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Election day at a big time campaign moves on several different tracks involving different organizations.
In this case there is the Jeb Bush for Governor organization and the Republican Party of Florida organization.
In all cases like this there is considerable coordination, but the twain don't always meet.
The campaign political organization is busy with the candidate's schedule, handling incoming VIPs (including the former President and Mrs. Bush), and worrying about turn-out, polling place issues, and incessant "how's it going" questions from the Lords of the Admiralty in Washington.
The campaign press operation spends most of its day handling questions about the candidate's schedule, credentialing for election night, requests for interviews, who to call for: a phone line, satellite truck space, space in the filing center, space in the press area as well as incessant "how's it going" questions.
The campaign finance operation spends most of its day holding the hands of the major donors each of whom (a) has been Jeb's biggest supporter from the day he first built his first building in Florida, (b) as been Jeb's closest advisor since the day he first decided to get into politics, (c) has been George 41's closest friend since childhood, (d) has been George 43's closest friend since childhood, (e) all of the above.
And each one wants to make sure that NO ONE is getting a better deal than they are; that NO ONE has more access to the Governor or the War Room or the private reception or anything else than they are. AND each want wants to know "how's it going?"
The State Party folks have about the same situation, except they have to deal with people running for state house, state senate, and the other constitutional offices and THEIR supporters who happen to be in Miami for election day.
The biggest deal is the ballroom where the event will take place. Here are a series of photos which show it in various stages of completion.
This is what it looked like before any decorations went up: This is what it looked like after the decs were up but before any supporters had arrived.
Note the tube of balloons at the upper edge of the photo. Balloon drop side bar: This from my friend (and college fraternity brother) Tim Byrne in Wisconsin:
I was explaining to the "Big Three" the logistics of the stage and that they should
clasp hands for the unity thing when the balloon rise started. One of them wondered
aloud why a balloon rise instead of a balloon drop.
I was so intense that I almost said, "where would you propose we drop them from?"
Oh, did I mention this was an outdoor event? On television that morning the local news stations were all agog over whether the problems at the polling places which have become fodder for late-night comics in ... Tanzania, were likely to occur again. In the end, they did not. In the Washington, DC area, nothing gets the local TV stations ginned up like an impending snow storm. They put people out onto the roadways, where they store the sand trucks, in front of grocery stores, inside any store which sells snow shovels, and any place else a producer things a picture will work. Then, if the snowstorm veers off, they go to all those people - TEAM COVERAGE! this is called - anyway to describe what would have happened if the snow storm had arrived. The footage of fully-stocked shelves in the dairy department of the Safeway, the lines of snowshovels at the Target, the lines of dump trucks still parked, and the traffic flowing as smoothly as possible in the morning rush hour in the Washington area. That's what it was like in Miami. Dozens of reporters standing in front of nearly-empty polling places trying to get people who thought the experience had been quite pleasant, thank you, to complain. Except for the weather babe. I'm telling you, that by 7 o'clock in the morning I was PRAYING for a late-season hurricane so the weather babe would get more air time. Here's why: Note that she has to lean back from the weather map, lest all of South Florida be covered by silicon (if you know what I mean, and I think you do). ----- I had an appearance on Fox with my pal Susan Estrich to talk about Georgia. I said that Chambliss would win, she said it was too close to call. I have the tape, if you don't believe me. So, after I got back from the interview - the limo driver was named "Lou" pronounced "Loo" and "Loo" was from - who'da believed dis? - "New Jersey, been in Flovida for about five years." Lou got lost, but I decided to just, you know, let it ride, lest I end up in a mix which included silicon (if you know what I mean and I think you do). I was going to try to go out and find a precinct to watch, but I decided that required initiative on my part of which I had, at that moment, none, so I insinuated myself into the state GOP's staff office and they were kind enough to let me stay. At one point I went out on the deck which was attached to the staff office. As you're looking at this photo think: Speedo.
As the day wore on, it became clear that this was likely to be a good night for the GOP. At about 3:15 there was a conference call to tell the "talking heads" - I should be more properly known, I think, as a "talking forehead" - that the Voters News Service mid-day exit polling numbers were not to be trusted so if you hear them, don't repeat them. Matt Drudge, of course, ignored the advice and put them up on his web site. One of the numbers had Jeb Bush leading his opponent, Bill McBride, by only two percentage points 51-49. Someone called me about this and I said the numbers were no good. She said, "But if they ARE correct what do you think they mean?" I said, "The numbers are bogus. It's like doing the crossword puzzle in the newspaper and finding out that the clues are from last week. You might be able to fit an answer to the clue in the correct space, but it will be wrong." Nevertheless there was a ripple of discontent among the Bush staffers. After all if the numbers were wrong, they could have just as easily been wrong showing Bush ahead by 43 percentage points. This led, later in the afternoon, to a staffer reminding me that they had a "two percentage point cushion" because of their aggressive absentee ballot program. On election day, everything causes angst. I strolled into the ballroom to see what was doing and to see if any of my press pals were in residence. Because this race had tipped so firmly toward Bush, a lot of the major guys bailed out. It was during this visit that someone told me Ashleigh Banfield was in the filing center. I have tried to describe filing centers to you before, but here is an actual photo of the one the Bush folks put together. It s very typical: Rows of tables with power and phones (which had not yet been installed) televisions at the front and a podium which, to my knowledge, was never used. This, in contrast to the press section in the ballroom which is seen here: Anyway, I went into the filing center to chat with Ms. Banfield who was very sweet. I published the picture of us together on the Secret Decoder Ring the other day and it drew a distressing number of e-mails asking where my right hand was and did that have anything to do with Ms. Banfield's beaming smile. I am republishing that picture here with a circle showing my hand clearly and cleanly around her waist. Goofballs. ----- The polls in Florida close at 7:00 pm. MOSTLY. The polls in the Panhandle
At 7:00:01 the War Room turned into a vote reporting center. There were people at computer screens (the men, oddly, still wearing their suit jackets) logging into county web sites to download returns. These were compared with the projected vote totals (the results - on a county by county basis - that the campaign needed to win the election).
At one point Mike Murphy the media maven, and Neil Newhouse, the pollster came in to assure themselves that all was well. The Governor stuck his head in a number of times to see what was doing. In almost every county - at least while I was there - they were exceeding their expectations. He was, understandably, in a great mood. In the end Bush beat McBride 56% to 43% which is a blow-out in any election on any planet in this or any other solar system. He one with a 650,000 vote margin which is about 649,463 more votes than his brother had won the state two years before. -----
This is actually a photo of the sunset the
The trip to Dulles was uneventful except I had forgotten that I had flown out of Dulles instead of Reagan National so when I got on the plane and saw that it was a 757 I thought I had gotten on the wrong flight. A flight attendant gave me a "there-there" kind of look and led me to my seat like she knew I wanted to get back to Washington in time for the early bird special. I stopped in the office for a few minutes to regal the folks with stories, then headed home. As I pulled into my street The James was walking into his house. Here is the actual conversation in its entirety: Me: Hey, James.
The End.
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