Losing sucks, but please don’t blame the voters.

You lost, and you should take responsibility for that loss – no one else.

Having been a candidate myself in 11 different campaigns – I know first-hand how much it sucks to lose.

In 1994 in my very first campaign for election for one of seven seats on the Kauaʻi County Council I finished #10. For you history buffs, #1 was the beloved Kaipo Asing, #2 was Randal Valenciano (now Chief Judge of the Fifth Circuit), #3 Maxine Correa (retired), and #4 Ronald Kouchi (now Senate President).

I’ll never forget that election evening. Our campaign hosted a gathering of friends and campaign volunteers who gathered anxiously around the radio, awaiting KONG’s Ron Wiley to tell the world who the winners would be.

After the second print-out showed clearly that I was not going to be among those winners, my campaign manager and totally awesome friend Dave said to me, “Gary, they lied to us. If they were telling us the truth, you would have won.”

Dave spoke of the thousands of people we had met going door-to-door in just about every neighborhood on the island. Everywhere we went, people would smile and shake our hands, and say nice things to me and about me.

At first I shared Dave’s feeling of betrayal, but soon realized these were just nice people saying nice things – and the responsibility for losing was mine, not theirs.

That night, after the final print-out, I remember going out to my car and taking the bumper stickers off. That’s how sad and dejected the feeling was.

But the next morning I went out to the car again, put new bumper stickers back on, held my head high and stood with my “Mahalo” sign on the highway at sunrise.

Including that first foray into politics in 1994, I’ve run 11 campaigns for election to public office, winning 7 and losing 4.

Trust me on this. Winning is so much more fun than not winning.

Losing means a majority of voters prefer your opponent over you, and that my friends is a difficult pill to swallow. But that’s the bottom line.

Candidates lose elections because they fail to inspire, convince, or motivate voters to show up and vote for them. That’s why Kamala Harris lost, that’s why I lost those 4 races, and that’s why every single candidate loses.

Money of course plays a huge role and SuperPac’s are always a convenient place to lay the blame. But in the presidential race there was big money in play on both sides. Nope it wasn’t money that beat Kamala Harris, but rather her failure to inspire and motivate a majority of voters.

Locally, the “blame the money game” is less credible because the districts are generally small enough to walk, and knock, and benefit from that all important “direct voter contact”.

The majority of local candidates who lose, more often than not, fail to actually run a “real” campaign.

They avoid the hard work of going door-to-door, they hesitate to ask people for help and for campaign donations, and they remain in their own safe circle of demographics surrounded by people just like themselves. When they do attend political forums or speak directly to voters, they talk about their own favorite issues instead of what’s important to the people who live in the district.

Then they lose and start the blame game. They blame the political parties, they blame the special interests, they blame the media, and they blame and denigrate the voters.

Kudo’s to those candidates who take responsibility and resist seeking someone else to blame. I wish you well and encourage you to build upon this experience, and try again in the future.

Note to those that are curious:
Here are the results of the 11 elections that I have been part of…7 wins and 4 not wins 😉

1994 Kauaʻi County Council – lost in Democratic (before it turned nonpartisan) Primary finishing #10

1998 Kauaʻi County Council – won #5 in Primary and #5 in General

2000 Kauaʻi County Council – won #4 in General

2002 Kauaʻi State Senate – Challenged incumbent Democrat Jonathan Chun and won in Primary and won in General (minor Republican opponent)

2004 Kauaʻi State Senate won in Primary and won General against challenger, former Kauaʻi Mayor Marryanne Kusaka

2006 U.S. Congress 2nd District lost in Primary
Note…Mazie Hirono now U.S. Senator won this Primary with less than 21% of the vote.

HIRONO, Mazie K. 24,487 20.7%
HANABUSA, Colleen 23,643 20.0%
MATSUNAGA, Matt 16,001 13.5%
HEE, Clayton 12,649 10.7%
HOOSER, Gary L. 10,730 9.1%
SCHATZ, Brian 8,254 7.0%
MENOR, Ron 8,030 6.8%
GARCIA, Nestor R. 4,479 3.8%
AIPOALANI, Hanalei Y. 2,688 2.3%
ZUIKER, Joe 1,174 1.0%

2008 Kauaʻi State Senate won in Primary and won General no strong/serious challenger

2010 Lieutenant Governor lost in Primary

SCHATZ, Brian 83,476 34.8%
BUNDA, Robert (Bobby) 45,986 19.2%
SAKAMOTO, Norman 44,488 18.5%
HOOSER, Gary L. 22,890 9.5%
BERG, Lyla B. 20,183 8.4%
KARAMATSU, Jon Riki 6,746 2.8%
HIRAKAMI, Steve 2,695 1.1%

2012 Kauaʻi County Council – won #6 in Primary and #7 in General

2014 Kauaʻi County Council – won #6 in Primary and #7 in General

2016 Kauaʻi County Council – lost #9 in Primary and #9 in General

Gary Hooser
former Hawai’i State Senator, Majority Leader
former Kauaʻi County Councilmember
now retired but continuing to serve, and doing what I can to help make our community a better place
First published in The Garden Island newspaper “Policy and Politics”