{"id":1367,"date":"2006-05-04T20:40:00","date_gmt":"2006-05-04T20:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog2\/2006\/05\/local-politics\/"},"modified":"2006-05-04T20:40:00","modified_gmt":"2006-05-04T20:40:00","slug":"local-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/2006\/05\/local-politics\/","title":{"rendered":"Local Politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is an excerpt from a novel I started last year, called Tales Told Out of School, about local politics.<\/span><\/p>\n

I am staring at the computer screen. The editor has finally gotten back to me about the PTO alienation story and it is a no. She asks me to do a piece on preadolescent sex but because of the campaign, I decline. I also don\u2019t want to know what kids Sam\u2019s age are doing with each other\u2019s bodies. It is a scary thought. How do I really know, if all I\u2019ve taught him about safety and self-restraint, will really come into play when the pedal meets the metal? <\/p>\n

Anyway, no time. It is kind of a blessing that I got rejected, I figure, because I would not have had the time to do it all: mommy, writer, campaigner. We\u2019re going to have to do with less income for the next few months. I hope that when I\u2019m elected \u2013 if I\u2019m elected \u2013 I will have time to do freelance again.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing you have to do,\u201d Fred Slezak had said to me, \u201cIs run so hard that you knock Nonnie out of the race.\u201d Fred used to be on the School Committee, and now as our state rep. I had pulled papers at Town Hall just a week ago, and begun to collect signatures \u2013 I needed 50, but really 75 to be on the safe side \u2013 of registered voters. But still Nonnie had not declared anything. \u201cRight now,\u201d Fred continued, \u201cYou are in a contested race.\u201d<\/p>\n

A contested race is something any candidate fears, no matter the office. A contested race changes your whole life for the months of the campaign. There is not a person you can talk to freely. You have to be conscious of everything you say around town, because people will talk and when you are running a contested race, a little gossip can bring you down. Or worse, keep you from getting endorsed.<\/p>\n

Fred told me that I had to line up as many endorsements as possible, then send a letter to the local paper announcing the hundreds I had on my campaign, in the hopes of knocking Nonnie out. I got hold of the Town Meeting Member handbook and had been going down the list making my calls. <\/p>\n

I start with people I think might be open to me. Arthur Engle, a columnist for the local paper. We have spoken on occasion, and share the view that taxes are not a four-letter-word. He is a lovable curmudgeon-type, or perhaps just a curmudgeon. \u201cHi Arthur,\u201d I say, my voice thin and high, the way it gets when I\u2019m nervous, which is always.
\u201cAnnabelle! I was wondering when you\u2019d call.\u201d Arthur must have caller I.D. He sounds bemused. Why, I wonder?
\u201cOh. Have you heard that I\u2019m running for School Committee?\u201d
\u201cI have indeed.\u201d
\u201cAnd? \u201c I break a sweat.
Silence.
\u201cUm, do you think you would endorse me?\u201d
Arthur chuckles. \u201cYou know, Kiddo, I would love to, but because I\u2019m a state employee, I can\u2019t. But I think it\u2019s terrific you\u2019re doing this. Really terrific. Maybe I\u2019ll write a column about you. But no guarantees, you understand.\u201d
I swallow. \u201cOkay, thanks,\u201d I say slowly. Now I just want to get off the phone. And, moments later, I do.<\/p>\n

I resist the urge to toss the handbook in the garbage. I tell myself that this is just the campaign, not the job. There are bound to be some surprises, since I\u2019ve never done this before. Next call is to someone I don\u2019t know at all, Thompson Hall. Why not just start cold, and see where it goes?
\u201cHello?\u201d The voice is deep, patrician. I know this because he lives in one of the toniest neighborhoods in town.
\u201cHello, Mr. Hall? This is Annabelle Graham. You probably don\u2019t know who I am, but I\u2019m a mom from the Jefferson School and I\u2019m running for School Committee. I was wondering if you\u2019d consider endorsing me.\u201d
\u201cCan you tell me any reason I wouldn\u2019t?\u201d he asks, his tones moving upwards in friendly loops.
Disarmed, I laugh genuinely, and warm up. \u201cActually, no!\u201d We both laugh. I start to tell him a bit of my \u201cplatform,\u201d which is, improving things for all types of learners, making certain we are doing everything possible to attract and retain first-rate teachers.
At this point he interrupts me. \u201cDoes that include firing the ones who stink?\u201d
Again we laugh. \u201cNo, not if they\u2019re tenured,\u201d I retort, \u201cbut they will get a nasty letter in their file!\u201d
\u201cOh, that file can do such damage,\u201d Thompson says. Then, seriously, \u201cAnnabelle, I tell you what. You can definitely use my name.\u201d
\u201cThank you!\u201d
I hang up the phone, wanted to lie down, I\u2019m so exhausted. But now I have a big name, from a rich precinct.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou got Thompson Hall?\u201d My friend Diane, who got elected just last year, exclaims in disbelief when we meet at her house the following Saturday. It is a sunny but chilly day in early March. Nonnie is still in the race. \u201cGod, he\u2019s so rich I didn\u2019t even bother trying!\u201d
\u201cYeah, well. I have just been going down the list. Some say yes, some say no.\u201d
\u201cGod!\u201d Diane did not have a contested race for the entire time, she lucked out. It is a dream to be able to do that, but some say it doesn\u2019t do you any good in the long run, because you never have a chance to \u201cbuild your base.\u201d I guess that is what I\u2019m doing now, with my uncomfortable calling.
\u201cFred Slezak says I will have to raise a ton of money to do two mailings. One mailing should be soon, targeted to people who know me, asking for money. Then I have to do one closer to the election, to get people to vote for me and agree to do Dear Friend cards and stand at the polls on election day.
\u201cDear Friend cards?\u201d Diane says. \u201cI never had to do that.\u201d
Diane has this way of thinking out loud; she is amazingly unself conscious. I did not know what to say about her never having done Dear Friend cards, but I don\u2019t have to; she\u2019s already moved on to the next thought. I\u2019m certainly going to do the cards, though. I figured mine would be the size of a 3×5 index card, and would have my picture, a few key endorsers, and my platform. I would use them to hand out to people at the polls, too. People write these Dear Friend cards for you, and mail them on your behalf to their friends, asking them to vote for you. I was going to have people actually working on my behalf! I got that floating feeling in my head again, which seemed to happen often now that I was running.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is an excerpt from a novel I started last year, called Tales Told Out of School, about local politics. I am staring at the computer screen. The editor has finally gotten back to me about the PTO alienation story and it is a no. She asks me to do a piece on preadolescent sex […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pSTth-m3","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1367\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}