Chapter 20 #2
“So what’s running a mayoral campaign like?” Cara asked from down at her end of the table. “I’m genuinely curious. I don’t know anything about small-town politics.”
“Most of it is just connection,” Addison said.
“Though that’s easy for me to say. My campaign manager would probably have more technical terms for all of it.
She’s spearheading a lot of fundraising.
I support it with my social media, though I’ve been a little bit more offline than usual recently.
Of course, consequently, I’ve had a lot of donations and traffic anyway.
Anna set up a bot to leave a link to our donations for the campaign underneath videos that talk about me. ”
“Wow,” Pike said. “You can do that? Make a robot do comments for you?”
“Oh, yeah. A lot of people have heard of astroturfing, which is when there’s a big campaign to leave negative comments about something, but positive astroturfing exists too. You can spread your message around pretty easily that way.”
“That feels cynical,” Marlowe said. “I mean, no offense. I guess you have to play the games you have to play.”
“I agree with you,” Addison said. “I feel a little cynical about it all. I grew my social media presence organically. But once the whole wide internet started talking about me and my collapsed wedding, I started to feel a little bit differently about it. It feels like I deserve to profit off of being a focal point of conversation. Maybe profit off of is a bad way of putting it. But at least have the campaign be front and center. Even if people don’t donate, they’ll be more aware of the campaign.
And obviously, it’s a very local campaign, and it’s all just Mustang River, but even people here need to have extra oomph to get engaged in the process.
A lot of the time I think people don’t really want change. ”
“I’ll be honest,” Nolan said. “I am not even sure who’s running against you. Until you took this as your wedding venue, I didn’t even really know you were running. I just fill in a bubble on the ballot.”
“And that’s a lot of people. Particularly in small towns. But particularly in a small town, the person running can make a difference.”
“All right,” Lila said, leaning in. “And how are you going to make a difference?”
“I’m asking Walker to help me with that.
He’s given me some good tips on building community resources.
I was focused on tourism. Bringing more tourism into Mustang River, highlighting the businesses here.
I know you have an interest in that. But Walker reminded me that it doesn’t work to ignore a big swath of the population here.
People that need services. That need help.
This is an affluent town, by and large, but of course there are always people that aren’t.
And I think because there are such disparities here, those people often get left behind.
They get ignored. And that’s what I’m trying to stop. ”
“Nice,” Lila said. “Well, if you need any help spreading the word, I’m more than willing. I’m very loud.”
“That’s a good thing. And thank you,” Addison said.
“Have you been to see the mustangs yet?” Marlowe asked.
“I grew up here,” Addison said, “but actually, I haven’t ever seen the mustangs.”
“How have you never seen the mustang herd?” Lila asked.
“I don’t know. I didn’t spend a lot of time out where they are, because they’re in the wilderness areas and they run through this property, right?”
“Yes, they do,” Cody said. “We have a whole lot of them.”
“Actually, I’d be interested to know what your stance is on preserving the herd.”
“Is that a controversy?”
“It is,” Zane said from down at his end of the table. “There are ranchers who want to make sure that the herd gets culled. What they want is for their horses to have access to the different resources, not the Mustangs.”
“That doesn’t seem right,” Addison said.
“Agreed,” Cody said. “We’re of the mind that as ranchers, we owe a share of the natural resources back to the animals that live here. We’re basically leasing this ground till we go back into it. Sustainability matters.”
“I would agree with that,” Addison said, “though I definitely need to get a little bit more educated on the topic. Like I said, my thought tends to be around the town, around tourism. I guess I haven’t thought as much about ranching interests.”
“These things are mainly decided by the Bureau of Land Management, but I do believe that local pressure influences it. So even if you’re not in charge of drawing up actual initiatives, it would be good to maybe include the Mustangs in tourism.
Just make it really damned unpopular to mess with the herd. ”
Addison nodded slowly. “All right. I like that idea.”
“I’ll take you to see them,” Walker said.
“Oh, thank you. I would really, really love that.”
For just a moment, he saw her. She meant that. It wasn’t the polished politician version of Addison who wanted the Mustangs, it was his Addison. The one he had staying in his house, the one that he had gotten to know.
When had he started thinking of her as his? That was nothing more than a recipe for disaster.
He would do well to remember that.
“Great,” he said. “I’ll take you out tomorrow night and we’ll stay the night. You have to be there at sunrise to actually see them.”
“Oh my God,” Marlowe said. “Do you all use wild mustangs as a seduction technique?”
Cody looked up at the sky, his expression innocent. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
And that was more than Walker needed to know about his brother.