The iCandidate (15 page)

CHELSEA

Kylie ran her ‘Profiles’ series of articles about
the staff the week following the school board’s decision to let Mister Bennit continue the campaign. When I read them, I was like, oh my God. I never thought the stories would get picked up by the big news companies, so it was shocking to see my name splashed on the pages of every newspaper and mentioned in every telecast in the country.

Brian, Xavier, Amanda, Peyton, Vince
, Vanessa and even Emilee got similar attention in the three-part series. The media obsesses over ratings, and since the public interest in our Spartan campaign went through the roof leading up to the school board’s decision, so did their appetite for stories about us. The ‘Profiles’ pieces gave them exactly what they were looking for, and made us household names in the process.

At first, the attention w
as pretty cool. Kids in school who never knew my name started saying hi to me in the hallway. I became instantly recognizable in town, and started to feel like an A-List celebrity without the designer clothes, makeup, and completely flawless skin. I even got asked out on a date or two, much to Dad’s dismay.

Now we are getting
a first-hand lesson in the downside of popularity, too. Media interest translates into a serious lack of privacy, and working out of the Perkfect Buzz, we are practically on display like zoo animals.

“Okay, you got your shots. Now be dolls and move out please,” Laura chides from outside our roped off area, shooing away three men taking pictures of us.
That woman has the patience of a saint for dealing with all this.

Photographers and other members of the press follow us everywhere like paparazzi. You see things like that on TV, but never expect it to happen to you. When it does, the novelty of the experience wears off fast. I look horrible on TV when I get filmed coming and going. After the first day or two, I began questioning the sanity of every reality television star willing to let a camera follow them around.

Being chased around by photographers is just the tip of the iceberg
. Reporters, cable news networks, and daytime programs like
Katie
and
The View
started ringing our phones off the hook and asking for interviews not long after the ‘Profiles’ articles. Mister Bennit has been contacted by everyone from
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
and
The
Colbert Report
, to
60 Minutes
and
Meet the Press
. Vince even got a call from
The Tonight Show
, or so he swears. I think he’s full of crap.

As the pressure for interviews increased, we made the decision as a group not to do any over Vince and Peyton’s protests. We are
n’t supposed to be the face of the campaign, Mister Bennit is. We did do a few feature interviews for some specialty magazines, but they were for fun and not at all political.

Turning down the repeated requests for special interviews has driven the media bonkers.
We feared ignoring the offers would hurt the campaign, but it is having the opposite effect. The search for the latest scoop on the Bennit campaign has turned our little town into a media circus.

A few days ago, Laura
finally had enough and made the media trucks assemble on a first-come, first-serve basis in the ten spots at the far back of the parking lot. The number of complaints from her paying customers about lack of parking prompted her to take action, but it hasn’t slowed the coverage down one bit.

Mobs of reporters and photographers
are everywhere around town, and the stories about us dominate the news. It is like the Jon Benet Ramsey murder, Natalie Holloway disappearance and O.J. Simpson trial all wrapped into one, or so Dad tells me. It’s completely nuts.

Life in the fishbowl
resulting from the media craze has brought us closer together as a staff. Outside of Vince and Peyton, none of us want the attention. With so much to do for the campaign and grades to keep up, we rely on each other for support to keep afloat. Used to the spotlight as good athletes, Vanessa and Xavier have tolerated the constant intrusions better than the more reclusive Amanda and Emilee. Amanda shed her CPA look with Peyton’s help, and we all found out she is far prettier than we ever thought. Emilee is so shy I thought she might quit the campaign. The hoopla bothered poor Brian the most, being the most introverted of our small group.

As we have become more of a media fascination, r
eally funny things have started to happen. We have come to call it the ‘One Direction Effect’ after the boy band that won a realty television competition and became a near-instant success. Even the people who didn’t particularly like their music began to get caught up in the mania for the sole reason that everyone else was. This feels like the same.

