Girl Power (8 page)

"Well, it was high priority. Come let's go into the lunchroom. Brenda and

Carla are serving lunch."

The lunchroom doubled as a copy room, with a copy machine and storage

cabinet against one wall and several vending machines against the far wall. The

room was large enough to hold four, square tables, two of which had been set

together for the luncheon.

Brenda and Carla faced a miniature kitchen with a sink, refrigerator,

microwave, plus upper and lower cabinets. Sally stepped up to them. "What're you doing?"

Carla and Brenda spun around.

Sally grinned. "Hi girls."

Brenda smiled. "Hi Sally. We were waiting for you. Now, we can eat."

"Smells good." Sally eased closer to the counter. "What do you have there?"

"I brought home made lasagna and Brenda is making tacos."

Brenda's lips curved up into one of her patented, toothy, white smiles. "And you can have sides of beans, chips and salsa. What would you like?"

"I'd like a little of everything."

"Coming right up."

Kelly sidled up to Sally. "I'd like you to meet our benefactors."

Two men stood beside Kelly facing Sally. "Sally, this is Constantino

Aguilera. He's distantly related to my husband, Ricardo. Tino, this is our next

senator, Sally Cummings."

The smiling Latino offered his hand. He was a few inches taller than her

five-seven, wiry, but muscular with an oval face, and brown eyes. "Tino?" She shook his hand.

"Yes ma'am. People call me Tino, for short. I'm very happy to meet you. I've been a fan of yours for a while. Since I discovered you were receptive to minority needs."

"Are, you from Baltimore?"

"Yes, ma'am, we're all from Baltimore."

Kelly nudged Sally. "And this gentleman is Herman Nelsen. He's a friend of

Tino's."

Herman was big—football big, tight end big—with receding, sandy hair,

sad blue eyes and a bit of a paunch. Sally accepted his offered handshake. "I'm pleased to meet you both, and I want to thank you both from the bottom of my

heart for what you've done for us. How on earth did you get it done so fast?"

"Well with the weather being so mild, we worked two shifts."

"But, how were you able to work at night?"

Tino answered, "We brought in portable lighting and heaters."

Herman added, "Yeah, what we didn't have, we rented on your dime. Even

so, I don't think it was more than a few hundred dollars. The material will be

quite a bit more though, I'm afraid."

"Well, you did fine. I'm so impressed at everything you've done. Carla,

would you fix Tino and Herman a plate so they can join us?"

~ * * ~

Herman pushed back from the table and rubbed his tummy. "That sure was

good, ladies. Thanks for the early dinner."

Tino set his napkin beside his empty plate. "Yes, that was great."

"After what you did, it was our pleasure."

Tino glanced away. "One of the reasons we agreed to work for you was we

wanted the opportunity to talk with you."

"Yeah." Herman added. "We weren't being sneaky or anything. We just wanted to be able to talk to someone who seemed to care."

Knowing how things had been rough for so many people, Sally felt a pang

of empathy. "Well, I'm your congresswoman so go ahead and talk."

Herman leaned forward and set his elbows on the table. "Well it's like this.

Tino and I know the whole country is having troubles, with hundreds of

thousands of public sector employees being laid off and all, but no segment of

the country has been harder hit than the construction industry. It's like a tsunami hit our industry and washed everything away. There's no construction now

because people can buy a repossessed house or office building for half of what it would cost to build. And that's without the hassle of architects, engineers,

building departments and on and on."

Sally took a deep breath. "What happened to the construction industry is a

travesty. Some greedy people played fast and loose with your livelihoods, and

without even knowing you were in the game, you lost."

"Ain't that the truth," said Tino, "but you know what?"

"What?" Lindy asked.

"The President keeps talking about jobs bills. Jobs to fix the roads and

highways and jobs to repair the bridges, but nothing ever happens. Nothing ever

comes though."

"I know. It's lousy and I'm sorry, but it's politics."

Herman shook his head. The look on his face was one of total incredulity.

"Let me get this straight. Greedy people took our livelihoods and when the

President wants to give us some work, politics stops him from doing that."

Sally sighed. "I know it isn't fair."

Tino raised his hand to get Sally's attention. "I have a question."

"Yes, Tino."

"Some farmers get subsidies. In some cases, the government pays them not

to grow corn, wheat etc. We're not building houses or commercial buildings.

Why can't the government pay us not to build, like they pay farmers not to

grow?"

Sally got a kick out of their logic, but held back a chuckle. "It does seem like it's only fair, but those programs have been going on for years in an industry that is subject to so many outside influences, every year, it's like a gamble. Besides all governments have money problems. That's why so many teacher, first responder

and public employee positions got eliminated."

Herman frowned. "You know, Tino is a Democrat and I'm a Republican. We

argue some, but overall, we get along fine. But with the people we elect, it's a different story. They fight like cats and dogs. We're both sick of it. I know your new party is for women, but our parties being run by men brought us

insolvency. Do you take men?"

"Yes we do, Brenda would be happy to sign you up and since you've been

so helpful, you won't have to pay a dime."

Lindy nudged Sally. "I just got a text message from Millie that you need to see." Lindy handed her phone to Sally.

When will Sally be back? She had call from DNC Chairman.

"Looks like she wants to talk with you."

"Is there a phone in my new office?"

Lindy nodded.

"Good, let's see what Ms. Scholtz Waters wants."

~ * * ~

"Democratic National Committee, Can I help you?"

"Yes, this is Sally Cummings returning Debra Scholtz Waters' call from not

long ago."

"One moment while I see if she's still in."

"Hello, Sally. This is Debra Waters. I've never met you, but I've heard

nothing but good things about you."

"Thank you, Ms. Waters. I'm definitely a fan of yours. What can I do for

you?" "That's a good question. I understand you're behind this new girl-power political party called SAFE."

