The Candidate (Romantic Suspense) (The Candidate Series) by Josie Brown Page A

grow small-minded and mean-spirited as our politics have devolved and our goals have dissolved. But of course it doesn’t have to be this way.” 
    He then paused in front of a young couple. Taking their hands in his own, he nudged them to rise so that they stood with him. “But real change comes from people . Citizens like you, and like me, who demand more of government, and who recognize that educating our children and securing the benefits of modern healthcare for rich and poor alike are of greater importance than the politics of greed and personal gain.” 
    Victoriously, he raised their hands high. “With me as your president, you’ll have the government you deserve.” The whole room rose, clapping and hooting, and Ben along with it. The crowd’s adoration was contagious. 
    Listen to them, Ben thought. If the primaries were held today, he’d win. No contest.
    “You’re some lucky dog, ain’t you now? Your man there is pure gold.” The good ol’ boy growling into Ben’s earpiece was Eddie Klein, the renowned ad man. The very first person recruited by Ben for Team Mansfield, Ed had come with a couple of cameramen to tape some man-of-the-people crowd shots. From them he would mold the senator’s vision into simple market-specific soundbites, and see that the public was hit over the head with it every time they turned on their TV or logged onto their computers. 
    Ben looked up to the control booth above and behind the audience, and gave Eddie a thumbs-up. Hell yeah, Andy was golden. A god among men.
    And he’d soon be the next President of the United States.
    In a whirlwind six days—just in time for Ben and Andy’s first eleven-city road trip together—Ben had hobbled together a fairly decent staff that included twenty-five paid professionals, plus another ten volunteers. Besides Eddie for advertising and Kenny for background and due diligence, there was Jilly O’Connor, a seasoned press secretary whose blunt honesty kept her on the good side of reporters and pundits.
    And there was Spike Levine, the pollster who had revolutionized the industry when he took registration-based sampling one step further by marrying it to a software program that searched voters’ credit card charges for items reflecting hot button issues such as healthcare, education, gun control, gasoline, and philanthropies, giving his polls an accuracy level of plus-or-minus one percent. 
    Ben had also wrangled retired Air Force Major General Carver Elson, and former Secretary of State John Parks, as Andy’s foreign-policy advisers. Elson would rally other high profile experts into a fluid advisory team that would always be at the senator’s fingertips. Parks joined Mansfield’s road show. An A-Team of economic advisors was also set up, including economists, former CEOs of various financial institutions, even a former Secretary of the Treasury. They all had one thing in common: they abhorred Talbot’s neocon-driven agenda. “His BS is dividing the party, and putting our soldiers in harm’s way unnecessarily,” growled Elson.
    Of course Paul Twist was the campaign’s finance chair. And he had already hired Terry Loehman to spearhead the big-ticket fundraisers in key markets. Terry was to be aided by his longtime partner Pat, a professional event planner. Both had Ben’s admiration.
    The biggest recruiting coup was convincing the renowned Mallory sisters, Bess and Tess, to run Mansfield’s ground war: that is, organize and rally the senator’s national volunteer corps by precincts, districts and states. But Ben could take no credit for that win. Democratic stalwarts through and through, initially they had declined his invitation to hop the fence. What it took was a one-on-one meeting with Andy. After hearing his heartfelt no-holds-barred pitch, they readily jumped onboard. 
    “Dreamy,” was what Tess called him. Or was it Bess? Ben could never tell the roly-poly gray-haired sisters apart.
    Like now, as one of them