Entertaining Blip

Robert Johnstone, a solidly built ex-Marine whose wife had died of cancer four years earlier, was locked onto an election victory like a high-tech missile on an enemy munitions store. He would deliver Daniel Bellardi to the governor's chair. He had kept his news from the rest of the staff so his chief could hear it with them. "Ms. Dunsmuir has gained a little on us, Senator," he said. "It's not a large gain; only a couple of points this week, no more than a blip. But it's the first time since the polls began that she's topped 35 percent and dropped us below 60. However, a liberal like Juanita Dunsmuir shouldn't be within 25 points of us."

"What caused the blip? Any ideas?" asked Daniel. "It's the concerts," Angie Calderone cut in, "I've said this before, and I'll say it again: Juanita Dunsmuir is an entertainer." "She was an entertainer," interjected Daniel's appointment secretary. "What she is now is a Hollywood-has-been-turned-marijuana-grower who's running scared that we're going to close down her operation. She knows that the liberal laws of California still apply here until the new legislature changes them. When we reverse the legalization of marijuana, she'll be out of a job."