Volunteers from the school started showing up in droves
a couple of weeks ago to make signs and help recruit others. At Millfield High, being a part of the campaign was the new hip thing to do. After a long summer of doing all the grunt work, it was awesome to have an army of people to help. Best of all, it didn’t end with our little town.

Word spread to
surrounding towns in the area like wildfire. We’ve used our newfound manpower to organize efforts across the district, and the results are amazing. Signs are going up everywhere, not just in Millfield. And I don’t mean the mass-produced kind you see pounded into the grass at every major traffic intersection.

No, these signs
are hand-made with supplies from Home Depot. Tarpaulins spray painted with ‘Michael Bennit for Congress’ are getting hung off front porches. Cardboard placards are materializing in front yards with our ‘
www.icandidate.org
’ web address on it.
And despite the thrill of seeing the progress of our campaign on the way to school, it was nothing compared to what was happening in social media.

“How are we making out
, Bri,” I ask, putting my hand on his shoulder.

“This is amazing. I’ve never seen anything like it before. Look at these numbers!” Brian exclaims, unable to
stifle his over-caffeinated excitement.

Kylie put out
our web address, Facebook page and Twitter account details on each of the ‘Profiles’ articles. Every day, literally thousands of businesses and people try to make their page go viral. We actually did it. Our Facebook page likes broke the one million mark last week. As of yesterday, @MichaelBennit had almost three times that number of Twitter followers. Not exactly Justin Bieber numbers, but not bad for a teacher-politician. And the #icandidate has been trending for two straight weeks now.

“Great work, Brian. How are we doing on content?”

“We can always use more, but I’m pretty sure Xavier and Vanessa have people working on that,” Brian adds, dividing his attention between me and the screen.

“Okay, let me know if you need anything.
”

Of course, we
haven’t stopped at just Facebook and Twitter. We rank high on the sharing sites like Reddit, Digg and StumbleUpon, and enjoy tremendous popularity on Pinterest and Instagram. Our You Tube channel is getting a lot of uploads from fans and volunteers. Students check into our volunteer meetings on FourSquare, and the new badge they offer for being a ‘Bennitite’ has become a must have for every student in school. The list goes on from there.

We
have leveraged everything we can to reach people, including email and web chats. Essentially, any and every electronic medium available to get our message is being used to full effect. Looking out into the parking lot at the army of media, it seems to be working. I am now managing a campaign effort that has become the epicenter of the political world. But through it all, there is still something missing.

Mister
Bennit talks about grand ideas, but he still isn’t addressing controversial issues. He quotes the Framers’ words at the Constitutional Convention and relates them to today’s reality, but I have yet to hear him take a stand on abortion, gun control, gay marriage, or any of the other hot button issues of the day.

Not that any of that has mattered much. Despite the Beaumont and Johnson campaigns whining about it,
nobody really seems to care here at the height of Bennit fever. I only wonder how long that will last.

KYLIE

“Nice to see you haven’t given up all your prodigal habits considering you’re unemployed,” the voice behind me chirps.

“
I have been spending a lot of time in a coffee shop lately,” I say to Bill as he slides into the seat next to me at the long counter by the window. “Now I’m addicted. How did you know I was here?”

On a normal day, I wouldn’t think twice about running into Bill at this
lower Manhattan Starbucks. But since I have been spending so much time in Connecticut, I’m a little curious how he knew I was even in the city, let alone here.

“I have my sources.”

“What are you in the CIA or something?” I ask with a little laugh, but am almost serious. Anything is possible these days.

“No, just a lowly journalist whose life you’ve made miserable. Thanks to your antics up north, I
’m now forced to write article after article about some small town named Millfield and anything and everything about its most famous teacher.”

“You
expect me to apologize for that?” I ask, laughing.

“No. I
’m just amazed you were able to take an unknown candidate and turn him into a household name in only a month,” Bill says, taking his eyes off the blonde at the other side off the shop just long enough to convey sincerity.

