I ran into JN Musto this week. Musto is executive director of the University of Hawaii Professional Assembly, the union representing faculty across the UH system, including the community colleges along with West Oahu, UH Hilo, and the flagship Manoa campus.
I took the opportunity to ask about UHPA’s endorsement of Ed Case in the Democratic Primary for the U.S. Senate seat. I think it’s fair to say the union’s endorsement surprised many observers.
Before candidate interviews had taken place, members of the union’s political endorsement committee generally seemed to favor Congresswoman Mazie Hirono, Musto said.
Here’s how UHPA described the interview process.
Questions were given to each candidate ahead of the interviews and were informed that the interviews would be filmed. All candidates agreed to the filming of their interviews. They were given the opportunity to make introductory remarks as well. After the filming, candidates responded to additional questions in a more informal setting and were allocated time to clarify, expand on their earlier remarks, and to ask questions or make additional comments. The PEC deliberated after each interview and their recommendations for endorsement were made to the Board of Directors.
Musto said Case impressed the committee by providing detailed responses to a variety of questions, addressing UHPA concerns directly, and articulating a clear political strategy for keeping the Senate seat on the Democratic side of the aisle.
The committee’s recommendation was adopted by the union’s board of directors in February.
Here’s some of what the union had to say about the endorsement.
“We believe Ed Case showed a seasoned perspective of the role of public higher education, and presented comprehensive solutions to challenges facing faculty,” said Adrienne Valdez, UHPA Board President, who also served on the Political Endorsement Committee. “He believes the federal government should not micromanage higher education and that standards and assessment should be left to faculty members.”
“We also saw Mr. Case’s increased recognition of the need for collaboration and a much more inclusive attitude that was open to bringing faculty to the table for discussion. We believe he will earnestly reach out to faculty to explore possible solutions to issues if he is elected to the U.S. Senate,” Valdez said.
UHPA set a new standard in transparency in union endorsements by making videos of candidate interviews publicly available via YouTube (just search for UHPA) and on its own web site, FacultyVotes.org. Unfortunately, the videos have drawn very few viewers to date, although it would be unfair of me to compare them to Romeo’s video, which should pass 545,000 views sometime today.
The union invites everyone to watch the candidates responses to a series of questions, although the videos seemed to be loading quite slowly when I watched several of them this morning. And while video of the committee’s deliberations isn’t included, it is still quite an extraordinary public record, and a silent challenge to other interest groups to be equally open in documenting their endorsement decisions.
Case has now followed up with a letter distributed to UHPA members this week in which he discusses ten issues related to higher education.
While Hirono is widely considered the frontrunner, there are also many whispered doubts about her ability as a campaigner. Hirono often seems formal and uncomfortable, and lacks that personal “spark” that makes some candidates shine in more intimate campaign settings. Hirono and her supporters point to the impressive list of endorsements she has been accumulating, but those don’t translate directly into a win at the polls. And even supporters worry about her ability to go one-on-one with Linda Lingle should she become the party’s nominee, recalling the 2002 gubernatorial election, when Hirono narrowly defeated Case in the Democratic primary, but was beaten by Lingle in the general election.
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In a one on one match up, Romeo would clearly out point Mazie on personality, charisma and overall energy level. He’d likely get the nod on accomplishments as well.
I am not sure if everyone wants a “spark” in their candidates. Southeners, for instance, might like a bit of “stardust” in their candidates (e.g., Bill Clinton). But voters in the midwest, for example, probably do not prioritize charisma and, in fact, might be suspicious of it. Likewise, the kind of people who vote for Hirono do not want a BMW, they want a Toyota or a Ford. Hirono has gotten to where she is perhaps because her constituency prefers substance over flash, e.g., Ariyoshi’s “Quiet but effective” rebuttal to Fasi’s charisma. The problem for Hirono might be that even within her constituency the younger generation do not equate “quiet” with “effective”. Also, this is an election to send someone to the US Senate, not the State Senate, and the habits that are considered virtues in Hawaii might not apply to the most powerful legislative body in the world.
Romeo has it over any politican. You can trust him to be consistent!
I have always found Hirono to be aloof, arrogant, and often not very knowledgeable about the issues beyond the superficial talking points. Case seems willing to dig into things, and has always made a point of having large numbers of small neighborhood meetings even when serving in Congress. I do hope Mr. Musto is recuperating from his injuries. (“I ran into JN Musto this week.”)
I don’t often agree with Mr. Conklin but I do on this one. I had some professional (not political) experience with her and found her wooden, unimaginative, and and utterly uninspired (and uninspiring). She spoke at a forum in DC attended by my college student offspring who was shocked to find her arrogant, condescending and — most surprisingly — plainly unprepared. I say shocked because, on paper, I agree with her positions but what she presents on a personal level gives me concern that she has never had an original thought in her head and that she will be eaten alive, if not by Lingle, by the jerks who constitute the majority in the Senate.
I love it when I get to agree with Ohia. Mazie is a lightweight, period. Not just by my estimation, but apparently also by her Democratic peers in Congress. Look at her committee assignments compared to Hanabusa, who is junior to her (and I’m no Hanabusa fan!)
Hirono is beloved by most of her colleagues – many of whom are backing her campaign, including Sens. Boxer & Inouye & Reps. Lewis & Pelosi. Even as a freshman, she had already earned the respect of Education Committee Chairman George Miller, who asked to preside over a hearing on pre-K education. Education, labor, transportation – her committee assignments – are big deals to most people.
