Electing to Murder

CHAPTER NINETEEN

“Wisconsin, Iowa, Virginia and Colorado.”

The Judge looked out the window of the conference room at the sun breaking above the horizon against the piercing blue sky. Not a cloud to be seen, yet he couldn’t help but feel the storm clouds building all around him. He took a sip of his coffee with his left hand while he rolled a cigar with his right, deep in thought, evaluating his next move or what the opposition’s next move would be.

Of course, the question had now become: Who was the opposition?

For the past two years it had been the vice president. Even when they were in the primaries, it was always about the vice president. But now, Wellesley didn’t seem to be their only opposition. The Judge felt like he was suddenly fighting a two-front war, one against the vice president and the other against Connolly and whoever the political sociopath recruited to do his dirty work.

Governor Thomson stood to his immediate right, awake after a quick two hours of sleep. Thomson, now in a fresh white dress shirt, navy blue tie and dark blue pinstripe suit pants, took in the view with his campaign manager. The governor’s flight for Detroit was leaving within the hour. Until then, his suit coat would remain draped over a conference room chair.

“Have you spoken with McCormick’s mother yet?”

“Briefly,” Dixon replied quietly. “Thankfully she made it easy.”

Thomson looked over, “How so?”

“She said we better win or his death would be for naught.”

“She saw your press conference, didn’t she?”

The Judge nodded. Dixon left no doubt that the murder was politically motivated. That statement, in and of itself, was a bomb to drop and one that would be Talker in the media all day. It would come up at every campaign stop, would be a constant topic of conversation on the plane and the governor would be dealing with it all day. They discussed the strategy for handling it which was, the murder was political but they would let the investigation play out. Nevertheless, the Judge knew what the governor would desire and smiled inwardly when it finally came out.

“You need to keep me updated on what you find today,” the governor said quietly. “I want hourly updates. I have to know what’s going on.”

Dixon took in the request and considered it for a moment. He knew it was coming but he couldn’t let the governor be distracted by the investigation and what they’d found. Given the events of the past twenty-four hours, the media was paying particular attention to how Thomson was handling the death of a key campaign staffer. Sadly, how he handled this situation would be a test of his leadership in the eyes of the media, political pundits and potentially undecided voters. He needed to be focused on the campaign and the job at hand and could not be distracted by the investigation.

“Governor, I’ll let you know when there is something you need to know. You will learn quickly come mid-January of next year that you can’t monitor and manage every situation. In fact, you closely monitor and manage very few of them. You will have to trust in your people to do their jobs. They’ll come to you when a decision needs to be made and let you know what your options are and then you can exercise your best judgment and make a decision. The same thing is true here. Right now, there is nothing you can do so let me and my people worry about it. We have a campaign plan through Monday. You follow that to the letter and let me worry about the rest. If we find something that you need to know, I will tell you and we can decide what to do. But for now, let me worry about this DataPoint business and you worry about campaigning your ass off.”

The Judge looked Thomson in the eye. The governor nodded and said, “Okay.”

Dixon took in a longer look at his candidate. A grueling two-year campaign had taken its toll. The governor’s once jet black hair was now salt and pepper and a little bit thinner along the top. There were a few more crow’s feet at the edges of his eyes and an added wrinkle or two in his forehead. The Judge thought of how two years ago when they started this, how his man was just trying to keep his head above water in those first few months, overwhelmed by the process. He was speaking to small crowds, struggling to be heard, light on cash, just one of many voices seeking to be the voice of the party. It was tough in those early months, but the governor did what the Judge knew he would and could do. He just kept grinding at it day after day, picking up one vote at a time, one endorsement at a time, one debate victory at a time and by the time the primaries started last January, he had the buzz and the momentum. The governor swept through the Iowa caucuses, took New Hampshire by two points and from there rolled through the primaries locking up the nomination by Super Tuesday. James Thomson went from a relative unknown governor of a mid-sized state to the precipice of the White House.

There was a knock on the door and the two men turned to see Sally Kennedy. With her were two campaign aides named Bagnoli and McGrann. Upon their return to campaign headquarters, the Judge assigned Sally the task of figuring out where DataPoint had voting machines. The Judge pointed to her: “So what have you found?”

“DataPoint has voting machines in twenty-two states,” Sally replied. McGrann and Bagnoli laid out a map of the United States, with DataPoint states marked.

“Twenty-two?” the governor replied, stunned.

Sally held up her hands, “Before anyone panics, they have a number of machines in states that are either clearly ours or the vice president’s. We haven’t spent two minutes thinking about Kentucky, Oklahoma, Alabama or Texas because they’re not coming our way, but DataPoint has machines in big chunks of those states. They also have them in much of the Northeast where we lead just about every state by twenty points or more. The vice president hasn’t been up in that neck of the woods since the primaries. Those states don’t worry us.”

“Which states do?” Dixon asked.

Sally exhaled. “Wisconsin, Iowa, Virginia and Colorado. DataPoint has a big market share in those states.”

Dixon, rarely one to show any emotion, cringed. Those were four of the most hotly contested states.

“What about Ohio?” Thomson asked.

“Not that we see,” Sally answered, pointing to Ohio on the map. “DataPoint is not the supplier to any part of that state that we’ve seen.”

“But we have four of the states that are very much in play,” the Judge stated. “And DataPoint has their machines in those states.”

“Looks like it,” Sally answered. “The spread in Colorado is about six points right now, correct?”

“Yes,” replied the Judge.

“Then if we were to assume the worst, isn’t that going to be a hard one to explain if the vote shifts six points?”

“Maybe,” the Judge answered. “Depends on what happens between now and Tuesday.”

“Wait a minute,” the governor ordered and then remarked. “DataPoint has machines in those states, but isn’t the relevant question how recently the machines were put into those states?”

“Yes, sir. That’s one key question of many. We don’t know the answer—yet,” Sally answered. “We need to find out. With the day getting started, we can start calling around to the states and get some answers. If it was a long time ago, then it would probably be more difficult to manipulate the machines. However, maybe repairs were needed? Maybe upgrades were installed? We need to find answers to all of these questions.”

“Of course, if machines were put in recently, that would be of serious concern as well,” the Judge added.

“How about going to the source on this?” Governor Thomson asked. “How about going after DataPoint?”

The Judge smiled. “I’ve sent McRyan and Wire to Milwaukee to do just that.”