Are You Ready To Rock 'n Roll?

    It is one man's opinion that for forty-five years, since the Revolution of 1954, Hawaii has been in a period of transition from a political/social system that can best be described as Caucasian dominated, agriculture based, conservative and oligarchical.  The pre-1954 era was a period that continues to evoke a very negative and visceral reaction from most of the voting population.

     The sixties, seventies, eighties, and early nineties were dominated by a remarkable group of men and women whose values were shaped by the group ethic of the plantation workers from whence they sprung.  This has been a period of unprecedented, nearly unbroken growth for Hawaii, growth that dictated there be strong regulation to control it, to preserve the beauty of the islands, and to extend the benefits of that growth to the work force.  During that time, Hawaii earned a justifiably proud reputation for multiculturalism, and for racial and ethnic tolerance.  Its government became the epitome of the kind of "Great Society" idea envisioned by former President Lyndon Johnson.  Government, which in America is generally thought of as the "court of last resort" because it is the place Americans have traditionally gone for redress, became- - in Hawaii- - the court of first resort.

      As it has evolved over the past four plus decades, government in Hawaii became the "protector" of the people to a degree virtually unprecedented in American history.  Regulation of so many aspects of human endeavor has caused regulation to be endemic.  As the new electronic, post industrial, technological, highly competitive world economy has come to epitomize the rest of America; the concept of big government, "that government is best that governs most," has come to epitomize Hawaii.  Today, perhaps ironically, Hawaii suffers for that anti-business image (and reality).  We created a society based on "equity," and on "fairness" dictated by rules and now when we need to make sweeping changes we find ourselves drowning in a sea of rules and regulations which hamper our future development.  The governmental bureaucracy in Hawaii is layered and intricate while the legislature is made up of part-timers.  The legislative staff is also part-time, and the entirety of state government is such that governmental units often lack the electronic ability to communicate interdepartmentally or even intradepartmentally.  Institutional memory is not cataloged, but instead, rests with a few legislators, staff members and lobbyists who have survived over the years.  Furthermore, legislative sessions are condensed, very high pressured, and often politically unstable due to the fairly frequent shifts in both committee and general leadership.

     Due to an inability to cope with the vicissitudes of a declining economy caused mostly by factors beyond the realm of Hawaii's planners and politicians, government has begun to cease to be the first best hope of the people for their very real difficult problems.  The Waihee administration, perhaps Hawaii's largest and most successful effort at creating a government that sought to do everything for everyone, ended in a pitiable swamp of corruption and bloat.  Disgusted, Hawaii's voters turned to the more abstemious, dour and conservative Ben Cayetano in order to make the change to a smaller, more user friendly government, only to find that merely attempting to cut the size of government and not being quite as susceptible to influence peddling doesn't really do much for the over taxed, over regulated citizenry.  Cayetano, never very popular, has not been able to generate or project much hope that things are going to get better in the future.   Indeed, throughout his first term and into his second, the economy of Hawaii has never been worse in modern times.

     You wouldn't still be reading this if you had no interest in the political/legislative life of Hawaii.  The question is :  Do you care enough and are you motivated enough to become involved in making Hawaii a better place for business?  If you cannot answer all other following questions affirmatively, you are not ready please save yourself headache, heartache, and frustration--not to mention money.  Put this booklet down and do something else.

     *  Do I have the stomach required for political involvement?

     *  Can I raise sufficient money to compete with my adversaries?

     *  Can I make my cause sufficiently sympathetic to garner majority support in whatever forum I am competing?

     *  Can I beat or neutralize my opponents?

     As one now deceased Chicago alderman once observed, " Politics ain't beanbag."  It is , in fact, a blood sport that is played very seriously at many levels.  Before, entering you should be able to enumerate the positive  aspects of your business; the difference your business makes in the community; the constituencies that you can count on; and the time and effort you can devote to political/legislative matters.

     After having explored the above questions, it's time to get serious.

