The Prodigal Daughter (58 page)

“Ladies and
gentlemen,” he said. I know the candidate will be delighted to answer your
questions.”

Half the people
io
the room started to speak at once and Edward nodded to a
man in the third row to indicate that he could ask the first question.

“Albert Hunt of
The Wall Street Journal,
“ he
said. “Senator Kane, who
do you think will be your toughest opponent?”

“The Republican
candidate,” she said without hesitation. There was a ripple of laughter and
some applause. Edward smiled and called for the next question.

“Senator Kane,
is this really a bid to be Pete Parkin’s running mate?”

“No, I am not
interested in the office of Vice President,” replied Florentyna. “At best it’s
a period of stagnation while you wait around in the hope -of doing the real
job. At worst 1 353 am reminded of Nelson Rockefeller’s words: ‘Don’t take the
number two spot unless you’re up for a four-year advanced seminar in political
science and a lot of state funerals.’ I’m not in the mood for either.”

“Do you feel
America is ready for a woman President?”

“Yes, I do,
otherwise I would not be willing to run for the office, but I will be in a
better position to answer that question on November third.”

“Do you think
the Republicans might select a woman?”

“No, they don’t
have the courage for such a bold move. They’ll watch the Democrats make a
success of the idea and copy it when the next election comes around.”

“Do you feel you
have enough experience to hold this office?”

“I have bLt~n a
wife, a mother, the chainnan of a multimillion-dollar corporation, a member of
the House for eight years and a senator for seven. In the public career I’ve
chosen, the Presidenc~ is the number one spot. So yes, I believe I am now
qualified for that job.”

“Do you expect
the success of your Welfare Act to help you with the votes of the poor and
black communities?”

“I hope the act
will bring me support from every sector. My main intent with that piece of
legislation was to ensure that both those who contribute to welfare through
taxation and those who benefit from the legislation will feel that the
provisions made are-just and humane in a modern society.”

“After the
Russian invasion of Yugoslavia, would your administration take a harder line
with the Kremlin?”

“After Hungary,
Czechoslovakia, Afghanistan, Poland and now Yugoslavia, the latest Soviet
offensive on the Pakistan border reinforces my long-standing conviction that we
must remain vigilant in the defense of our people. We must always remember that
the fact that the two biggest oceans on earth have protected us in the past is
no guarantee of our safety in the future.”

“The President
has described you as a hawk in dove’s clothing.”

“I’m not sure if
that’s a comment on my dress or my looks, but I suspect that the combination of
those two birds looks not unlike the American eagle.”

“Do you feel we
can keep a special relationship with Europe after the election results in
France and Britain?”

“The decision of
the French to return to a Gaullist government while the British voted for a new
Labor administration does not greatly concern me. Michel Chirac and Roy
Hattersley have both proved to be good friends of America in the past and I see
no reason why that should change in the future.”

“Do you expect
Ralph Brooks’s support for your campaign?”

It was the first
question that took Florentyna by surprise. “Perhaps you should ask him. But I
naturally hope that Senator Brooks will feet pleased by my decision.” She could
think of nothing else to add.

“Senator Kane,
do you approve of the current primary system?”

“No. Although
I’m not a supporter of a national primary, the present system is by any
standards archaic. America seems to have developed a process for the selection
of a President that is more.
responsive
to the demands
of the network news programs than it is to the needs of modem government. It
also encourages dilettante candidates. Today, you have a better chance of
becoming President if you are temporarily out of work, having been left several
million by your grandmother. You then have four years off to devote to running
around the country collecting
delegates,
while the
people best qualified for the I job are probably doing a Ul day’s work
elsewhere. If I became President, I would seek to send a bill to the Congress
which would not handicap anyone from running for the Presidency through lack of
time or money. We must reinstate the age-old precept that anyone born in this
country, with both the desire to serve and the ability to do the job, will not
find themselves disqualified before the first voter goes to the polls.”

The questions
continued to come to Florentyna from all parts of the room and she took the
last one over an hour later.

“Senator Kane,
if you become President, will you be like Washington and never tell a lie or
like Nixon and have your own definition of the truth?”

“I cannot
promise I will never lie. We all lie, sometimes to protect a friend or a member
of our family and if I were President perhaps to protect my country. Sometimes
we lie just because we don’t want to be found out.

The one thing I
can assure you ofis that I am the only woman in America who has never been able
to lie about her age.” When the laughter died down, Florentyna remained
standing. “I’d like to end this press conference by saying that whatever the
outcome of my decision today, I wish to express my thanks as an American for
the fact that the daughter of an immigrant has found it possible to run for the
highest office in the land. I don’t believe such an ambition would be
attainable in any other country in the world.”

Florentyna’s
life began to change the moment she left the room; four Secret Service agents
formed a circle around the candidate, the lead one skillfully creating a
passage for her through the mass of people.

Florentyna
smiled when Brad Staimes introduced himself and explained that for the duration
of her candidacy.
there
would alwa~ s be four agents
with her night and day, working in eight-hour shifts. Florentyna couldn’t help
noticing that two of the agents were women whose build and physical appearance
closely resembled her own. She thanked Staimes but never quite became used to
seeing one of the agents whenever she turned her head.

Their tiny
earphones distinguished them from well-wisher~
,,
and
Florentyna recalled the story about an elderly lady who attended a Nixon rally
in 1972. She approached a Nixon aide at the end of the candidate’s speech and
said she would definitely vote for his re-election because he obviously
sympathized with those who, like herself, were hard of hearing.