He is right. It’s only the beginning of
October and anyone in the district who hadn’t heard of Michael Bennit was either out on an African safari or living under a rock. He even has the national name recognition a first-time candidate for
president
could only drool over.

“
All the free media Bennit is getting is driving the Beaumont campaign bat shit crazy,” Bill says, breaking eye contact again to ogle the girl at the register paying for her herbal tea concoction.

“I bet. I noticed the
ir commercials started hitting the airwaves in force about a week after the ‘Profile’ articles.”

“They started their political campaign machine once they realized the Bennit story wasn’t going to go away
on its own.”

I had figured that out on my own.
We dominated the evening news every night, and they had to respond. Now we highlight the evening news, and in between stories about us are commercials about him. The first barrage of paid ads stressed his leadership and service in Congress and the things he had done for the district. They must have spent a fortune, because they were on every station at every conceivable hour.

About a week ago,
the second set of commercials started getting nastier, complaining about Bennit’s lack of experience, and so on. He used his loyal political action committees to fill the airwaves with the same political crap people label as “mudslinging” and then try to ignore each election season. The thought of it makes by blood pressure shoot up.

“
Beaumont’s a coward. He is keeping himself distanced by going negative by proxy,” I conclude in disgust. “Enlisting high-profile mayors to come out in force against Michael by ruthlessly questioning everything from his military service to his teaching ability is shameful.”

“What do you expect? They have
no voting record to distort,” Bill says, eliciting a smile from me. “Don’t sweat it. The airwaves may have balanced out, but you are still the center of attention.”

“I don’t work for Michael Bennit, Bill.”

“You think that’s what your sister is telling Beaumont?”

“I wouldn’t know. I haven’t talked to her since June,” I snap, getting annoyed at the mere mention of Madison.

“Well, maybe he should consider putting you on the payroll for everything you are doing for him. How are you staying afloat financially? You’ve been out of work for what, six months now?”

Normally, I would tell anyone who had the audacity to
question my impartiality and ask me about my financial affairs in the same breath to go piss up a rope. But since Bill got me involved in this escapade in the first place, I give him the benefit of the doubt.

“I made some freelance money on the
deep background articles I have written about the campaign. The rest is coming from my rapidly dwindling savings account. Now, are you just a concerned friend, or are you pre-qualifying me for a loan?”

“Just making conversation,” he replies, a sly grin creeping across his lips.

I lean into him, forcing him to pry his eyes off whatever female has his attention at the moment. “I am staying in a cheap hotel, and have been upgraded to a platinum frequent customer card at Subway for eating there so much. I’m getting by. Now, that’s my story. What’s yours? What are
you
working on?”

Bill smiles, always amused at his ability to get me worked up. “Nothing you don’t already know
about.”

“Humor me.”

“Richard Johnson and the Republicans.”

“Yeah, what about them?”

“
Except for some signs up around the district, and the occasional sound bite or appearance, his campaign has been almost non-existent. Apparently they don’t have much in terms of financing and aren’t getting help from the party.”

“You’re right, I know. Bennit
might have more in his campaign account than they do.”

“I am curious as to why the Republicans are mailing this in.
Beaumont looks vulnerable now because of Michael Bennit. Johnson’s campaign manager Miles Everman saying something snarky in the press is the sum of their contribution to the media bazaar going on up there.”

“Not much of a story there, Bill,” I say, climbing off my stool and putting on my light jacket. “Johnson’s a
twit and Everman’s a moron. The GOP named their candidate in April when Beaumont was a shoo-in. Now they’re stuck with him.”

I pat Bill on the shoulder and head for the do
or, fully aware that he is staring at my ass.

“Kylie?”

“Yeah,” I say, turning around. This better not be about my ass.

“It’s only a matter of time before Beaumont goes after Bennit. Deep down, you know that. Whether you work for his campaign or not, be sure you don’t end up in his crosshairs when he does.”