Finances

     What kind of money can you afford to put into a lobbying an/or political action campaign?  If you want to prevent legislation along a single avenue or area of endeavor, you my only need to retain a lobbyist  and that could cost between $3,000 and $10,000 per month depending on the lobbyist.  Killing legislation is easier than getting it passed.   Well over 90% of all bills are killed in each legislative session.  Getting legislation passed is usually a multiple year enterprise. That costs more.  If you represent an industry that needs to maintain a full service presence at  the legislature, you may need to be thinking in terms of a lobbying team consisting industry leaders and one or more professional lobbyists.  And in that event, you need to be thinking about a political action component which, for minimal potential success, ought to be budgeted at no less than $2,000 per legislative member (this is not to say that one needs to make contributions equaling that much, but when polling, public relations, contributions, and so on are added, you will find that $2,000 per member per year is a workable, fair, and low, political action budget number).  There are 76 members of the state legislator.  All fifty-one House members must run every two years.  The State Senators serve staggered four year terms so that half are running for election/re-election every two years.  An annual PAC budget of $152,000 will build to $304,000 for the election cycle.  I want to stress that the suggested amount is workable but not extravagant.  The average House race in Hawaii is now running at about $40,000 per candidate with the State Senate racing going for more than double that amount.  By comparisons, the average State Senate seat in California is now running at about $2,000,000 per candidate.  By comparison with many other mainland jurisdictions, Hawaii is still a cheap place to play politics.  Between $16 and $20 million is spent on political campaigning in Hawaii every two years.  Most of that money come from PACs and groups representing lobbying interests.

     There are lots of ways to raise PAC money. The best way is to simply ask for it.  Most groups form a Finance Committee consisting of committed people each will it  commit to raising an agreed upon amount.  Fundraising events, like golf tournaments or cocktail parties, take time and effort and raise less money than you would expect.  Your probably cannot assess your co-workers in you industry, but you should actively pursue fundraising among them.  Treat this like an AUW campaign.  Break the workforce down into definable small units of about 20 employees, ask for volunteer group leaders, give them goals and set them to work on a campaign to raise funds over a short period of time.  (Allow payroll deduction if possible.)

People

     Volunteers.  Every organization needs volunteers.  If your industry can deliver just 20 people willing to give five hours a week, that's 100 hours of free letter writing, envelope stuffing, telephoning, polling, filing, that would cost you at least $15 per hour otherwise.  Think about that! $1,500 worth of volunteer time per week, 52 a year.  That amounts to $78,000 worth of donated assistance per annum.  Not bad.

     But getting volunteers is not always easy, and that is why you may need to employ staff to do the necessary work.  Lobbying/political action is arcane.  A college degree, even a degree in Political Science, is not a requirement of even a precursor to doing political work.  The people you hire must have a broad tolerance for the foibles of the human condition and they ought to bring with them a understanding of the fundamentals of the history and culture of Hawaii.  They ought to have a working knowledge of the legislative an d political processes, and most especially they will need to know as much as possible about members of the legislature, other office holders, and other governmental office workers.

     Beyond volunteers and staff is the world of coalitions.  The idea of coalition building is to put together groups that have differing agendas but may have a common agenda for a specific purpose of issue.  Unlike many mainland jurisdictions, because of its small size, Hawaii is not blessed (or cursed) with  a plethora of special interest groups.  Not to worry.  If you cannot readily find existing groups with which to coalesce, simply create some .  Good Neighbors/Good Planning, People Opposed to initiative (POI), the Coalition for Automobile insurance Reform (CAIR),  The HAKU Alliance, The Hawaii Democratic Movement, Save Sandy Beach, Save Our Surf, and any number of other grassroots groups and organizations have, in recent years, been created out of whole cloth by special interest operatives needing a "peoples movement" as vehicles for their interests.

     Grassroots organizations are important because they can focus attention on a problem very quickly, and whether they grow up naturally from the traditional genesis of trouble makers plotting insurrection over coffee, or are created by professionals with an agenda to complete--they are usually successful.  If your represent and industry/business that does not now have a list of groups with which you are natural allies, you should be thinking of creating one or more grassroots affinity groups.

     More important that any other group, however, are you're own troops.  Business in Hawaii tends to gnash its teeth about its own plight and curse the labor unions for being politically successful.  Why not learn to do what they have legitimately done?  This is America, where we're all supposed to be politically active.  The system favors those who are and it punishes those who are not.  If all of your employees are not registered to vote, get them registered.  Make sure that they know that voting is a high priority company need.  Hold "stop work" meetings to discuss the ramifications of elections to their work, their families, their jobs, their future.  Invite selected candidates to your work places to meet 'n greet to know you're corporate and industry-wide political/legislative agendas and needs -- and be able to cognitively fit them into their own political/legislative agendas and needs.