"New Rasmussen Pennsylvania poll!" Will announced as he walked into their Pennsylvania field office. "We're dead even. 40-40. 9% Hoynes die-hards, and 11% undecided.
"Quinnipiac had Santos up 4 today," Donna countered.
"Ahh, who cares. They have a pro-Santos bias."
"Oh I see, so you only trust the polls whose results you like."
"Sure. It's called cherrypicking."
"Yes, and when we do that when we're talking to the media, it's called spin. When we do it to ourselves, it's called denial."
"This is the big one, Donna. If we win Pennsylvania, it'll be a huge momentum shift in our direction. Santos will be way behind in delegates. There will be a lot of pressure on him to drop out and avoid the possibility of a brokered convention."
Donna nodded. There was just one week to go until the primary. Will sat down on a plush chair in the corner of the office to look through some papers, while Donna decided to check the internet blogs to keep up with what was being said about the campaigns.
She clicked on the bookmark to RussellisReady, a pro-Russell blog. Well, to be accurate, lately it had become more of an anti-Santos blog. They seemed to spend much more time trashing Santos than they did talking about Russell.
She had to read the posting at the top of the blog twice to fully absorb what it was saying.
"Will? You might want to come over here."
He walked up and read over her shoulder:
Bombshell! Santos' opposition to the California driver's license bill just the tip of the iceberg." The headline read.
The article continued: RussellisReady has received information from several well-connected sources that a videotape exists of Matt Santos attending an immigration rights rally in New Mexico, approximately 10 years ago. According to our sources, Santos was proudly waving a Mexican flag and cheering boisterously as speaker after speaker denounced the United States in brutal and harsh terms. We have learned that the Republican National Committee has this videotape, and if Santos is the Democratic nominee, they will release the tape after the Democratic convention. Santos will be finished, and the Democrats will have handed the election to Arnold Vinick."
"Oh my God," Will whispered, sitting down beside her. Was it really possible that both their remaining primary rivals were being done in by scandals?
"You think it's true?" Donna turned to look at him.
"It almost doesn't matter," Will shook his head. "I mean, believe me, I'm going to get our oppo researchers on it right away, trying to find this tape if it exists. But regardless, if Democrats in Pennsylvania think there's a chance that Santos could be torpedoed beyond repair in the general election, are they really going to risk voting for him?"
"He would have been mayor of Houston 10 years ago," Donna pointed out. "Do you really think he could have gotten away with going to a rally like that?"
"Maybe no one found out about it until now," Will shrugged. "Maybe that's why he went to a rally in another state. He figured he probably wouldn't be recognized in New Mexico."
"Maybe they're exaggerating about the speakers," Donna suggested. "Maybe they weren't really that bad. If the tape exists, that is."
"Regardless, that wouldn't explain the Mexican flag. Do you really think the United States would elect someone as President who's on videotape waving another country's flag?"
Donna hit "reload" on the website to see if there were any updates.
"Breaking!" The site now screamed. "Santos camp refuses to deny existence of incriminating videotape! Below the headline was a You Tube clip captioned: A associate waits outside the door of the Santos campaign headquarters in Pennsylvania and corners campaign manager Josh Lyman.
Donna played the video clip:
"Mr. Lyman!" the female blogger rushed up to him as he walked out of the headquarters. He turned and looked at her. "I'm working on an investigative report. Is it true that a videotape exists of Matt Santos waving a Mexican flag and cheering as anti-American sentiments were expressed at an immigration rights rally in New Mexico ten years ago?"
Josh stared at the blogger for a second, looking stunned.
"No questions. Thanks." He walked quickly toward his car, and then suddenly turned around.
"Who are you with, anyway?" he asked the blogger.
"I'm a representative from RussellisReady."
Josh's eyes narrowed, but he didn't say anything. He turned and got in his car.
"It's the first he's hearing of it," Donna observed.
"Yeah, he's not going to deny anything before he's had a chance to check it out." Will agreed.
"And then it's the classic dilemma. Do you deny the rumor and draw more attention to it, or say nothing and let people interpret that as a sign of guilt?"
"Lose-lose proposition," Will nodded.
Donna sighed, rubbing her eyes. She supposed for the sake of the Russell campaign, she should hope that the rumor was true and would soon be confirmed as such. But after having gotten to know and like Matt Santos – and also knowing how shattered Josh would be to have the campaign blow up in his face – she couldn't bring herself to hope for that. The whole thing felt ugly. It felt like a malicious rumor, one designed to play on racial fears and prejudices. Will's right, it's the kind of rumor that doesn't have to be true to have its desired effect, she realized sadly. Just the fear that the tape might exist could cost Santos the nomination. She wanted their campaign to win – on a professional level, if not necessarily in her heart – but she didn't want them to win like that.
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"No real change in the Pennsylvania polls yet as a result of the videotape rumor," Will observed the next day, looking at his computer screen. "Morning Call tracking has Santos up two, no change from yesterday. We should have some internal numbers later today."
"I wouldn't expect there to be any effect yet," Donna commented. "Anyone reading was probably already voting for Russell."
"It's not just on RussellisReady anymore," Will told her. "They're talking about it on all the political blogs, including pro-Santos ones." He clicked on the bookmark to a popular liberal blog where probably at least 90% of the participants were Santos supporters.
"Look at this," he went to the "comments" section of an article about the videotape rumor and read aloud: "I love Santos and it makes me sick to say this, but I don't think we can take a chance that this tape might actually exist. I don't even want to think about what will happen over the next four years if Republicans control both congress and the White House. We may really have to consider throwing our support to Russell. I know he's not perfect, but we need a Democrat who can get elected."
"Yeah, and look at the response that guy got," Donna countered, continuing to read from the comments: "'You are either a moron or a troll. So you're going to let the idiots at dictate who you vote for? This is a disgusting, racist hoax. If we fall for it, we're as bad as they are.' And that's one of the more polite responses."
"Well, at least they're talking about it." Will pointed out.
"But undecided voters don't usually read political blogs. Unless it gets picked up by the mainstream media…"
"I sent a link to the blog story to all the major news outlets," Will told her.
"Will!" Donna chided him. She didn't like the idea of their campaign actively pushing the rumor.
"Donna, if it's true, people need to know about it," Will told her. "That guy on the blog is right. It's not just about Russell versus Santos anymore. If that tape is out there and Santos gets the nomination, Vinick will walk into the White House."
"If it's true." Donna emphasized. "If it's not, we're participating in spreading a very ugly rumor about the first serious Latino presidential contender."
"So the fact that he's Latino should exempt him from being scrutinized?"
"Come on, Will, don't play dumb. You don't see the racial overtones here?"
He sighed. "If the whole thing is a lie, of course I do. But if he really did go to this rally, and someone got it on videotape, I don't care if it's politically incorrect, I want people to know about it. And if there's any doubt about whether the tape exists-"
"Which there is,"
"Then maybe it's fair for Democratic voters to err on the side of caution." Will concluded.
"So if some blogger claims there's a tape out there of Russell having sex with space aliens, who do we all vote for then?"
"Hey, that might actually help the Vice President's image," Will commented dryly.
"ha-ha," she rolled her eyes.
"Look, this guy said he had well-connected sources, Donna." He told her. "It's a major political blog. They want to maintain their credibility just like mainstream journalists do. People shouldn't ignore this."