Following the
press conference, Edward chaired a strategy meeting in Florentyna’s office to
work out a rough schedule for the coming campaign.

The Vice President
had some time before announced that he was a candidate and several other
contestants had thrown their hats into the ring, but the press had already
decided that the real battle was going to be between Kane and Parkin.

Edward had lined
up a formidable team of pollsters, finance chairmen and policy advisors who
were well supplemented by Florentyna’s seasoned staff in Washington, still led
by Janet Brown.

First Edward
outlined his day-by-day plan leading up to the first primary in New Hampshire,
and from there to California, all the way to the convention floor in Detroit.
Florentyna had tried to arrange for the convention to be held in Chicago but
the Vice President vetoed the idea: he wasn’t challenging Florentyna on her
home ground. He reminded the Democratic committee that the choice of Chicago
and the riots that followed might have been the single reason that Humphrey
lost to Nixon in 1968.

Florentyna had
already faced the fact that it would be almost impossible for her to beat the
Vice President in the southern states, so it was vital that she get off to a
strong start in New England and the Midwest. She agreed that during the next
three months she would devote seventy-five percent of her energies to the
campaign, and for several hours her team threw around ideas for the best use of
that time.

It was also
agreed that she would make regular trips to the major cities that voted in the
first three primaries and, if she made a strong showing in New Hampshire, a
traditionally conservative area, they would plan their forward strategy
accordingly.

Florentyna dealt
with as much of her Senate work as possible between making frequent trips to
New Hampshire, Vermont and Massachuietts. Edward had chartered a six-seater
Lear jet for her with two pilots available around the clock so that she could
leave Washington at a moment’s notice.

All three
primary states had set up strong campaign headquarters, and everywhere
Florentyna went she spotted as many “Kane for President” posters and bumper
stickers as she did for Pete Parkin.

With only seven
weeks left until the first primary, Florentyna began to spend more and more of
her time chasing the 147,000 registered Democrats in the state. Edward did not
expect her to capture more than 30 percent of the votes, but he felt that might
well be enough to win the primary and persuade doubters that she was an
electoral asset. Florentyna needed every delegate she could secure before they
arrived in the South, even if possible to pass the magic 1,666 by the time she
reached the convention hall in Detroit.

The early signs
were good. Florentyna’s private pollster, Kevin Palumbo, assured her that the
race with the Vice President was running neck and neck, and Gallup and Harris
seemed to confirm that view. Only 7 percent of the voters said they would not
under any circumstances vote for a woman, but Florentyna knew just how
important 7 percent could be if the final outcome was close.

Florentyna’s
schedule included brief stops at more than 150 of New Hampshire’s 250 small
towns. Despite the hectic nature of each day, she grew to love the classical
New England mill towns, the crustiness of the Granite State’s farmers and the
stark beauty of its winter landscape.

She served as
starter for a dogsled race in Franconia and visited the most northerly
settlement near the Canadian border. She teamed to respect the penetrating
insights of local newspaper editors, many of whom had retired from high-level
jobs with national magazines and news services.

She avoided
discussions of one particular issue after discovering that New Hampshire
residents stoutly defended their right to oppose a state income lax, thus
attracting a host of high-income professionals from across the Massachusetts
border.

More than once
she had occasion to be thankful for the death of William Loeb, the newspaper
publisher whose outrageous misuse of the Manchester Union-Leader had helped
destroy the candidacies of Edmund Muskie and George Bush before her. It was no
secret that Loeb had had no time for women in politics.

Edward was able
to report that money was flowing into their headquarters in Chicago and “Kane
for President” offices were springing up in every state. Some of them had more
volunteers than they could physically accommodate; the overspill turned dozens
of living rooms and garages throughout America into makeshift campaign
headquarters.

In the final
seven days before the first primary, Flarentyna was interviewed by Barbara
Walters, Dan Rather and Frank Reynolds, as well as appearing on all three major
morning news programs. As Andy Miller, her press secretary, pointed out,
fifty-two million people watched her interview with Barbara Walters and it
would have taken over five hundred years to shake the hands of that number of
voters in New Hampshire. Nevertheless, her local managers saw to it that she
visited nearly every home for the aged in the state.

Despite this,
Florentyna had to pound the streets of New Hampshire towns, shaking hands with
papermill workers in Berlin, as ~
,vell
as with the
somewhat inebriated denizens of the VFW and American Legion posts, which seemed
to exist in every town. She learned to work the ski-lift lines in the smaller
hills rather than the famous resorts, which were often peopled by a majority of
nonvoting visitors from New York or Massachusetts.

If she failed
with this tiny electorate of the northern tip of America, Florentyna knew it
would raise major doubts about her credibility as a candidate.

Whenever she
arrived in a city, Edward was always there to meet her and he never let her
stop until the moment she stepped back onto her plane.

Edward told her
that they could thank heaven for the curiosity valLIC of a woman candidate. His
advance team never had to worry about filling any hall where Florentyna was to
speak, with potted plants rather than with Granite State voters.

Pete Park-in,
who had a good-luck streak with funeral duty, -----
,Proved
that the Vice President had little else to do: he spent more time in the state
than Florentyna could. On the eve of the primary Edward was able to show that someone
on the Kane team had contacted by phone, letter or personal visit 125,000 of
the 147,000 registered Democrats; but, he added, obviously so had Pete Parkin
because many of them had remained noncommittal and some even hostile.