Politics is a dirty business. We hear that almost every day. And with each new scandal to come out of the White House, each report of new corruption amongst our elected leaders — whether it be real corruption for cash — or the more insidious type of just losing touch with the people they represent, we lose our faith in the political process.
Fighting the battle to put good people into office is a tough job. I say this from the personal experience of having spent the last two weeks trying to get people to come to my home and meet Kelly Hayes-Raitt, a democrat to represent Santa Monica in the Assembly. I was amazed at the initial reactions people have when I would invite them to a brunch, to hear Hayes-Raitt speak, and to ask her about the issues confronting our state today.
As I talked to my neighbors, most everyone was eager to complain about the current crop of crooks in Sacramento and Washington. It’s not hard in this Democratic part of the world to get a conversation going about how bad Bush and his band of merry men are. There is a great deal of anger, frustration and disgust with the people whom we choose to lead us.
My neighbors had so much contempt prior to investigation that it made getting people to come hear Hayes-Raitt speak very difficult. Which is a shame, because she is a charismatic, engaged and engaging individual who has decades of experience at the grassroots level of politics.
Frequently people felt compelled to tell me that they were leaving their checkbooks at home and that they didn’t believe in giving money to the candidates. I found that funny because these same people would also bemoan the fact that fat cat corporations own the politicians. Well, no wonder. If the individuals won’t support the candidates, where are they supposed to get the money to run a campaign? Without the corporations or the individuals contributing, the only people who could run for office would be the super rich like the Governator, and do we really want a government owned by the super rich?
People’s hesitancy was made even more ironic to me because Hayes-Raitt is the only candidate who is running a clean money campaign. She’s living by the rules she wants to see put into practice. She’s not taking the fat cat corporate dollars so you’d think that people would be even more interested in hearing her. But no. Apathy runs deep in the American electorate.
I was able to find about 20 people to come meet Hayes-Raitt. In this little cadre of people, I had die-hard political junkies who love to spar over issues, and I had people who don’t vote. It was a very interesting experience watching the non-voters listen to what she had to say. To see someone who is generally apathetic about politics perk up and become a supporter is truly rewarding.
Hayes-Raitt is an open book. She’s lived her life, and her career, in such a way that she has wonderful experiences to share.
From her time working to help co-found Heal the Bay; through her travels in prewar Iraq and then post-war Iraq; her willingness to get in the mix, has given her an ability to empathize with others that wafts over the crowd like a fine perfume — it is noticeable, but not annoyingly so.
A couple of the guys that I invited are veterans. They have real-life experience with war and its costs. Each of them cornered Hayes-Raitt to tell her of their experiences being home from the war. The amazing part of this is, they did it before hearing her speak, not after. These are tough guys, who immediately felt that they could be open with Hayes-Raitt and share their thoughts and their feelings with her.
Integrity is a rare currency in politics. Nearly every politician wants to shout from the highest mountain how much integrity they have. Most candidates spend huge sums of money on very glossy campaign brochures and slick advertising campaigns to tell you how much integrity they have, which is really quite funny because it always makes me wonder how much did they have to sell out to get the donations, to print the mailers and tell me how much integrity they have.
Every person I spoke with who came to my home to meet Hayes-Raitt said the same thing, “she didn’t tell me about her integrity, she showed it to me.”
Being politically involved is frequently frustrating, oftentimes disappointing and generally a lot of hard work. But if we don’t take the time to get involved, to seek out good candidates like Kelly Hayes-Raitt, to learn what it is we like or dislike about them, how can we sit in judgment of the poor performers who get elected?
I spent many hours being told by friends and neighbors that they don’t get involved in politics but they do want their taxes reduced, and more services from the government. I just don’t know how that is supposed to happen if the only support candidates get is from big money donors like Playa Vista Development and the petroleum companies.
To be fair, I looked at the top three candidates’ Web sites and www.Hayes- Raittforassembly.com was the only one that actually had position papers on it. It’s that integrity thing. Hayes-Raitt puts her positions on record, her money where her mouth is, and people see that she means what she says.
Many of my guests came as skeptics and left as believers. But that’s because they actually took the time to investigate Hayes- Raitt and their reward was meeting a solid candidate with concrete ideas to improve our government, and a track record of protecting our environment.
We can only demand more from our elected leaders if we demand more from our candidates. We can only do that if we take the time to know them.
David Pisarra is a business development lawyer in the Santa Monica firm of Pisarra & Grist. He welcomes your questions and comments. He or (310) 664-9969.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 9, 2006. Read the original PDF.