Chapter 106
March 28th, 1999
Laferrière Manor
It was finally time for Election Day 1999.
Harry felt absolutely exhausted and ready for this election to be over one way or another after five long months of campaigning viciously for a French Senate Seat.
When Harry had heard from other Senators about how grueling campaigning for be he realized now where they were coming from.
In order to get his message across Harry had to go on a very vigorous campaign tour where he had probably visited over one hundred places across his district meeting people talking to them and trying to get them to vote for him on Election Day.
Even with Appoline's help, it was a truly draining procedure.
But he supposed that was why Senators only had to do that every six years.
By the start of March, polls had shown him in a virtual dead heat with Senator Deraismes with the most recent poll on March 17th showing him leading by a one-point margin which was within the margin of error.
And that closeness worried Harry although he supposed it was to be expected when he was trying to unseat an incumbent Senator that had been in office for longer than he had been alive.
During the last week on the sprint to Election Day Harry had been traveling non stop talking to people and ending in a large rally that he went too with 8 other Senators.
But now the campaign was over and the only thing left was to wait with everyone else for the results to come in from all around the country.
And he would be spending the night at the manor of party Chairman Hubert Laferrière where all 33 RPR Candidates both Incumbent Senators and people like Harry who were running their first elections would be meeting to listen to the election results.
The opposing 33 UDF Candidates would be meeting in their Chairmans Brune Poirsons Manor.
Each manor had 33 Fireplaces were the opposing candidates in each race could talk to each other when the time came for one of them to concede the race.
But until then the candidates along with their families and the party leadership would be gathering in the manor while listening to the radios as the results came in.
And thus Harry arrived at the Manor with his Campaign Manager Christophe Castaner who he had met working for Sebastian.
It was now about five o'clock and the polls would not close for another hour and that would be when the first election results would end up coming in.
As they walked into the Manor Harry greeted his wife who was in their already with Appoline with a kiss on her cheek making sure to be careful around Fleurs' pregnant belly.
That was something that he hoped that after the election he would be able to focus slightly more on now that the campaigning season had ended.
He felt guilty that he had not been able to spend time with his wife and Elena over the past couple of months but the demands of campaigning were severe.
And while Election Day would be coming up today a more important thing that would be happening soon was that Fleur would be having their second child soon.
Harry promised himself that he would stop whatever he was doing when his wife went into labor.
Despite the Senate Election Harry's priorities were still crystal clear.
As they moved into the building Harry was impressed by how large the interior was along with all of the people that shuffled along the hallways.
He recognized dozens of Senators as well as staff members.
This was an impressive manor and operation they had running here.
Although Harry supposed it had to work considering this was basically the RPR Headquarters for the night and what the media had liked to term the "War Room".
The Front Entrance to the Manor was not what would be considered a War Room though.
That was where they were going to now.
In the Center of the Manor, there was a giant couch where people where relaxing on as they listened to the radio chatter about the election predictions before the actual results started to come in.
This couch was probably where they were going to spend a good part of at least the next ten hours waiting for all of the results to come in.
Long night that was going to be for sure.
Once they got into the area Appoline went off to talk with Jacqueline Maquet an important party strategist.
And Harry and Fleur ended up sitting down in a chair.
They may as well get comfortable
Harry knew he was in for the long haul now.
Harry was in what many people called the war room.
There was a room in the Manor that only the candidates could enter on Election Night.
It was a room that had a giant map of France with all of the districts drawn in as well as the districts that would be up for grabs tonight.
As soon as the first results came in the districts would start to shade in depending on who won the respective races.
It was self-updating so all of the candidates could come to the map and see how the night was turning out around the nation.
But now since the polls had yet to close the map was still all grey.
That was going to change soon as it was a few minutes before the first polls closed at 6 for seven Senate races including several potential pickups.
Unfortunately, the polls in his district would not close until nine-thirty though by hearing the remainder of the races could give him a good indicator of how his race against Senator Deraismes would go down.
He hurried back to the living room and sat down with Fleur as the radios started blaring the first election results delivered by newscasters Jacques Krabal and Valérie Rabault.
"Good Evening, Welcome to live coverage of Election Night 1999. Today voters participated
In elections that will send 33 Senators to Paris".
"We will be live as results come in from across the country and the contours of the new Senate become more clear. Polls have closed in ten districts at this hour and we are beginning to learn more about the outcomes."
"As we track the first results in the crucial swing district covering the Loire Valley where Guillaume Larrivé and Michèle Crouzet are fighting for the seat of retiring UDF Senator Danièle Cazarian".
"In that race looking mostly at the rural vote the RPR Candidate Michèle Crouzet is ahead with close to sixty percent of the vote counted with twenty percent of precincts reporting, although we would like to point out that several villages have yet to finish counting their votes yet areas that have been heavily UDF in the past including areas where Senator Cazarian won by over twenty points in 1993".
"When it comes to another UDF Retirement in the region of Alsace Laurence Vichnievsky and André Chassaigne are in a virtual dead heat with over seventy percent of the vote counted".
