Miranda's War by Foster Howard;

Author:Foster, Howard;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Liberty Island
Published: 2016-06-10T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Seven

The next morning Stephen had an email and voicemail from the Governor’s office. His request for an appointment was accepted. Governor Samuelson would see him tomorrow at 10:00. He and Miranda spent that afternoon with his media team producing a commercial using some of the footage from Miranda’s town meeting movie. There were the aerial shots of Lincoln, the stately homes. Then the anti-snob zoning bill was explained by an announcer in five seconds, tiny houses popped up, the schools were overcrowded, property taxes rose, the towns blended into sprawl. By noon the piece was in the hands of his media buyer and would begin airing tomorrow, five days before the primary.

The Governor’s assistant in the outer office asked Stephen to sign the register, which he did, noting his occupation as “Congressional candidate” to avoid any potential misrepresentation. He was then led into a waiting area. At 10:02 another assistant introduced himself and led him to the double doors of the Governor’s office, knocked and then opened them without receiving a response. The Governor, on the phone at his desk, motioned for Stephen to sit down. He took a seat on a long couch and waited.

“I meant here, so we can chat like friends,” said the Governor, briefly interrupting the call and pointing to one of the chairs right by his desk.

Stephen complied, sat down again and stared directly into the Governor’s eyes, which were distorted by thick professorial glasses. Samuelson was completely bald, except for a band of gray around the back. Hearing him speak, in his accentless educated tone, Stephen, like most of the public, felt reassured, as if the man were talking sense, and devoid of political jargon.

The Governor ended his call and turned toward Stephen.

“So how goes things on the trail?”

“Not so well, as you probably know. I haven’t found my niche issue—so far.”

“And now this Miranda Dalton has given you food for thought?”

“She has.”

“Look at John Adams,” he said, pointing to a huge portrait across the office over the mantel. “Did you know he wrote the Massachusetts Constitution?”

“No, I have to admit …”

“And it said only Protestants could serve as Governor. And I’m not even a Christian. I suppose I should have it taken down.”

“And your point is?”

“The more things change, the more they stay the same. In his time we had revolution. And now I’ve got this little group of would-be revolutionaries from the same town.”

“They’re from Lincoln, next door.”

“Lincoln was part of Concord. You should know that.”

“Can you help stop this anti-snob zoning bill?”

“It was going nowhere, and I had no intention of supporting it,” the Governor said. “Now that she’s been talking about it, some people are interested in scheduling hearings. Her town meeting speech, the bit about Gulliver and the Lilliputians, that’s gone viral.”

“I know. I Googled ‘Lincoln’ and ‘snob zoning.’”

“We’ve done business with you. You’ve made a nice profit on state bond business. I expect you will contain this.”

“Governor, I’m here to get you to meet us halfway. Come out against the bill now, then I can.

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