Page 105 of See You Next Tuesday

“I agree,” Gabe said. “We should absolutely be prepared if this turns into a more worrying trend, but I don’t think we’re there yet.”

“Good, we’ll move forward on a negative ad.” Margaret Thune was elegant and reserved with tailored suits and coiffed gray hair, but she was arguably the most vicious operative in the room.

“Negative on Sessego?” Gabe asked. “That’s a bad idea.”

“Why, because you used to work for her?” Lev sneered.

“No, because we’ll look like bullies,” Gabe countered. “She’s polling at twenty-seven percent, we’re at forty-three. She’s the media’s darling right now, and she’s the only woman in the race. If we take aim at her, all we’ll do is elevate her profile and give the press an excuse to write that we’re scared of her—which you all may be, but I’m not. Because I worked for her.”

“Say more.” Hal nodded at Gabe.

“Jo Sessego is principled to a fault,” Gabe said. “That might get you a Senate seat in your home state, but it’s no way to win a national race. She’s doing well because she has it easy right now, but she doesn’t have the stomach to make the hard choices she’ll need to win the primary, let alone the general.”

“Let alone serve as president,” Margaret sniffed. “Not exactly the person you want in the situation room.”

“That’s not what I meant,” Gabe said, but the others were already pouncing on his words.

“She’s not up to the task—we need to say that,” Lev pushed. “If that’s the argument against her, the voters need to hear it.”

“It’ll sound misogynist if we say it,” Gabe argued.

“So?” Lev scoffed. “Since when has that been a problem in presidential politics?”

“Lev’s right,” Hal agreed. “I don’t like it any more than you do, but it’s true.”

“We don’t know how it’ll play with women—or with Latinos. It’s a totally irresponsible risk.” Gabe rubbed his temples. He deplored talking about voters in broad demographic swaths, but he’d found that it was usually the only way he could win an argument with this crowd.

“So we put a poll in the field.” Lev looked at Gabe like he was stupid. “Test the message, move it with the groups who want to hear it. It’s like you’ve never done this before.”

“A poll.” Gabe looked up. “That’s what we do.”

“Yeah, that’s what I just said.” Lev frowned at Gabe.

“No—not to test the message.” Gabe shook his head. “We poll for general election matchups.”

“Yes.” Hal nodded, seeing immediately where Gabe was going.

“We need to do it now, before Jo gets more name recognition.” Gabe spoke quickly. “Put her in the weakest possible position versus the president, feed it to the press, start cementing the narrative that there’s no way she can win in November.”

“Democrats love to vote with their hearts until they’re faced with the remotest possibility of losing—then they run screaming into the arms of the nearest centrist,” Hal chuckled. “Viability. That’s the ticket.”

“Good.” Gabe felt relieved. He didn’t like having to go after Jo at all, but at least this was an argument he actually believed was true. “We can move an internal poll, but I think it’d be better to push for some public ones? Head off any whiff of bias?”

“I’ll make some calls.” Margaret was already typing on her phone. “If I can get it moving today, we should have results by Friday.”

“That’s perfect.” Hal nodded. “Gabe, you’ll do the Sunday shows.”

“This Sunday?” Gabe’s stomach clenched. “I can’t, I’m in Chicago this weekend.”

“Chicago?” Lev made a face. “What’s in Chicago?”

“My girlfriend’s family,” Gabe said. “It’s her mother’s yahrzeit. I need to be there.”

“Your girlfriend who works for Sessego?” Margaret raised her eyebrows.

“This isn’t about the campaign,” Gabe said stiffly.

“Maybe not yet.” Hal looked over his glasses at Gabe. “But it will be.”