Washington DC
June 7, 2007
Allison Schnell sat in her house office, she wanted to be seen as a moderate, but also as a leader. While she had a degree of a relationship to Carol Martel, Martel had not reached out to her to go to campaign stops. Certainly, her performance and charisma would have made something of a splash. Just because she was the only member of the house to appear on lists of the most desired women in the country didn't mean she was a dummy. That said, she continued to find Amadeus Putnam intimidating, and was having a hard time reading Stoicism Today, a signed copy he had given her as a gift on her first day in the House of Representatives. Having his office across the hall from her own had led to a somewhat positive relationship between the two, however, it seemed that in the halls of power, Putnam had more fanboys and fangirls than she had.
One of her staffers, a writer on economic policy and grad student at Catholic University of America, Emily Winters, was wearing the mysterious ferret button. Schnell wasn't sure how to respond to it, so she let it go. She was voting for Martel, and if her team wanted to vote for someone else, that was up to them.
Schnell's apparently friendship with the quirky New Englander she actually found relaxing at times, Putnam often merely dropped into her office to see if he could help her with anything. When he bought donuts or made tea she was always welcome to help herself.
Putnam, honestly, probably was more fond of her because like her, he was a bit of an outsider. However, this philosophy book was giving her some good ideas, especially about courage, and she knew she needed some today. She called a press conference.
Allison Schnell remembered to include a slight drawl. Having been born in Pennsylvania her accent was hardly southern.
"Good afternoon everyone, I've been a newcomer to the United States House of Representatives and have appreciated my post, but I feel I can be doing more, I contemplated long and hard on it, speaking to friends, family, colleagues, and God. I hope to be doing events with Carol Martel soon, but also must forge my own path. This morning I filed paperwork to form an exploratory committee for United States Senate in Tennessee. I am a moderate Democrat from the South, on fiscal issues I support lower taxes on the middle class, I support school vouchers to religious, private, and charter schools for low income families, but want to ensure that it doesn't deprive money for public schools either, working to make them better. I support the death penalty for heinous and three strikes for violent offenders, but want to be just on crime more than tough. I want a strong military that we use judiciously, and to invest in quality infrastructure. I support a woman's right to choose, but believe that abortion should only be allowed to preserve a woman's health after 20 weeks of pregnancy. I am a supporter of the Second Amendment, but want some common sense gun reform to stop dangerous people from obtaining a firearm and to restrict access to automatic weapons that have no practical purpose for self-defense or hunting. I believe we should pursue clean energy, including wind, solar, and nuclear, but also should work to make coal clean and continue domestic energy exploration. I'm only exploring a run, but I hope to make my candidacy known before Super Tuesday. Until then, my priority will be doing my job for the people of Tennessee to prove to them they made the right decision sending me to Washington and should send me upstairs. God bless you all, God Bless Tennessee, and God Bless America."
Press team members asked, "so where would you like to join Carol Martell?"
"Wherever I can help, I think as a country performer Iowa and South Carolina would be nice. I of course would hope we can do events in and near Tennessee too."
"You mentioned just on crime, that's been a talking point of Amadeus Putnam, what are your thoughts on him?"
Schell realized she actually had been lifting her friend's talking points from time to time. She also was wise to heed his warning to view him as a colleague and friend and not someone to actively endorse, for her own sake, "Amadeus Putnam is a very intelligent and kind person. His children and ferret are adorable. He's my favorite Republican running. He has my full support in his party's primary, but I'm focused on my own party right now."
"Congresswoman Schnell, "do you think you have any chance of winning in Tennessee? Your district voted for you because it's blue and you still poured money into it. Do you truly think you can win a statewide race?"
"A lot of people in Tennessee talk about Christian Tennessee values, now I'm a Christian and I'm from Tennessee, and the values they discuss are more reactionary than what Tennessee really believes. Our state is far more moderate than many think, and I believe the people of Tennessee are not represented by the far right," said Schnell, " so, yes, I think I can win, and I think Tennessee is sick of far-right partisan actors pretending to be on their side."
n so many times-- he liked seeing the people, addressing their concerns. Seeing the people has really kept me going; it energizes me. Have you felt like that in Arizona, Senator?"
