molding. Fresh flowers sat on Parkin’s mahogany desk, and the walls were hung with Remington oil paintings. Parkin’s love of the West, Florentyna thought. The late summer sun flooded in through the south-facing windows.
Pete Parkin jumped up from behind his desk and came over to greet her, just a little too effusively. Then they all sat around a table in the center of the room.
‘I think you all know Ralph,’ said Pete Parkin with a slightly uncomfortable laugh. ‘He’s worked out a campaign strategy which I am sure you’ll find most impressive.’
Ralph Brooks unfolded a large map of the United States on the table in front of them. ‘I feel the main consideration to keep uppermost in our minds is that to capture the White House we must have two hundred and seventy electoral college votes. Although it is obviously important and satisfying to win the popular vote, as we all know it’s still the electoral college which selects the next President. For this reason, I have colored the states black that I feel we have least chance of winning, and white those that are traditionally safe in the Democrat column. That leaves the key swing states, which I’ve marked in red, which between them make up one hundred and seventy-one electoral college votes.
‘I believe both Pete and Florentyna should visit all the red states at least once, but Pete should concentrate his energies in the South while Florentyna spends most of her time in the North. Only California, with its massive forty-five electoral votes, will have to be visited by both of you regularly. During the sixty-two days left before the election, we must use every spare minute on states where we have a genuine chance and make only token visits to those fringe areas we captured in the 1964 landslide. As for our own white states, we must be prepared to visit them all once so that we cannot be accused of taking them for granted. I consider Ohio a no-hoper as it’s Russell Warner’s home state, but we mustn’t let the Republicans assume Florida is theirs just because Warner’s running mate was once the state’s senior senator. Now, I’ve also worked out a daily routine for you both, starting next Monday,’ he continued, handing the candidate and Florentyna separate sheaves of paper, ‘and I think you should be in contact with each other at least twice a day, at eight o’clock in the morning and eleven o’clock at night, always Central Time.’
Florentyna found herself impressed by the work Ralph Brooks had put in before the briefing and could appreciate why Parkin had become so reliant on him. For the next hour Brooks answered queries that arose from his plan and agreement was reached on their basic strategy for the campaign. At twelve-thirty the Vice President and Florentyna walked on to the north portico of the White House to speak to the press. Ralph Brooks seemed to have statistics for everything: The press, he warned them, was divided like everyone else. One hundred and fifty papers with twenty-two million readers were already supporting the Democrats, while one hundred and forty-two with twenty-one point seven million readers were backing the Republicans. If they needed to know, he added, he could supply the relevant facts for any paper in the country.
Florentyna looked out across the lawn at Lafayette Square, dotted with lunchtime strollers and picnickers. If elected, she would rarely again be able to visit Washington’s parks and memorials. Not unaccompanied, anyway. Parkin escorted her back to the Vice President’s office when the press had asked all the usual questions and received the usual answers. When they returned to the office they found that Parkin’s Filipino stewards had set up lunch on the conference table. Florentyna came away from the meeting feeling a lot better about how matters were working out, especially since the Vice President had twice in the hearing of Brooks referred to their earlier agreement concerning 1996. Still Florentyna thought it would be a long time before she could totally trust Parkin.
On September 7 she flew into Chicago to start her part of the election campaign but found that even though the press was still hard put to keep up with the daily routine she put herself through, she lacked the drive that had been a trademark of her earlier campaigning.
The Brooks plan ran smoothly for the first few days as Florentyna traveled through Illinois, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. She met with no surprises until she arrived in New York, where the press was waiting in large numbers at the Albany airport. They wanted to know her views about Pete Parkin’s treatment of Chicanos. Florentyna confessed that she didn’t know what they were talking about, so they told her that the candidate had said that he had never had any trouble with Chicanos on his ranch; they were like his own children. Civil rights leaders were up in arms all over the country and all Florentyna could think of to say was, ‘I am sure he has been misunderstood or else his words have been taken out of context.’
Russell Warner, the Republican candidate, said there could be no misunderstanding. Pete Parkin was simply a racist. Florentyna kept repudiating these statements although she suspected they were rooted in truth. Both Florentyna and Pete Parkin had to break off from their scheduled plans to fly to Alabama and attend the funeral of Ralph Abernathy. Ralph Brooks described the death to an aide as timely. When Florentyna heard what he had said she nearly swore at him in front of the press.
Florentyna continued her travels through Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Virginia, before going on to California, where she was joined by Edward. Bella and Claude took them out to a restaurant in Chinatown. The manager gave them a corner alcove where no one could see them or, more importantly, hear them, but the relaxed break only lasted for a few hours before Florentyna had to fly on to Los Angeles.
The press was becoming bored with the petty squabbles between Parkin and Warner over everything except real issues, and when the two candidates appeared together on a television debate in Pittsburgh, the universal opinion was that they both lost and that the only person of Presidential stature in the whole campaign was turning out to be Senator Kane. Many journalists expressed the view that it was a tragedy that Senator Kane had ever let it be known she was willing to be Pete Parkin’s running mate.