Many of the same people who’d attended her announcement in the Supreme Court building were here tonight. Governor Falkner, Lieutenant Governor Paulson, nearly all the General Assembly senators and delegates, Richmond Mayor Eleanor Bush, as well as a huge gathering of the press corps including reporters from all the major national news organizations. The only notables missing were Chief Justice Eldridge and General Assembly Majority Leader Barney Franz. She’d anticipated Eldridge’s absence—he’d committed to only that one appearance at the Supreme Court building, and she understood why. He had to keep a low profile for multiple reasons. She’d not anticipated Franz’s absence. By avoiding tonight’s historic beginning, the Majority Leader was making an obvious statement, hurling down the gauntlet in a very public way on top of walking out of the announcement. Cameron was convinced that they hadn’t heard the last of Franz, and he’d been in close contact with his best sources in the GA all day to get the jump on anything Franz might have up his sleeve.
