For millennials, politics doesn’t mean party labels

Those born in the mid-1980s and later, the fabled millennials, don’t care much for political labels.

A series of polls taken late last year show that about 45 percent consider themselves to be independents. Another 33 percent say they are Democrats and 23 percent say Republican.

"They are sending a message to those in power that for them to re-engage in government and politics, the political process must be open, collaborative and have the opportunity for impact — and not one that simply perpetuates well-worn single-issue agendas," said a December Harvard University Institute of Politics survey report.

Neither political party is getting much love from the generation that is even larger and much more diverse than the baby-boomer generation.

So it is interesting that veteran state legislator Sen. Suzanne Chun Oakland has come up with a bill to take politics out of elections.

Well, not completely — the state would still have primary elections under her proposal in SB 2012, but the ballot would have only candidates’ names, and no political party identification, on the ballot.

In other words: When you get a ballot it would have a list of people running for governor, lieutenant governor, or the state House and Senate.

Voters would not get a Democrat or Republican ballot; they would get a ballot that said "choose one."

Chun Oakland, who was first elected to the state House in 1990, recalls that when she decided to run, she surveyed her friends to find out if they could vote for her in the Democratic primary and was surprised to learn she had supporters who were Republicans, Greens and Independents.

"Over the years I have come to see that the most important thing to voters is they can trust you as a person. Voters value hard work and trust. Many people view labels such as Democrat or Republican as creating an unnecessary barrier in determining a person’s motivation," she said.

Chun Oakland, who introduced the bill at the request of a constituent, is not figuring that the solidly Democratic Legislature will take R’s and D’s off the ballot anytime soon, but "it is good to have the discussion," adding that she has also read the polls showing that young voters are turned off by the tired, old political parties.

As expected, Dante Carpenter, the state chairman of the Hawaii Democratic Party, was not excited by the Chun Oakland idea.

"It doesn’t seem like the right step to take at this time. It would take party out of the picture," said Carpenter.

"I suppose the next step would be to just not hold a primary election."

The idea of "no labels" elections is also a direct challenge to the renewed effort by Carpenter and others to force voters to join a political party before they could vote in a primary election.

Last November, the Hawaii Democratic Party sued in federal court for the state to close the primary election for the Democrats. The suit was rejected with the federal judge saying the party failed to show that the present open primary hurt the Democratic Party.

Carpenter said Democrats are working on an appeal.

For millennials, it may be that a challenging, good-paying job beats pledging allegiance to a political party any time.

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Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Reach him at rborreca@staradvertiser.com.