Personal adventure story #5
Fresh from a respectable showing in a primary election for U.S. Senate with the Independence Party of Minnesota, Bill decides that his next move will be to run for President. He will run as a Democrat.
Bill launches his campaign on June 20, 2003, because the Democratic state party chairs were gathering at the Radisson Riverfront Hotel in St. Paul, Minnesota, to meet the candidates for President. Bill is not invited to participate, of course. Instead, he stands at the entrance to the hotel carrying a picket sign which announces his “politics of two ends: (1) an end to class warfare, especially by the rich, and (2) and end to the politics of gender and race.”
Several hours pass without incident. Then Walter Mondale walks by. An attractive, glamorous-looking woman with a compact video camera asks Bill if this man was Mondale. Yes, it was. The woman runs after Mondale but soon returns. Seeing that Bill is a presidential candidate, she asks about his campaign. Does he have plans? Bill announces that he will campaign in Iowa. “Can I come with you?,” the woman asks. She introduces herself as Alexandra Pelosi, a documentary film maker with HBO who is covering the Democratic primaries. Bill has the presence of mind to accept her offer of coverage.
Although Bill does not know it at the time, this is U.S. Representative Nancy Pelosi’s daughter who had made a name for herself producing a documentary on George W. Bush’s presidential campaign in 2000. She now wants to see Bill the campaigner in action.
Alexandra Pelosi finds a young man who is interested in abortion. Bill is asked to declare his position on this question. The man accuses him of encouraging black women to abort their fetuses to control the black population. Pelosi then approaches a middle-aged black woman who is suspicious of Bill’s call for an end to the politics of gender and race. She challenges Bill to give one example of a white male being disadvantaged. When Bill does this, the woman walks away in a huff. Pelosi next finds a young man who has a civil conversation with Bill and says he might vote for him.
Bill’s persuasion average is one out of three. Pelosi has meanwhile been taping his conversations with these prospective voters. Pelosi enters the hotel and comes back with Art Torres, chair of California’s Democratic party. He and Bill have a pointed but friendly conversation. Pelosi then gives Bill her personal email address, promising to stay in touch. She wants Bill to let her know when the details of his campaign activities in Iowa become available.
The problem is that before Alexandra Pelosi asked about it there was no such campaign. Bill is forced to invent something to sustain her interest. He decides to stage a conversation about race in downtown Des Moines, Iowa’s capitol city. The Des Moines river flows through the city. Bill imagines American and Russian soldiers meeting at the Elbe river during World War II. What if the different races similarly met near the banks of the Des Moines river?
For the next month, Bill works more or less full time on the project. He buys a copy of the Des Moines yellow pages telephone directory and writes letters to organizations listed there that he supposes might be interested in such an event. He also buys a stepladder from Home Depot painted in red, white, and blue. For a campaign on a limited budget, this could be used as a podium for delivering speeches. Bill drives down to Des Moines to scout the territory. A park adjacent to the river which might be used is too expensive. Bill obtains permission to hold his event instead at the Civil War monument near the Iowa state capitol.
When word gets out, a friend of Bill’s named Ed, an African American man, volunteers to accompany him to Des Moines to help make sure there is a balanced discussion in case only white people attend. He would be representing the black point of view. (There's more.)
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