Donna sat in her hotel room in New Hampshire, watching CNN. The political story of the day was the anti-Hoynes ad the Russell campaign had just released. She'd been opposed to the ad from the minute she'd seen it. She had told Will it was too negative, but he hadn't listened. And in fact, it was having the effect Will had been hoping for: it was so shocking that it was being discussed on the news, and played over and over again for free. Still, she had to wonder: was the adage 'there's no such thing as bad publicity' really true when it came to politics?
She turned her attention to the television:
"And here's a clip of the ad that is generating so much controversy," the CNN news anchor told viewers before playing the footage:
"As Vice President, Hoynes praised Pakistan's defense minister as a 'bold thinker'," the ad's narrator intoned. "So bold, he may now be selling nuclear secrets to Nigeria. You can't take America's side by taking both sides. John Hoynes: whose side is he on?"
"The Hoynes campaign, not surprisingly, has cried foul, calling it a, quote, 'disgusting attack on John Hoynes' patriotism,'" the anchor continued, speaking to a network analyst. "Do they have a point?"
"Well, I think they do," the analyst responded. "In fact, it really goes beyond simply impugning Hoynes' patriotism. This ad comes dangerously close to suggesting treason. I have to say, it's about the most brutal attack ad I can remember seeing in my many years of covering politics. Certainly the most brutal primary ad, attacking a member of a candidate's own party, that I can remember."
"Well, for the record, the Russell campaign says they're not questioning Hoynes' patriotism, but rather his judgment," the anchor commented. "They also point to an ad put out by the Hoynes campaign on Russell's Colorado mining connections, and argue that the Hoynes campaign is the one who went negative first."
"And there's no denying, the ad put out by Hoynes was harsh as well," the analyst agreed. "But I have to say, I don't think it crossed the line in anywhere near the way the Russell ad did."
Donna muted the TV, feeling disgusted. She grabbed her cell phone and called Will.
"Are you watching CNN?" she asked.
"Yep," he responded, not sounding unhappy with the network's coverage of the ad.
"I think we need to pull the ad."
"Donna, we've been over this. We knew the ad would generate controversy. That was the point."
"Are we really so threatened by Hoynes that we need to be this brutal? Are there some poll numbers you're not telling me about? Because last time I checked, we're the front runners."
"Yes, and we want to stay that way."
"This ad makes us look like bullies, trashing another Democrat even though we're in the lead. In fact, it makes us look worse than that. We can attack Hoynes' policies all we want, but to suggest that he's not on America's side? And that just maybe he's on Pakistan's side instead? Really, Will? Is that the kind of campaign we want to run? Because I'm telling you, it's going to infuriate Democratic voters. They get mad enough when Republicans question their patriotism. How are they going to react to us doing it to a fellow Democrat?" She took a deep breath. That was as forceful as she'd been with Will since she'd taken the job. She hoped he wouldn't take it too badly.
"We're not questioning his patriotism. We're questioning his judgment." Will repeated their talking point.
"Will, I'm not the media, don't spin me."
"Okay, okay," he sighed. "Look, I know you're new to this kind of thing, and I get that it can be upsetting to hear the talking heads criticizing our ad. But the point is that while they're criticizing it, they're playing it. Over and over. It's going to be burned into voters' heads. And we did research on this ad. Focus groups at the mall. They told us it worked. And look at the results so far. We got that reporter to use the words "Hoynes" and "treason" in the same breath. The ad is effective, Donna. Shocking and negative, maybe, but effective."
"I guess that's all that matters," Donna tried to keep the sarcasm out of her voice.
"In politics, yes, most of the time that is all that matters."
She sighed and hung up the phone. She glanced at her contacts list, scrolling down to Josh's name. She wondered if she should call him. Not to talk about the ad or the campaign, of course, but just to hear a friendly voice.
But would it be a friendly voice? She knew he undoubtedly wanted to talk to her as well. A few weeks ago, they'd found themselves staying in hotel rooms across the hall from each other in Iowa. She'd watched through her peephole as he'd come to her door, almost knocked, and then changed his mind and gone back into his room. She wondered what he'd wanted to say. Did he miss her? Was he angry with her? Or both?
Plus, she was a little upset with Josh herself. When she'd run into him on the campaign trail a couple weeks ago, he'd taken the opportunity to tell her she was on the wrong campaign – like she would really consider bailing on the Russell campaign to join a losing effort like Santos for President – and then he'd asked what "make-work" job Will had her doing. As if he found it so unbelievable that she might actually have a substantial contribution to make to the Russell campaign – imagine his amazement at discovering she could do more than just answer phones. She'd loved throwing her job description in his face. And the icing on the cake had been when she'd paraded out the baskets of letters the Russell campaign was delivering to the DNC, urging them to protect the New Hampshire primary – a dig at Santos, who had taken some heat over an eight-year-old quote criticizing New Hampshire's status in the primaries.
She sighed. She was under enough stress as it was. She couldn't call Josh now and take the chance of getting in an argument which would make her even more upset. And besides, at least for the moment, they were competitors. Maybe she'd wait for the Santos campaign to burn out and then try to patch things up with him.