Election should be about leadership

By Walter Dods

Walter Dods says First Hawaiian Bank will no longer make corporate contributions to candidates running for political office. Jeff Widener The Honolulu Advertiser

1. Apparently, you can be too rich.

Some people (including a newspaper columnist or two) suggested that I shouldn't run because I'm too well off. I must admit I resent the implication that you don't have a role in public service if you've been successful.

We send a very bad message to Hawai'i's young people to say, "If you've made it, you shouldn't run for public office because it runs counter to the values of a democratic society." That's wrong. We should be trying to convince our kids that a local boy or girl can work hard, make it financially and still give back to the community in public service.

My dad was raised in an orphanage in Hilo. My 80-year-old mother never finished high school; she worked all her life as a cashier in a coffee shop in Waikiki. My six brothers and sisters and I grew up in a Quonset hut in Kuli'ou'ou. I know what it is to be poor.

My mom chuckles at all this talk about me being rich and influential because she remembers me working my way through Saint Louis bagging groceries, pumping gas and washing dishes. And then working as a mail boy while I went to night school at the University of Hawai'i.

Nobody suggested that the Kennedys (or the Bushes, for that matter) be barred from politics because of excess wealth.

I make no apologies for starting as an office boy — or for trying to help my community and my employees over the years — or for making money. As a local boy, I was disappointed at what almost seems like a "keep 'em down in the plantation" mentality.

2. Campaign finance needs cleaning up.

This is hardly news. However, the flaws of our campaign finance system stared me straight in the face as I thought about having to raise big bucks to run for governor.

Last week, Gov. Ben Cayetano vetoed a campaign finance reform bill passed by the Legislature. That particular bill may have had its flaws. However, its heart was in the right place — attempting to reduce contributions from unions and corporations, especially government contractors and vendors.

The flood of money from architects, engineers or consultants who do business with government has bred contempt for the political system and politicians. I don't blame the contributors; I blame the system.

It would have been easy for me to run without contributions from those sources because I could have used my own money to finance my campaign. But that's not fair, either. Most candidates are not wealthy; they must rely on contributions. I don't think being rich should bar you from politics, but it's terrible if not being rich makes it impossible to run a credible campaign without built-in conflicts of interest from campaign donors.

Both nationally and here in Hawai'i, it's time for serious debate on the subject of how we finance election campaigns. No thinking person can possibly be in favor of the way things are now. Obscene amounts of money are raised and spent by candidates for major office, without producing better-informed voters.

The system is broken. The public assumes the worst — that elected officials are in the pocket of special interests and that contributors get preferential treatment.

I don't pretend to have a magic solution for this tough problem. However, because we feel strongly about this, First Hawaiian Bank's senior managers have just taken a first step. We decided that our bank would comply with the letter and the spirit of the vetoed law, anyway. First Hawaiian Bank will no longer make corporate campaign contributions to candidates.

First Hawaiian contributions have averaged a little over $25,000 a year to candidates of both major parties. The average candidate in the last election cycle received a little over $500.

These corporate contributions will be discontinued, effective immediately.

I believe that citizens should get involved in the political process — as candidates, contributors and campaign workers and as well-informed voters. For most of my adult life, I've supported candidates I believe in, with my time and with financial contributions, and I'll probably do so again — as an individual.

Nothing in this new company policy prohibits any bank employee from running for office, working for a candidate or contributing to candidates. In fact, I hope they'll get actively involved in politics. But the bank will make no more corporate contributions.

3. It's the economy, stupid!

As I thought about how I might present the issues in a race, this much became crystal clear: The economy is the single most important issue in this and any other campaign. Government can't do social good if the community isn't successful economically.

4. Stop whipping tourism.

Everybody likes to attack tourism and praise diversification. Heck, I'd like to diversify our economy, too. I have been involved for 30 years in one task force after another to try to do just that. I've seen a lot of ideas go up and come back down — papaya, sugar, pineapple, guava, high technology.

If it were so simple to diversify our economy, don't you think people would have thought of it by now? In the meantime, we need to respect tourism for what it does: It keeps our economy alive.

We need to support sensible growth in our visitor industry while we look for ways to diversify.

I have a theory that we're going to back into high tech in a way Hawai'i never dreamed of. As more and more top-flight high-tech executives build second homes on Maui and the Big Island, they'll realize they can bring their top R&D people and researchers here to work and enjoy our quality of life in Hawai'i at the same time.

I think we also have some prospects of getting into biomedicine and biotechnology in a much bigger way, especially with the new University of Hawai'i complex being built in Kaka'ako. Evan Dobelle has some tremendous ideas in this area.

5. Cheap shots: our second-biggest industry

If we don't stop attacking each other, we're going to be in deep trouble.

Some in the business community spend time shooting at one another. As CEO of the largest company in town, I'm baffled by those who purport to represent small business who say, "Big business is bad." This town is too small to be one or the other. Hawai'i needs big business; this community needs small business; this community needs all business.

Public workers take more than their fair share of cheap shots for the failings of government. Management has to take some of the blame, and most of the responsibility, if the compact with labor doesn't work for the benefit of all taxpayers. Most government employees want to do the right thing, yet everybody trashes them.

When business, labor, the nonprofit sector and government all work together, our community can get things done. We aren't doing that today. We need to stop taking cheap shots at one another.

6. Politics is a tough game.

All the candidates of both parties for governor are good people. My soul-searching about the pros and cons of running made me respect even more their willingness to run. It's tough to run for and serve in public office. You have to put up with a lot, including an inevitable loss of privacy and the threat of nastiness and rumors, many of them scurrilous and false.

7. Leadership vs. 'taking a stand'

When I asked people whether I should run and they said, "Yes," I'd ask why. They rarely mentioned a specific issue such as education or crime. Almost invariably, the answer was something like this: "Hawai'i needs leadership. And you've led."

The late Gov. Jack Burns had a famous line in the 1970 election — that "any damn fool can take a stand." A lot of people made fun of him for that statement, but the years have taught me his wisdom. I have become convinced that the ability to lead, the talent to get groups working together to find a balanced middle ground, is more important than taking detailed positions on dozens of issues.

Leadership can make a difference. That's why First Hawaiian Bank endowed a million-dollar chair in leadership at the University of Hawai'i business school.

Government leadership can help business create jobs. Make no mistake — government doesn't create jobs. But it can encourage or discourage job creation by the private sector. Setting a better tone for job creation will allow more of our sons and daughters to have careers here at home.

Leadership can change Hawai'i, while keeping the government safety net in place for the less fortunate.

If we want to keep what we love about Hawai'i, we have to change. Leadership can change Hawai'i yet keep it special. That's what this election should be all about.

Walter Dods, chairman and chief executive of First Hawaiian Bank, announced last week that after serious consideration, he would not be a candidate for governor.