To be fair, when she walked into our office in autumn of 2011, she didn’t carry in with her any evil seeds of corruption that did not already exist.
This includes political and sexual corruption, a kind of power trip that went back to the original owner whose exploits were notorious in the housing developments he controlled.
He and his upper staff often intimidated pretty but poor women in their care, insinuating that if they did not cooperate, management would put them out.
Our owner back then apparently had regular subjects with whom he regularly visited, this despite the fact that he had a romantic relationship with his officer manager, one of the two people who later purchased the business from him and became our bosses.
That boss back then used our editorial power to influence elections and to intimidate political people who did not go along with his agenda.
This became most evident when the tough, old-school mayor of Hometown worked against our boss when our boss began to find excuses to evict poor people (evict being too strong, he and his hired thugs made it uncomfortable for the poor) so that housing could be converted to luxury properties.
Our boss sided with the county executive, a local congressman (not the target of RR) and other power brokers to back another candidate.
A short time later, our boss, the county executive, but not the congressman, were caught up in a federal sting. Actually, the county executive arranged for our boss to give him a bribe which was recorded by federal authorities.
Fortunately, that boss had already sold the business to the new bosses and so we escaped unscathed.
Our woman boss never ceased loving our former boss, although he seemed to have no use for her later.
Her male partner, the man who keeps checking my computer for messages, apparently picked up on some of the old habits, having sexual liaisons with a number of female employees, often – apparently – bribing them with promises of a raise or promotion.
In this light, her (my poet friend) might well be portrayed a victim, despite her claims to trickle up.
Both bosses continued to support the political agenda of the former boss and slanted our coverage to benefit the mayor of their choice, a man who represented long time Hometown residents against the upsurge of yuppies slowly taking over the town.
Ironically, we backed an old guard candidate against Z – a reformer representing the yuppies, and actually managed to beat Z, only to have another federal sting arrest him for corruption days after he was sworn in as mayor, forcing a special election, Z eventually won/
When she became mayor and began to root out old timers from her administration, even going to far as to arrange for the dissolution of runoff elections – part of a long-term plan that seems to be geared for the election later this year.
If Z goes head-to-head again R, she could lose. But if another candidate should jump into the race that looks very much old school, the vote would get split on Z’s behalf.
While the power of our office has been diminished, it still plays a big part in the election, and this sudden defection of two former employees to the R camp raises some questions. To begin with, there seems to be a move by R camp to continue favorable coverage for his ticket. Having two former employees, one of whom is closely (maybe romantically) involved with D – the current writer for Hometown, seems too similar to what RR and our poet friend tried to do last summer, making me wonder if maybe the two attempts are connected – many of the same people are involved in both.
My paranoia makes me wonder if maybe RR along with these others intentionally planted her in our office in the first place, a kind long-term mole who they could count on to do their bidding.
Or, more likely, she got the job and then later offered her services to them – but in exchange for what?
Even likelier, she may simply have been in the right place at the right time and once driven out of our office by the Small Man became another political tool for them to use, counting on her to be able to influence D’s coverage first in the town she works in, and now in the upcoming Hometown election.
It is difficult to know if she recruited A, or A already had political ties to R from when she worked the Hometown beat.
Ultimately, there is big money at stake, development the old guard wants but the reformers do not.
I suspect our old boss and R, along with other old guard power brokers will stop at nothing to get what they want.
How much of a role my poet friend and her ally A will play in this is hard to say. But as savvy as my poetry friend is, she is still a guppie in a tank full of sharks, but perhaps believes if she can deliver for these sharks, she might win status as a shark as well.
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