Lee Cataluna: Day-after waving a sign of character

It must take a lot to stand on the side of the road holding a sign with your name on it while waving to potential voters in passing cars. It seems so emotionally vulnerable, like the dogs who run up to the fence of their kennel at the Hawaiian Humane Society: “Pick me! Pick me!”

Some candidates and their supporters make it look easier than others. They bop around and cheer as though it’s fun. Others look so forlorn and put-upon, like it’s a major challenge to their introverted nature to be out in public like that, yet they make themselves do it because sign-waving is a requirement of elected office in Hawaii.

Standing there, wind and rain, sun and sweat, being assessed by people in passing cars. Some must give funny looks. Or funny fingers. Sometimes they yell and it’s not always an encouraging “howzit.” Sign-waving must be hard.

Sign-waving the day after the election must be especially difficult for the losing candidate. Yet some people rise to that humbling occasion and get back out there to say thank you.

It can’t be easy for winners the morning after, either. Election night stretches into the early hours of morning and candidates must be physically and emotionally spent. Then they have to get up, get dressed and get out on the roadside with just a couple hours of sleep. That takes commitment. Yet so many do it. Gov. David Ige and his supporters had their mahalo versions of the signs and were out waving on Wednesday morning. Thursday, too.

But for the unsuccessful candidates, post-election sign-waving shows an extra measure of grit. Many who lost in the final count were up again Wednesday morning to wave and say thank you to the people who did support them and thank you for the opportunity to run for office.

Ige’s GOP opponent Andria Tupola and her supporters were very visible on streets around the island and it was an ebullient kind of waving, a mahalo that conveyed plans for future campaigns. Others who faced disappointment on election night were back on the road the next day.

Ewa Beach Democrat Matt LoPresti, who gave up his state House seat to run for Senate, stood with his mahalo signs on the day after. He posted on Facebook that it was “a great honor and deeply humbling” to serve the district for the last four years. Former state Rep. Marilyn Lee, a Democrat, held signs in Mililani pledging to continue to help her community in any way she could.

Humility is not something seen often in contemporary politics, but great leadership requires the ability to put aside ego and hubris while still maintaining dignity. Imagine if the winning candidates in extremely close races said on the morning after an election, “Yeah, OK, let’s do a recount. I don’t want a shadow of doubt over my time in office.”

Perhaps that’s asking a bit much.

The candidates and their supporters who, regardless of outcome, get back out on the road the day after an election to say “mahalo” are commendable in that there’s not much to be gained from it except a demonstration of character.

Reach Lee Cataluna at 529-4315 or lcataluna@staradvertiser.com.