Eveline's Strangest Journey Ch. 28

Chapter 28 - The Nudist Candidate

The morning after Eveline's 2nd appearance on "City-Chat with Giselle" aired, Nancy decided the moment had come to pitch the idea of Eveline participating in the upcoming City Council election as a candidate.

At first Eveline thought the idea was totally absurd. However, Nancy reminded her that her contract stipulated she needed to make herself available to whatever publicity campaign in which the auction house wanted her to participate, and a political candidacy was nothing more then another type of publicity.

OK, if she was going to be a political candidate, what issues would she pursue? Nancy responded that since nudism was usually associated with a healthy lifestyle, Eveline's platform would revolve around promoting health-related and environmental issues in the county. As a student, she would also be in a position to talk about the need to improve public education. She'd stick with local issues, stuff that would make sense to any reasonable person.

A nude politician. A strange idea, but she had seen modeling agencies come up with much crazier stunts than that. Eveline still thought the idea of a candidacy was absurd, but if Nancy considered it necessary for publicity, the model was obligated by her contract to go along with the idea.

Sure, why not? She really didn't mind. She'd perform for the public as a political candidate, just like she had to perform for her coach and just like she had to perform for her employer. She seriously doubted she had any chance of winning, but she figured that she'd humor everyone. Nancy needed publicity for her company, Coach Strickland needed more publicity for her sports program, and Giselle needed a good human-interest story. They each had their reasons to put her in front of the microphone.

Eveline registered as a candidate for the upcoming election to City Council. She had wondered about the legality of giving speeches in the nude, but it turned out there would be no problem. The Tri-County area was one of the few places in the US that had no legal restrictions against public nudity, even for an aspiring politician giving speeches on TV.

Eveline's question at the registrar's office would be the last time in her life she would wonder about wearing any clothing. Apparently it would never happen. Never again would she cover any part of her body. It was the destiny of Eveline Rogers to always be totally exposed, no matter where she was or what she was doing. Being naked had become an important part of her identity. It was how the world saw her, and it was how she saw herself. And she realized that she no longer wanted to cover herself. She had made the transition from being a reluctant nudist to being a dedicated nudist.

As she walked outside, she saw that Giselle and Nancy had everything set up for her to publicly announce her candidacy. Strickland and Jenny were present as well to give her support. Jenny went up on the platform, just as naked as her teammate, a detail that helped calm Eveline's nerves.

Eveline cleared her mind and started performing for her mentors. She spoke about issues she would be pursuing if she were elected, better financing for schools, an integrated physical fitness program for all students, improvements to the county's parks and nature preserves, stricter controls on food quality, pollution regulations, and financial incentives for local farming cooperatives. She promoted increasing funding for the very programs her opponents wanted to cut.

There was irony in what was happening. Eveline was calm precisely because she thought she had no hope of winning the election. She'd speak about issues important to her and then settle back into her routine after the election was over. She would have been much more nervous if she had realized that she really was a serious candidate challenging a compromised incombant.

As they watched her political debut, Eveline's mentors breathed a huge sigh of relief. Maybe she didn't think she could win the election, but they knew for a fact that she would. Her opponent's campaign would collapse under the weight of negative publicity within days, and she would be elected in a landslide.

Coach Strickland and Nancy had fulfilled the first part of their "agreement" with Comandante Foxtrot. The Supreme Commander would be pleased. Pleasing Comandante Foxtrot was a good thing, now wasn't it?

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Eveline was surprised by the reaction of her classmates when they found out she was running for the city council position. She still considered the whole thing a publicity stunt, but it seemed that a lot of people who knew her in school actually wanted her to win. Some of her classmates, including most of the players on her basketball team, volunteered to help. It seemed they were taking her candidacy more seriously than the candidate herself.

Eveline accepted the assistance of anyone who wanted to participate in getting her elected. After classes, she gave instructions about passing out information to voters and talking about the issues she wanted to bring up during the campaign.

Eveline expected more from her boyfriend Lance and her admirer Jenny than she did from her other classmates. She felt that they had committed to her, so they would be expected to do what she told them to do and work hard to ensure her success.

After declaring her candidacy, Eveline decided it would look strange if her boyfriend remained dressed while she and Jenny were expected to stay naked. Therefore, Eveline told Lance he had to give up his clothes if he wanted to stay with her. He was surprised, because up until the campaign she had told him that she preferred he stay dressed.

"Well, Lance, things are different now. Appearances are gonna matter whenever I get in front of the microphone. I'm a nudist, so you're a nudist. On that, you need to back me up, 100 percent."

Although she ran as the naked candidate, Eveline's campaign was fairly standard. She debated her opponents twice and did quite well. Although she was by far the youngest of the contenders, she was the best prepared to talk about issues she wanted to address as a city councilwoman. Of course, it helped that, before each appearance in public, Nancy and Coach Strickland had prepped her with professionally-prepared talking points. Those talking points were secretly provided to them by an intelligence agent of the West-African Confederation.

It also helped Eveline's candidacy that her opponents were, as one might say, not top-notch. The incumbent had held the position for years, and it turned out he had been diverting city money to his construction company though bogus projects. The other opponent was the wife of a plastic surgeon and no one really knew why she was running for office. Eveline gathered that she really didn't know herself. She was just kinda... there. Well, at least she carried an impressive load of silicon in her chest.

Eveline's first electoral victory was a surprise to no one except the candidate herself. She was a fresh face running against an old-timer who was known as a corrupt S.O.B. His cause was not helped by the fact there was a pending indictment against him from the state attorney-general's office. Nor did it help him that he had recently closed a city park to hand over to a towing company to use as an impound lot.

And as for the plastic surgeon's wife; well, not much to say about that one. Maybe her implants weren't big enough.