Every election year in Hawaii, somebody resorts to negative campaigning, and every time it happens, the reaction is, "Tsk-tsk, this is not how we do things in the Aloha State! This is a new low."
The low isn’t new. The way the message is delivered is, though. Perhaps the way negative ads are perceived is changing as well.
The reality is that negative campaigning does happen in Hawaii. In fact, it reliably happens every time there’s an election. Acting shocked and offended every time a new hit piece is revealed is some kind of cultural conceit, an unspoken agreement to maintain the myth of Hawaii’s decorum.
In the days before email lists, blogging and websites, negative campaigning relied on over-the-fence gossiping. There have always been election-year whispers and rumors that swept through communities like a bad smell on a Kona wind. Cec Heftel’s 1986 gubernatorial campaign was derailed by an anonymous letter sent in the mail, which was bold at the time because there was something on paper rather than just passed along the grapevine.
What is different these days is that spreading dirt on a candidate is easier. You don’t even need to buy stamps. The other difference, though, is that now it’s possible to trace the mud back to its source. Even the most anonymous websites are trackable, and once you find out who is slinging mud, it’s not hard to figure out why.
But let’s remember that the other advantage we have in the information age is that we no longer have an excuse to be duped by attack ads, robocalls and email blasts. It’s easy to spend a few minutes online and do some of your own investigating. You don’t have to be a whiz at databases or public records searches to find out whether a candidate really did what his opponent says he did. Hawaii voters don’t have to be insulted by half-truths and distortions.
Of course, the idea of keeping everything clean, friendly and full of aloha isn’t always realistic or helpful, either. Dan Akaka may be the only politician in modern history who has managed to get elected over and over again by consistently taking the high road. And criticizing an opponent’s record or platform is not the same as going negative.
The question is whether mudslinging still works. There’s another cultural phenomenon in play now. We live in an era of celebrity scandal, where the scandal is what makes the celebrity. In pop culture, you’re not famous unless somebody is talking smack about you and a group of "haters" is dedicated to posting negative things about you online. Every negative ad for a candidate gets the candidate’s name some publicity, and these days you’re nobody unless somebody is trying to take you down.
———
Reach Lee Cataluna at lcataluna@staradvertiser.com.
