Chapter Six
Stuart quickly scanned the column and checked for names which might be highlighted in the story; apparently a paparazzo had been following Chris Martin, the Governor's son, and photographed him emerging from a Reno hot-sheet hotel which catered to clients who checked in and out within a couple of hours.
The newspaper story was accompanied by photos of Chris Martin at different times and in different clothes, with five different men, entering the same hotel room each time.
The reporter who wrote the story related how the "anonymous source", probably a hotel front-desk clerk who had been bought-off, had acknowledged Chris was a frequent "guest" of the hotel and always used the same room. The "source" said Chris was always accompanied by men, usually truck drivers.
Stuart sighed, and placing the newspaper on the Governor's desk, told Governor Martin "I think we can use some leverage on the newspaper to curb this story."
"But do you think it is true, and also very damaging?" The Governor had a pleading and miserable look on his face.
"Damaging for whom?" Stuart asked. "For Chris, maybe, for you, probably not. He is an adult, he is independent of you and your family, and he lives in Tahoe, right? What's the damage?"
"Reputation" the Governor almost spat out the word. "In politics your reputation is everything, and if it becomes damaged, you are through."
"Well, Governor, that remark raises a number of issues, doesn't it? You are only `through' when your term is completed; if I may humbly remind you, you are the duly elected Governor of the most populous state with the largest number of Electoral College votes, a state which is the eighth-largest economy in the world and the most important agricultural producer in the United States. We sell rice to the world, for God's sake!" Stuart was getting fired up.
"So," Stuart continued, "if you want to be `through', then only you can make that call. If on the other hand you are not through, then you have to remember Bill Clinton and several others who have weathered far worse damage to their political reputations."
Stuart wanted to smirk at his own remark but saved face by not doing so in front of Governor Martin.
"So do you have a plan?" the Governor asked.
"Of course" Stuart lied. "We have a three-prong approach. First we have a nice expensive lunch with the Sacramento Bee reporter who wrote the story and make it very clear to her that no more access to the administration or the capitol or the state agencies will be allowed to her unless there is some walking-back of her nasty story."
"Second," and here, Stuart was clearly winging it in his own mind, but the path seemed pretty clear to him, "we have a different reporter and photographer follow you and your family around for a week and build a photo-journal essay of your main-stream centrist All-American family life. Third, we make sure the local and state chapters of HRC are invited to lunch with you, so that you can provide them with your personal and family story of how you have dealt with Chris's coming out and have supported him and gay rights in general. That will need to be immediately followed up by a separate story of you in a prayer breakfast with the local clergy."
"Genius" the Governor exclaimed. "We feed the story rather than trying to bury it. And by the way, remind me, who is HRC?"
"Human Rights Campaign; they are the biggest gay rights political action group in the country. And, always remember the greatest lesson of political life which was taught us by Richard Nixon. Obstruction only breeds more danger."
"Get on it immediately" the Governor directed Stuart as he held the door open for Stuart to return to his own office.
By the end of the day, Stuart had set all of his plans in motion, including a quick and secret staff meeting with Raj and all of the important staff who had need-to-know and were equipped to carry out the plan. Stuart had also contacted the Reno newspaper and television and had conversations with them about the issue.
The hot-sheet-hotel was suddenly overwhelmed with a crew of inspectors from various state and local agencies in Reno who wanted to see business licenses, tax audits, building permits, and health permits; they were accompanied by federal Immigration agents who wanted to see labor records.
Finally, Stuart had a short but important conversation with the Reno photographer who had taken the photos of Chris Martin. The following day, Stuart received a call from the capitol police that a photographer was at the building entrance asking to meet with him.
He was sent on his way with a smile on his face and an agreement to be the photographer assigned to create the photo-journal essay for the local newspaper of the Governor's family. One week on the road with the family at state expense was more than the paparazzo could have dreamed.
"Did you know that paparazzi have paparazzi?" Stuart asked Raj, waving his glass of Chardonnay. It turned out that a second photographer had been following the first one, after hours, and recording his "secret" life, one filled with rent-men and would-be models and Hollywood "B"-list actors, all gay.
The icing on that cupcake was the dozen or so photos of under-age twinks with whom the first photographer was having frequent sexual escapades. Whatever the second photographer gained from the experience was known only to Stuart.
"Should we assume then that Chris Martin is out of trouble?" Raj was curious.
"With the media, yes; however, there is a lot of work he needs to do to mend his family relationships. The Governor might never be happy that his son is gay, but on the surface, the Governor has to appear to have mended fences with Chris. They are going to appear jointly at a fund-raising dinner with HRC here in Sacramento next month with a couple of A-List names from Hollywood."
"And who arranged that?" Raj was even more curious, as well as impressed.
"Peter's nephew Sam. You know he has a consulting agency in Beverly Hills."
Mario's husband Peter Schilling had encouraged his nephew, Sam Stephenson, to follow his dream of building a sports-agent consulting practice in Los Angeles after graduating with his MBA. His numerous contacts in major sports led naturally to other connections throughout the entertainment industry as well.
Raj filed this away with a number of other thoughts he had been nurturing about his own future career.
Raj asked "And who is in charge of the prayer breakfast?"
Stuart's answer did not surprise Raj: "Willy Nedelmeyer, the Speaker of the Assembly."
"Isn't he a rabbi from Oakland?"
"Yes, but he is a politician first and his rabbi title is much further down the list. By the way, he is going to be seated with the Governor, of course, and will share MC duties with Imam Avrahm bin-Dahar as well as the president of the Mormon temple in Oakland."
"So three sacred oxen get sacrificed all at once?" Raj was smiling.
"The score is, if in fact anyone is keeping score, three separate and high-profile California religions get to use this event as a Golden Calf, each in their own way, and the Governor as well as the state party get to score some much-needed points as well. And not last, and certainly not least, the HRC gets some fabulous free media attention as well, since Chris will be at the prayer breakfast."
"Genius."
"Right. The Governor said that too,"
"I love you" Raj whispered as they embraced and kissed.
"Oh, and for the record, we are going to have house guests that weekend. I have invited Mario and Peter as well as Ross and Joaquin and Sam and Mickey."
"And Peter asked if he could also invite his cousin Paul Campbell and his husband, David Branson; they live here in Sacramento. They are all attending the prayer breakfast and have all confirmed they will be here, so we are going to have a big gay dinner party at our condo."
"Good. We can call it our house-warming party."
"We'll see just how warm it gets" Stuart laughed.
"I think I have heard of Paul and David; do we know them?"
Stuart explained "Paul Campbell is an attorney and is first-cousin to Peter Schilling. Paul's father and Peter's mother are siblings. David Branson is Paul's husband, and is an economist with the Federal Reserve Bank in San Francisco. Paul is also the general manager of their family farming corporation northeast of Sacramento."
"Oh, yes, now I remember. The Governor asked if I could invite Paul Campbell to be on an advisory committee."
"Good. It will be nice to have some friends here in town. Oh, and coincidentally, Paul and David are Mormons."
"Huh. So, is Peter also a Mormon?"
"Not that I know of; you can ask him when we have them over for dinner."
"By the way, what are you cooking for that glorious social occasion?" Raj asked slyly.
"I assumed you would not be upset if I hired a caterer; do you know of one from all of the Governor's social events?"
Raj smiled; "I have heard City Slickers is the best. We have used them three times for events for both the Governor as well as his wife."
Stuart responded "If you give me their contact information I will call them immediately. Anything special you want on the menu?"
"Well, are these people carnivores? Do they prefer meat or are they vegetarians?"
Stuart laughed out loud: "Darling, they are all gay, so of course they love meat!"