Wow, shocker of shockers, incumbent Reps and Sens are backing another incumbent. I did, however, self-fact-check and I apologize for an error. I thought Hanabusa was on Appropriations because that’s what D leadership said they would do during the last election. Apparently, they didn’t follow through after she beat Djou. Oh well, election season promises.
I totally agree with Ken and Ohia on their characterization of Hirono. What we need in the senate (not only from Hawaii but any state) are independent thinkers, problem solvers and consensus builders. In my opinion Hirono is none of those.
Updated: Thursday, April 5
“Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney, whose wealth has become a central issue in the 2012 campaign, has taken advantage of an obscure exception in federal ethics laws to avoid disclosing the nature and extent of his holdings.
“By offering a limited description of his assets, Romney has made it difficult to know precisely where his money is invested, whether it is offshore or in controversial companies, or whether those holdings could affect his policies or present any conflicts of interest.”
Washingtonpost.com already has 2150 Comments on this. How’s that for transparent!
Well, we can clearly see the Ed Case/Linda Lingle talking point. Can’t dis Mazie Hirono on her impressive credentials, her great effectiveness, her consistent adherence to her stated principals, so the only thing her opponents can come up with is that she is buddy-buddy enough?
Let’s say I went along with this (mis)characterization (which I don’t). Does that mean I should vote for a guy who consistently voted in favor of the Iraq Invasion, completely ignored us when we begged him to disentagle us?
Or (since Ken Conlin is a Lingle supporter) vote for a woman who endorsed Sarah Palin, who would turn the Senate Republican and allow the GOP to run through any bills they want in addition to appointing all the committee chairs?
This innuendo and personality attacks in place of issue oriented analysis is beneath the blog and its usual high standards.
And one question to the UH Professional Assembly: Do you really think a glib talker who VOTED YES ON A RESOLUTION TO DEFUND PBS, really has your best interests at heart.
Sheesh…look at ACTIONS not a candidate’s ability to BS.
Well, please forgive us for even having a discussion. If it was as simple as filling in the bubbles on a score sheet according to a pre-determined list of issues, we wouldn’t need to have this discussion. Since that seems to be your approach and you can brook no factors other than binary, analog analysis, please feel free to excuse yourself from the discussion.
In my book, the personal qualities of a candidate still count for something even tho’ I may yet vote for Mazie for some of the reasons you mention. Pardon me for not subscribing to your lock step approach to casting one’s vote.
Watch the videos.
Paia Girl wrote: “since Ken Conlin is a Lingle supporter”
Where did you get that idea? I am NOT a Lingle supporter. If Lingle is the Republican nominee, I will vote for whatever Democrat is the nominee. That’s because I believe the Akaka bill, and our multitude of racial entitlement programs, is the most important issue facing Hawaii, outweighing everything else. The only thing that has stopped the Akaka bill is Republicans in the Senate blocking it for 12 years. Lingle, wearing the “R” on her forehead, might actually persuade or do logrolling with Republicans to stop them from blocking it. However, the Republicans in the Senate will simply ignore any Democrat telling them to stop blocking it. So I will hold my nose and vote for any Democrat (including Hirono) who is the nominee against Lingle.
The word that describes Mazie is dutiful. That resonates with our older Japanese voters but not necessarily with their grandchildren.
Mazie didn’t really answer the questions, she did sound bites. That is like a student showing up unprepared for class, not a good way to deal with a union of professors.
Most unfortunately, younger people are too busy texting to vote. If younger, more independent people voted in Hawaii, there is no way Akaka would still be in office right now, and Mazie would have to be more than a mouthpiece.
Bad reality is reality, and for Case, being the best candidate is not enough for this state.
The very important race for U.S. Senate aside, I think Musto has emerged as the top Hawaii union leader in last decade. He bargains well. He does not toot his personal horn much and seems above self-sering acts of many of his colleagues. The professors are well served in m view and I am not a Musto friend nor a member of his union.
You do not need to always agree with a leader (such as his choice of Lingle 10 years ago) but to see a broader view of his competence..
You know what the really senate needs? More male white republicans like Ed Case.
I checked out those videos, and I am convinced that UHPA’s endorsement is based not on ideology or on knowledge, but on the ability of a candidate to ace a job interview. Hannemann did the best, Case did well, Hirono not so good, Gabbard was downright amateurish.
For the first question, none of them seemed prepared. Hannemann pulled out way ahead with a politician’s grab bag of standard cliches, e.g., saying that the federal gov’t can help form “public-private partnerships” with universities. But what exactly does that mean? Building a McDonald’s on campus, or turning over the department of tropical agriculture to Monsanto? If anything, there is too much of that going on as is. But Hannemann really did excel at B.S.ing his way through. Case was pretty slick too with his more specific example of how he fought to bring a laser to Hawaii, but even he did not really get into policy. Hirono casually recited cliches about supporting Pell grants, etc., and she seemed to be getting off topic about how Republicans were a threat to public higher education. Yawn. She was glib like Hannemann but so dull. Gabbard seemed to be laughing nervously. Oddly, or someone from a political family, she did not seem to have much polish. She did not lean forward and pretend to be earnest the way Case and Hannemann did. She seems just as bright (or not) as the rest of them, but she does not have her game face on. I get the sense that she did not go Harvard like Mufi, where all the winners and professors’ kids know how to say things just so right and so pat (even though half of them are so very un-clever). She seemed like a first-time candidate for student government in a high school or a state university, not a candidate for the United States Congress.
So how does one acquire polish? Time and experience? Will power? Ability? Travel? Education?