"Now for three races that will be key to both parties tonight. Former Senator Valérie Kaprisky is ahead with about 25 percent of the vote against the RPR Candidate Pierre Guyotat who it might be said defeated Kaprisky in 1993 and now it looks like she may end up getting her seat back
After hearing those initial results Harry joined it a side conversation with Finance Chairman Olivier Martinez who had led the parties' outreach campaign during their last bad election season in 1987.
There was good and bad news coming out of tonight but nothing yet to indicate what the balance of power in Paris would be.
Soon they were drawn to the radio again.
"We can finally project our first race in the 10th Senate District were in one of the most expensive races of this year UDF Francios Rozenthal has defeated incumbent Senator Émile Delahaye in this district on the outskirts of Paris that could be a sign of where things could go later on tonight.
Out of the corner of his eye, Harry could see Senator Delahaye leaving one of the side rooms with a pained expression on her face.
She had probably just had to concede to Rosenthal.
"We can also now project that UDF Senator Madeleine Damerment has won a third term in the Senate by defeating Marc Fesneau".
Soon realizing that there would not be any more interesting news coming in for at least another half hour or so Fleur and Harry decided to leave the living room and join a group of other party members that were relaxing on the back patio with the radios constantly on high.
The two of them ended up finding a nice couch by the pool to sit down on as they listened to the radio.
Ah, this was much better and a lot less claustrophobic than inside.
Fleur nestled her head on Harry's shoulder and he wrapped his arm around her waist as he listened to the radio as it picked up again.
"We are finally now able to project a slew of winners in various districts" It was announced.
Florence Lasserre has defeated Jacques Bompard to keep the seat in the hands of the RPR and to replace the retiring President Bayard".
They're where cries of relief all around at hearing that important victory.
On the couch across from Harry, he saw Senator Lenorman lead a few other Senators to toast Senator-Elect Lasserres Victory.
But soon the newstream continued with another piece of news that took the mickey out of the celebrations.
"In better news for the UDF though their Incumbent Senators Michel Polnareff, Stéphane Peterhansel, and Michèle Morgan defeated RPR Challengers Marguerite Deprez-Audebert, Daniel Fasquelle, and Christophe Naegelen respectively.
There was then moans from several people at hearing that news.
Those three seats were some of the party's best opportunities at pickups in the election.
"Although in two close races it is now able to be projected that RPR Senators Fernand Braudel and Charles Ranhofter were able to win their reelection bids.
"And now on the top of the hour, we can also project two UDF pickups".
"The first pickup comes where former Senator Valerie Kaprisky has won back her old seat by defeating Incumbent Senator Pierre Guyotat".
"The second pick up is more supprising where the UDF Candidate Charlotte Fréhel was able to defeat Grégory Galbadon to win the seat held by former President Delcour".
There was shock radiating out from everyone on the patio at that news.
How could that have happened since everyone was sure Galbadon was going to be able to pull over the finish line due to his role during the war and helping to organize the Switzerland War Trials.
And that made Harry nervous.
He basically had the same record as Galbadon did in Government and during the war.
Harry decided he needed to go back inside to the war room so he could see how the results of his race were turning out.
"I'll be back in a sec" Harry whispered kissing Fleur on the cheek.
"Ok," She said "Good luck".
Harry hastily walked up the stairs and back into the manor that was a hotbed of activity by this point even at nearly ten o'clock.
Senators and their staffs were hastily whispering to each other while listing to the results coming in.
As he walked into the War Room Harry heard other pieces of encouraging news.
Out of the 13 Remaining Seats that the party was holding onto another five races had been projected for the RPR Incumbent.
On the flip side of that, a lot of the UDF Seats had now been called though.
As he walked to the map he heard a message on the radio.
"The RPR Candidate Michèle Crouzet has now been projected to win the open seat by Guillaume Larrivé and in the Sixty-Third District with another UDF Retirement Laurence Vichnievsky has been projected to win the seat by narrowly defeating the UDF Candidate André Chassaigne although with the close margin it looks like the Chassaigne will ask for a recount".
"With losses on both sides, the current balance is even".
Finishing listening Harry moved to see his district on the map.
His race was incredibly close across the whole region.
It was encouraging to see how much of the countryside Harry was winning but it was also discouraging to see the large margin Senator Deraismes was racking up in the key Chalons Area.
So with only half the votes in and the race a virtual dead tie that meant that it could still be some time before he knew if he had won or not and if he would become a Senator.
He also saw another person come up to look at his district's results.
It was the Party Press Secretary Geneviève Darrieusse.
She nodded upon seeing the results.
"Good job Delcour," She said, "You might be able to get us another pickup".
"You think I can win," Harry asked incredulously.
"Sure," She said, "I've been in this business for a while and I know Senator Deraismes and I now that if there is any candidate in the past twenty years that can defeat her it is you".
"Thanks" He stammered proud to have the confidence of such a powerful party figure.
"No Problem," She said walking over to another group of people.
Harry took one more look at the close numbers.
Dear Merlin.
This was going to be a long night.
Author Note Yes I did not end up writing the campaign but it was simply visiting places and talking to people
And the manor had 33 fireplaces because it was specifically tailored to be party headquarters during an election season.
Right now Harry and Senator Deraismes are in a dead heat on who will win the Senate Race.
Hope you enjoy