Sign Waving

Well, you may have seen scattered pockets already, but I'm wondering if today marks the official launch of "sign waving season" in local politics. I saw an army of perhaps 100 Mazie Hirono sign wavers deployed along South King, from Ward to Piikoi.

Though I sometimes forget to mention the phenomenon when "Hawaii: So Weird" lists are thrown about, sign waving is certainly one of our more distinctive campaign quirks. What do you think about the practice? Is it done just to be done, or do you think it actually affects how people vote?

To me, Hawaii is such a politically incestuous place, not to mention a very small island world, for folks to not know well in advance who they're voting for. Someone always knows someone who's the daughter of the guy who worked for this candidate, you know?

And sign wavers are incredibly distracting, a fact that's made worse by the fact that they concentrate on busy thoroughfares at rush hour. Today I saw one Mazie waver nearly get mowed down when he decided to jump onto the road to get past a congested block of other wavers on the sidewalk (come to think of it, today's army was probably one of the worst organized I've seen - poorly spaced, rowdy if not rude, and not presenting a 'coordinated wall of Hirono' like they should have).

And they block crosswalks, making life for pedestrians a pain as well.

It's a vicious cycle to me. Candidate A does it because it's been done every year. Candidate B has to do it, because he can't just concede the street corners to his opponent. Everyone waves signs, but it's effect on votes is not at all worth the effort. (The only folks who love it are local signmakers, me thinks.)

Comments

Here in Hilo, the sign waivers don't present quite the safety hazard that they do on O'ahu. They are, nevertheless, relentless and distracting. I was once upon a time forced to sign waive as part of my job. My boss was a big supporter of a certain party and that party's gubernatorial candidate. Well, Hilo rains a lot and our campaign shirts were red and blue on WHITE! It was quite unpleasant for the sign waivers and I'd venture to say distracting for the drivers. (I voted for someone else.)

Why do they place restrictions on the size and placement of signs and banners and then allow sign waiving?

One can really rack up them points.. ;P

Once, when I was a young hot-rodding teen-age punk, I did a nice, long smokey burn-out that covered the same distance that the wavers did. I still chuckle when I see them on the side of the road but would not ever do that again (I could image the person getting into office and then make life really hard for those who share my automotive interest).

Y'all aware that Gary Okino (City Council) has introduced a bill to restrict the practice? I don't know details yet, but I'll give him points for swimming against the tide.

And Ali, the campaign commission might have looked unfavorably on your being "required" to wave as part of your job.

"waivers" and "waiving"? Then again, given Tom's automotive interests perhaps the wavers should have signed waivers before waving. (covering my head and running away now) :)

Steve--I think my former boss owned the commission. Nah, we weren't "required" so much as "very strongly encouraged to participate" and then given company time to "participate in the democratic process."

Speaking of Mazie, I can't believe that Lee Cataluna's column beat me to the punch(line) about the Hirono campaign offices being next door to Club Rock-Za, but hey, somebody had to mention it...

The signwavers might have an effect on a small percentage of voters, but I think other factors have a much greater influence on who people will ultimately to vote for.

Such things like what letter is in front of a candidates name, be it (D), (R), (I), or whatever else, has a strong influence on who is voted for. Also, there is a considerable portion of the voting public that is influenced by what the last name of a candidate is.

Of course, there are those people who are knowledgeable about all the candidates and actually follow the voting records of people running for office. But I think these people are probably outnumbered by those people that are influenced by the signwavers.

Hmm. I'd agree signwavers affect a larger group than all "fully-informed voters" combined. Name recognition — any name — plays a huge part in who wins. The visual impact of two blocks of "KANESHIRO" sign-wavers is proabably very measurable in a race where none of the candidates are well known.

I personally wonder how strong party lines are in Hawaii, though. In my experience, Democrats and Republicans are fairly indistinguishable in terms of policy, except on a few narrow issues. Hell, folks change parties now and then, and no one cares. We also have several non-partisan races.

I have to admit, especially in elections like neighborhood board and BOE, I have no idea who anyone is (except Lex Brodie, who's always elected of course). So I vote first by gender (women first), then by last name (I hate to admit, apparent ethnicity plays a part).

Of course, the good news is, my poor voting technique very rarely plays out in the results, so...

Speaking as someone who was forcibly drafted (despite protests) as a kid to wave for a neighbor's campaign, I would like to see the practice limited.

Living in VA, now, I would also like to see some sort of law passed which makes candidates responsible for taking all their posters down when the election is over, so we're not left with a sea of fading posters and metal spikes obstructing the medians.

Bunny, Bunny (shakes head in sorrow); the guys who put the signs up would have to vote to take them down...diminished name recognition? I don't think so!

You know, I don't think I realized until I saw this thread that sign-waving was a singularly Hawaiian thing. I mean, it's perfectly obvious now that I think about it, and it helps me place why something always feels weird around election time here. (I'm with bunny, by the way. I'm also in Virginia, and the sheer number of picket signs and posters lining streets and medians is horrible.)

I remember driving over the Pali every morning during election season and seeing candidates staking out the one or two pulloffs to get the morning rush hour.

While it may be a hazard and an annoyance, I think it also makes it a little more human than just having folks wandering around with a truck trying to cover every inch of available median with your signs.

Welcome to the board, Meri! *wave*

I was just thinking about this more closely, actually, considering that I was born in a country where politicians are marketed like products (huge launch parties! movie-star endorsements! and I actually knew how to spell miting de avance before I realized we had a McDonald's!) and while I do feel for the folks who actually hold up the signs and do the waving, I could think of worse things that could happen to them - like, um, going to a miting de avance and end up getting bombed by the opponent and his lackeys in the yakuza/ mafia/Abu Sayyaf/ whatever.

I thought of this because I remember running into my brother-in-law many times while he was waving signs for the Cayetano campaign when he worked directly with the State Government.

I also thought of this when I saw the Hirono campaign putting sign-wavers in that intersection of Kapiolani and Kalakaua near their offices - which, for a while there, made me wonder if they hijacked the old space where "The General" used to wave his flag every single day.

Late update to this thread: I posted a little note to Casey Choi on my weblog. I might have to vote Republican this year, but it'll be Jake Wurthner for me. (Not only does Jake not make a public nuisance out of himself, but he talked baby stuff with my wife a few weeks back.)

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