Page 54 of Darling Beasts

“Alright. Lunch meeting over.” Dad closed up his sandwich box. It still had half a sandwich left, and Talia felt a flicker ofworry. In a video of his speech at the Del Mar Rotary Club, he’d come across as exhausted, very low blood sugar. Campaigns were grueling, and a person needed to lock in their nutrition.

“Did you eat enough?” Talia asked. Granted, she’d only finished about a third of her salad, but she was different. She’d been getting by on practically nothing her whole life. “Do you want a salad? Some chips? A cob of corn?”

“Nah. I’m fine. You’re working hard, Tal. And I appreciate it. But you should take a page out of Ozzie’s playbook. Get out more. The Ranch is expansive but can feel claustrophobic at times.”

“Oh. Well. I do get out when I volunteer at LASD or work on the lawsuit. Otherwise, I’m pretty busy with the campaign. How lucky for Ozzie, though, he has the free time!” Talia wished she hadn’t been so quick to discard the salad. She could’ve used a way to occupy her mouth right now.

“Free time begets free time,” Dad said, chortling to himself. “Someone told me that recently.”

No doubt that someone was Ozzie. Dad really lit up when he talked about him so maybe Marston Gunn didn’t need more food or sleep, but simply more Ozzie. No matter what happened, no matter how many bridges he literally or figuratively burned, her little brother held the top position in most hearts. If Gabby was universally beloved, and Ozzie specifically adored, where did that leave Talia? The one person who’d loved and known her the best was long gone.

“Before you declare our lunch meeting over,” Talia began, widening her eyes, trying to create a dam against the emotions building behind them. “Can we come to a resolution on these ideas?” She tapped the stapled sheets of paper in front of her, the top one flapping in the breeze.

“What do you meanresolution?”

“Can we officially add the other three issues to your platform?”

Dad pondered this for a beat. “Sure. Why not,” he said, shrugging, slowly rising to his feet. “As long as you don’t piss off Wall Street, it’s good for me.” He excused himself, leaving Talia alone at the table, feeling inexplicably defeated even though she’d just won.

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Gunn sees unlikely uptick in support

BY KYLE SPERBER,The North County Intelligencer

SAN DIEGO—The race to fill California’s vacated U.S. Senate seat remains wide open. Democratic Congressional representatives David Slimp and Angie Parker are leading the field, but a large portion of the state’s likely voters (32%) are undecided. Parker stands atop the heap, with 18%, a figure that has not changed since July, while support for Slimp has declined to 17% from a high of 20% in August. U.S. Representative Sandra Grant has held steady at 10%.

In a shift no one anticipated, former reality television executive Marston Gunn has seen a surge in support. Until recently, Gunn’s campaign was widely considered dead on arrival, but either his message is starting to resonate, or the campaign is in the throes of terminal lucidity—the jolt of energy prior to death. Gunn’s communications director, who happens to be his youngest daughter, Gabrielle Gunn, believes voters are reacting to his “concrete measures to tackle America’s housing crisis.”

Gunn’s newly released plans include, among other things, funding and expanding the voucher system, replete with annual cost-of-living adjustments, increasing the number of affordable housing units nationwide, banning hedge funds from buying residential units, and creating more restrictions around flipping homes. On the purchaser side, he favors federal down payment and mortgage insurance assistance for low- to moderate-income and minority homebuyers.

“Our goal is to significantly reduce the length of time a qualified individual or family must wait for housing relief,” says Gunn’s field organizer, Talia Gunn. “We also want to ensure voucher amounts are in line with rents. While these are very local problems, Section 8 is a federal program, which means Congress should get involved.”

These are high aspirations for a campaign that’s barely chugging along. Gunn’s poll numbers are improving, but with a meremillion in the bank as of the end of the third quarter, he still lags significantly behind the other candidates. He hasn’t secured any notable endorsements, but Team Gunn is eyeing a nod from San Diego’s chief, who they feel shares similar policy positions and goals.

“Our mayor is laser-focused on implementing practical solutions to address San Diego’s housing crisis,” says Talia Gunn. “And he’s made tremendous progress since stepping into office two years ago. Not only has Mr. Quinonez expanded shelters and implemented a safe sleeping program, but he’s also successfully enacted legislation to create more middle-class housing and a faster permitting track for low-income units. His policies are closely aligned with ours, and we look forward to working with him to move important programs forward.”

When reached for comment, Mayor Robert Quinonez toldThe Intelligencerthat he has not yet formally endorsed anyone. “We are fortunate to have many excellent Democratic candidates to choose from,” he says.

One thing Gunn does have on his side is a seemingly unified campaign. While there are talks of an exodus of unhappy staffers from Parker’s office (untenable hours, yelling, the throwing of staplers at heads), Gunn’s small staff is growing. His son, Oscar, has recently entered the fold and is by all accounts making a positive contribution. He was the brains behind a TikTok video that, as of this writing, has had half a million views.

“Dad spent two years as a Point Loma Pointer,” says Oscar Gunn. “We were wandering the campus for nostalgia’s sake and stopped to watch a volleyball match. While in the bleachers, Dad got the chance to connect with parents and students about their greatest concerns.”

In the video (Homie out here watching girls volleyballis linked here), Marston Gunn, wearing jeans, a navy blue sweatshirt, and a matching blue baseball cap with a horse head logo embroidered in teal, answers a series of questions about the state of the world. He responds to each, even the more complicated ones, calmly, assuredly, and with great empathy. He doesn’t make any promises, but mostly listens and shares whathe would hope to do. This video makes him come across as genuine, and more than a little appealing.

“I don’t know whether to have a crush on him or wish he was my dad,” reads one of the comments.

A mildly viral TikTok video might not seem like a huge advantage, but it is a boon for a fledgling campaign.

“This is a prime example of user-generated content, or UGC,” says independent Democratic strategist Theo Lemke. “Spending millions on advertisements is great, if you have the money, but campaigns can also benefit from regular people amplifying a message to their various small communities. No one is going to vote for a guy because he turns up in a high school gym for an hour, but if friends tell friends who tell friends, that’s when things can snowball.”

The final question asked in the video was why Gunn was at a volleyball game in the first place.

“My happiest memories involve watching my kids play sports,” Gunn answers, eyes visibly welling. “One of the saddest days of my life was my daughter Gabby’s senior night, walking out of the gym with her for the very last time.”

If you’d like to see dad/crush Marston Gunn in person, a meet-the-candidate event is scheduled for next Tuesday. Check the campaign website for details or reach out to [email protected], who is organizing the event.

Chapter Thirty-Six

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