"That's right. Lindy Rollins and I started it."

"That's what I heard. If you don't mind my asking, how is it going?"

"So far the response has exceeded our wildest expectations."

"Oh, how many members have you signed up?"

"We're not ready to get into numbers at this time. Let's just say we're ahead of where we wanted to be."

"And are you signing up candidates as well?"

"Yes. We have a dozen, in only a few days. We expect to be competitive in

most national, state and local races. Now, if I may ask a question of you, what is the reason for your call?"

"I just want to make sure you've thought through the ramifications of this

crusade you've started. You know a third party is going to upset the balance of

power in Washington."

"That's all? We're counting on shaking things up all the way down to

student councils."

She laughed. "A sense of humor, I like that. As a woman, I'm with you, but

as a democrat, I have to advise you that what you are doing may severely

damage our party."

"Debra, may I call you that?"

"Of course."

"Debra, when I say I'm an admirer of you, I wasn't kidding. If I were to

picture the ideal woman to lead this party, it would have been you—you aren't

interested are you?"

Debra laughed. "I'm flattered, but you know I can't. Besides, I've read your website. My guess is I'm a little too liberal for your party and that's my point.

You realize a centrist party is going to draw unequally from democrats and

republicans, which will only make the Republicans stronger. Then they may get

even more adventuresome than they have been, if that's possible."

"Debra, you are half right. We will, and indeed, we are drawing three times as many democrats as republicans, but you are forgetting the independents. Six

in ten of our new members describe their previous party affiliation as

independent or none. So far, more of our membership will come from

unrepresented independents than GOP or democrats.

"Think about it. If we get enough candidates to win seats, no one will have a majority. Republicans will have to work with you or us, and you'll have to work

with them or us to get anything passed. Gridlock and filibustering will be broken and sanity will return to government."

"Sounds idyllic, but I'm sure there's some consequence we haven't thought

about. It's late, I'd better go for now. I've enjoyed talking with you. Would you care if I call again?"

"I look forward to it."

Chapter Six – Day Ten

I suspect as the GOP gets more bizarre, a quiet defection will occur

- Dee Dawning

"Brenda Morris, may I help you?"

"Brenda baby, I need to talk with you. Can you meet me for lunch?"

"Mickey?"

"The one and only."

"How did you get this number?"

The lady at Sally Cummings office gave the number to me. She said you

work at a new office in Silver Spring now and she'll be there too as soon as she trains the new secretary. Aren't I supposed to have this number?"

"I guess it's all right since you're working with us. What do you need?"

"I've been working non-stop to get exposure for SAFE and it's finally

starting to pay off. Can you go to lunch with me?"

Brenda wrapped the phone cord around her fingers. "You can come here for

lunch. I'll split my egg salad sandwich with you."

"Can't get away, huh?"

"Not right now. We just moved in here and I have a ton of things to do."

"All right. Where are you?"

She spun her chair around. "Our new office is at the corner of Chase and

Brindle. You can't miss it. Look for the pink white and blue building."

"Got it. See you in twenty minutes."

~ * * ~

Lindy picked up her ringing phone. "Hello."

"Hi, Lindy, it's Jenn."

"Hi, Jenn, what's up?"

"I have answers for some of the things you asked me about."

"Great. What'd you find out?"

"No one seems to think a group health insurance policy would be a

problem."

"Fantastic. We'll start soliciting insurance companies right away. Anything else?" "Oh, yes. I hired six college students to track down possible candidates and we have a very thorough list of six hundred women including a bio on each."

For a few seconds, Lindy sat speechless. "Wow. I don't know what I'll do

with it, but get it to me a.s.a.p."

Lindy hung up, thought for a few seconds and dialed her friend's number.

"Hello."

"Kelly, it's Lindy."

"Hi, what can I do for you?"

"I seem to be in deep water, over my head, and I'm drowning."

"What's the matter?"

"When it comes to running single campaigns, I can hold my own against

anyone, but we're going to be running multiple local, state and national

campaigns across the spectrum, across the country."

"How can I help?"

"We have a score of candidates lined up from Virginia to Washington and

we're adding three or four a day now. Jenn just called and she's sending me a list of six-hundred possible candidates and I don't know where to begin. Kelly, I

know I need help and the way money is coming in, we can afford it, but if I had a dozen employees under me, I wouldn't know what to tell them. What I need is

someone who has run a national campaign. A winning national campaign."

"I can see why you're worried. The idea of running hundreds of campaigns

is daunting, but I think you're looking at it wrong. I can tell you're a hands-on person and that's why you've been successful in statewide campaigns, but for a

national campaign, each campaign from Podunk, Ohio to Poughkeepsie, New

York needs their own campaign manager. Your job, as I see it, is to keep track

and lend support to the various campaigns—not to run them. You can't be

ordering yard signs for Jane Doe in Saginaw, Michigan from D.C."

"That makes sense. I feel better already."

"Good. Now, I do happen to know…well that's not exactly true. My great

uncle is a sharp old bird who used to run national campaigns, but of course, he's a man and a Republican."

Lindy laughed. "Kelly, I'm looking for help, not purity. Who is he and

would he be interested in helping?"

"He might. He's in his sixties, but you'd never know it. He looks younger,

he's active, and his mind is sharp. Have you ever heard of Lee Casey?"

"Sounds familiar. Can you sound him out?"

"No, but Grandpa will."

~ * * ~

Brenda looked up when she heard a knock on the open door of her office.

When she realized it was Mickey, she exhaled every ounce of breath in her lungs.

"Hi, beautiful." He winked.

Mickey was dressed casual for a change, in Levis's and a Nickleback T-shirt.

She forced herself to breathe, then answered, "Hi handsome." She laughed. "Are you ready to split my egg salad sandwich?"