Commentary
Endorsements play uncertain role in elections

By Bob Dye
Kailua-based writer and historian

The endorsers: Do they deliver?

UPW leader Gary Rodrigues, left, whose union endorsed Mufi Hannemann in the 2000 mayoral, will announce 2002 choices soon. Advertiser library photo • April 18, 2000

"Endorsers cloak a candidate with their respectability," Anderson says. "And it helps me that their friends and relatives know they're backing me. It's a positive way to grow support."

Political savant Jim Loomis says, "Sure, endorsements help a candidate, especially if they come from a broad spectrum of people in the community." But, he warns, candidates have to be careful who endorses them: "Endorsements can be a double-edged sword."

For example, if labor endorsements aren't balanced by small-business endorsements, the candidate will be too narrowly defined. (Loomis is working on the Neil Abercombie congressional campaign and the Jon Yoshimura lieutenant governor campaign.)

Campaign consultant Don Clegg says endorsements are not important in a campaign for a major office. "If a candidate is already well-known, personal endorsements don't help much. But they are very important for unknown candidates, because it gives them credibility." (Clegg is working on the Harris for governor campaign.)

Anderson is also actively soliciting endorsements from labor unions: "I've met with six or seven, and the response has been very favorable. I've sent letters to some 30 or 40 others asking for an appointment." He will contest with gubernatorial front-runner Jeremy Harris for the endorsement of every union.

Gary Rodrigues, head of the United Public Workers, says his union will make its endorsements in a week or two. He'll personally recommend the membership endorse Anderson, and he thinks they will. "After endorsement the process of convincing members of why they should vote for Anderson over Harris begins. That should be easy. Most members know it would be suicide to vote for Harris."

"Endorsement by a public-workers union creates a twofold problem for a candidate," says Clegg. "Public-worker union leaders are not well-liked by voters. And public workers union members don't follow the political directions of their leaders. The result: union leaders irritate the candidate's nonunion voters, and the candidate doesn't gain the support of union workers."

Political guru David Wilson says that union endorsements were once highly prized, but are less so today. "But, yes, endorsements are important. Candidates are judged by the company they keep." (Wilson is working on the Mufi Hannemann mayoral campaign.)

The GOP's Linda Lingle had but one union endorsement in the last gubernatorial election, and that from the University of Hawai'i Professional Assembly.

"Personal endorsements were not a major component of that campaign," says GOP executive Micah Kane. And when her next campaign for Washington Place kicks off, probably sometime this spring, endorsements again will play but a small role, he thinks.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ed Case is "amused" by the endorsement "dance played out by candidates and status quo organizations." He stresses that any endorsement has to be consistent with the candidate's message. As for union endorsements, he will communicate directly to the members and not through their leaders.

"As a state representative I've not had the endorsement of the Hawai'i Government Employees Association," he says. "But I know that in each election I have had the votes of rank-and-file HGEA members."

"Andy" Anderson's brother Whitney, a former GOP state senator, thinks endorsers are so important that he's become one. Instead of running for mayor himself, he says he's backing Frank Fasi. Fasi is the only mayor of Honolulu to serve terms as a Democrat and as a Republican. Fasi also has run as an Independent Democrat and Best. For a time there, TheMayor seemed to change parties as frequently as some hostess bars change names. But he's been a card-carrying Republican for a long time.

Whitney admits he can't deliver any of his voters to Frank (not even Senator Dan can); but he will be able to encourage folks to vote for the former mayor.

"With all of the qualifications brought to the table by Mayor Fasi ... why is the Hawai'i GOP looking for other candidates to ax Fasi out?" he wonders. Whitney thinks it's "odd" that people aren't "backing or even offering [Fasi] any encouragement to 'stay in there.'"

GOP state sen. Fred Hemmings doesn't think it's odd that only Whitney has endorsed Fasi. "Both of them should have retired gracefully," he says. "Neither one of those political opportunists has convictions or principles."

Does Whitney miss holding office? You bet! Will he run for City Council? He has closed his campaign spending account. "Right now, I'm working to establish a Waimanalo chamber of commerce."

Whoa! says Hemmings. Whitney is up to something, and he suspects his agenda is to use the organization to promote gambling.

If so, it won't set well with the GOP leadership. Republican Party head Linda Lingle is opposed to gambling, as are most party members, says GOP executive Kane.

"About 20 people attended the informational meeting about forming a Waimanalo chamber," says Whitney.

Was gambling brought up?

It "was not discussed, nor even mentioned," he says.

Does Fasi really want the endorsement of a longtime GOP proponent of gambling?

Fasi is overwhelmed by Whitney's endorsement: "I'm pleased as . . ." (His voice trails off.) "He's a tremendous person to do that. It's uplifting. I'm humbled."

Do high-profile endorsers make a difference?

"As election day nears, the best endorsers are in those long lines of sign-wavers," says David Wilson.

Ordinary folks expressing support for the lei-draped candidate at the end of the line is certainly a visually powerful endorsement. But the solitary vote of each of us is the most powerful endorsement of all, and the one that matters most in a democracy.