Political capital

Officials can't afford to squander political capital

by Garrison Frost

Elected leaders in the beach cities could use a lesson in the concept of political capital. It would help leaders in Redondo Beach understand why the Heart of the City project hasn't gone anywhere and why nothing else has either. And it would help those in Manhattan Beach figure out why they couldn't pass a bond measure for a new police and fire station just a few months after 9/11. But moreover, it would help these people understand their limits and force them to prioritize the large things that need to get done.

We should probably start off with a good definition of what political capital is. The simple version is that political capital is everything that enables leaders to get anything done. It's their reputation, their ability to make the newspaper, their statutory role, their friends in the community, the amount of money they can raise, the number of people who support them, the length of time people are willing to pay attention to them and a lot more than that as well.

As we all know, the true activity of being an elected official isn't approving giant capital projects or landmark law. It's constituent service. It's fixing potholes and trimming trees, settle barking dog disputes and business license snafus. And for most of these things, the elected official in question usually calls upon his or her political capital. It's his ability to get the bureaucrat to pay attention when she calls. The ability to listen to the constituents and get their trust that the issue will be resolved. With the little stuff, elected officials usually don't have to reach too far into their debit account of political capital because these things don't require much to get the job done. Still, you will occasionally run into a politician who isn't taken seriously by City Hall, who no one listens to, and who simply can't get anything done. Laughingstock whackos usually have very little political capital.

No, where political capital really comes in handy is on the big stuff, stuff like the Heart of the City in Redondo Beach and Metlox in Manhattan Beach.

The Heart of the City is a great example because officials in Redondo Beach have spent, and continue to spend, just about every kind of political capital that exists. To start, they have spent thousands of dollars of actual money on staff time, consultants, permits, lobbying, paper and supplies. But they've spent a lot more elsewhere. They've asked residents to attend dozens of public meetings and those residents have turned out in force. They've tapped into personal relationships with the business community and spent time with various resident groups. They've packed the agendas of various city commissions and the City Council with item after item, and spent hours in deliberations.

The Heart of the City plan didn't fail for lack of spending when it came to political capital. But you could argue that it failed because that capital was spent poorly. City officials did a great job of tapping into relationships with AES, the Chamber of Commerce and interested residents. But they failed in their efforts to win over public opinion because — rightly or wrongly — all the public meetings and debates were interpreted by the public as being rigged for a certain outcome. Not only were the residents upset about this perceived slight, but they felt that their time had been wasted. It's not easy to go to a meeting and offer your opinion, and the ability to get people to do that time and time again is a form of political capital. But if you make people feel that they have not been heard, you squander your capital. In the case of the Heart of the City, that capital was simply handed off to opponents of the plan.

Then-activist Chris Cagle would never have been able to get more than 20 signatures on his petition against the Heart of the City if elected officials in Redondo Beach hadn't unknowingly handed him their political capital. In fact, they handed him so much political capital that he had no trouble finding enough to get elected to the City Council a few months later.

Another interesting aspect of political capital in Redondo Beach becomes apparent when one asks the question: What else is going on in the city? If you ask most residents that question, they'll tell you that nothing is going on. But the reality is that this just isn't true. The police station is falling apart, the sewers are a mess and the city is thinking about changing the company that removes trash each week.

But getting people excited about any of these things is going to be hard as long as city officials continue in their efforts to rally support for the harbor development. People will only go to so many public forums and City Council meetings. They will only read so many articles in the newspaper. They will only knock on doors for their leaders so many times. Elected officials are only in office for so long. One of the most important rules about political capital is that it is finite. Elected officials, regardless of how powerful they might think they are, can only do so many big thing with the time they have in office.

Officials in Manhattan Beach experienced this in early 2002 when they tried to pass a bond to build a new police and fire station. Just a few months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacked, you could hardly have picked a better time for such a thing, and yet the effort failed.

There are a lot of possible explanations for what happened, but one might be that residents were just too burned out on civic activities to really generate the kind of support that such a project required. For years, residents had been going to meeting after meeting on the Metlox project. They had been called out to vote, knocked on doors, read through stacks of official documents, poured over dozens of newspaper articles, listened to countless speeches and patiently sat through god knows how many boring public meetings. And then came Sept. 11 with all of its attendant calls for unity and concern.

By the time the vote on the police and fire station came along, the people that were necessary to make sure the thing passed were just plain tired. And this allowed a relatively weak opposition to take advantage.

For an example of the proper use of political capital, one need not look much further than the Manhattan Beach School District today. Faced with difficult budget cuts from the state, officials with the School District have tapped into every network available to them. They've rallies parents, teachers, local businesses and politicians.

Smart with its capital, the School District doesn't ask for too much of its people too often. It's been a while since the last school bond was passed, and the district's support networks aren't burned out. The results have been amazing. Spurred by local PTAs, families are writing checks to their schools. People are packing meetings, not too many meetings, but just enough to keep the momentum going without causing it to sputter.

All of this is evidence that if you're an elected official who wants to accomplish big things, you have to prioritize and pick your spots. And you have to be aware of what you're spending, not just in terms of cash, but in just about everything else that matters.

(May 12, 2003)