I suppose I should take the time to reply to two recent critical comments received in response to my query about whether or not to accept political advertising on this site. Both appear bothered by the fact that I’ve continued to blog even during periods where I’ve been employed at the legislature. And both were more than a little, well, prickly. The comments are reprinted below.

The first came in earlier in the week:

Honestly, I think that since you work on the inside you shouldn’t blog period. If I were an elected official, I would a) never hire you or your relatives b) Never respond to any question you posed. How do we know if the person who’s signing your checks does something unethical you’re not looking the other way? How do we know your questions aren’t being written by your employer in a biased way?
I say stop working at the leg and blog full time. And then you can advertise all you want…

The second was left yesterday:

Surprised nobody has responded to “The Truth”. Here are some questions for you Ian:

Will you accept ads for a Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor? What if that candidate is not your current boss? Is your political coverage slanted based on your job (i.e. working for a specific legislator)? Is your political coverage objective and unbiased now? Have you ever reported anything unfavorable or favorable concerning your current boss?

This pretend transparency is unnecessary as long as you are working for a specific politician during the legislative session. Go ahead and accept advertising and slant your blogging in favor of the advertiser.

I don’t feel defensive about my situation, but other readers deserve to hear my views on this. While there’s probably no satisfying someone seeking ultimate guarantees of “objectivity”, and I’m not convinced that any of us can, or should, be totally “objective”, whatever that means, I’ll try to respond, despite the early hour on this damp Saturday morning.

I hope you would agree–The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior, and I’ve built a track record over time. I’m not a “hired gun” type of consultant paid to parrot what my employer says. Frankly, I’m not good at following orders or hiding behind the “I’m just doing my job” approach. For several decades, I’ve built a reputation for independence, for speaking truth to power, as my Quaker friends would say. As state director of Common Cause, I pushed hard to extend the sunshine law and make public agencies more open, accessible, and accountable, and challenged improper political activities of the state Judiciary, a challenge that led to major reforms. As the publisher of a small newsletter, I investigated the influence of money in politics. As a reporter for the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, I pursued investigations of business dealings of national Democratic Party fundraisers, a powerful public employee union leader, corporate fraud and corruption, judicial conflicts, etc.

Did I go easy on Democrats because I’m a member of the Democratic Party and political aligned with its values? I’m able to answer that directly: “No way”. Check the record.

As to working at the legislature while blogging, I’ve been fortunate to have connected with people who haven’t been afraid to invite me inside their offices. For the past four sessions, I was a legislative aide for Rep. Lyla Berg, whose 18th House District includes the area where I grew up and where my mother and sister still live. This year, I’m a part-time employee of Rep. Jessica Wooley, who represents the 47th House District, which includes our home in Kaaawa.

Having one foot inside the legislature has given me a vantage point for observing the political process, and reminded me of the issues and pressures faced by everyone jumping into that caldron of political activity. And it has given me an excuse to spend more time around the Capitol than I might have otherwise.

Does that skew my perspective? Obviously, it does in some ways. I’ve been working in House offices on the third floor. That’s a “bias”, a perspective. Things look different from the second floor, I’m sure, as they do from other vantage points. A debilitating bias? Don’t think so.

And, if you’ve been around for a while, you know that I’ve staked out positions on issues that have occasionally been directly at odds with either political allies or even (gasp!) those signing my paychecks (meager though they are). At one point last year, I even surprised myself and had to take note: “Oh, my. Did I really say all that? Perhaps I was too candid.”

As to the original questions about advertising raised in my entry on Wednesday, there’s still time for you to comment.