This month,
we launch Capitol Gains, our take on who’s winning and
losing and what’s doing in Salem.
The untapped power of the small-business voter
By Oakley Brooks
What if you could get small-business owners to vote as one
block? Impossible, you say: There are around 100,000 businesses
with 50 or fewer employees in Oregon and getting them on the
same page come political season would be like herding cats.
But Oregon statewide candidates should think of this group as
an opportunity. Here’s a potential voting block unmatched
in its size (about the same as the Mormon Church in Oregon) and
breadth (you name the demographic, they’re in this
group). Winning them over en
masse not only solidifies a new base for a candidate, it
also gives candidates entree into the workplace, which opinion
pollsters Davis, Hibbitts and Midghall say is one of the last
forums for civic engagement in a society turned off by public
affairs. An owner who convinces a handful of employees to vote
with him or her broadens the base even more.
Going after the small-business owner would salve some of the
cynicism among Oregon’s notoriously independent voters,
who only see candidates pandering to CEOs with big checkbooks.
At the same time, small-business owners, especially in rural
areas, often have complained that state economic development
strategy puts too much energy toward recruiting big
out-of-state employers. Wooing the small-business vote is a
play to the little guy and just in time. And it’s a
gesture to a group long considered uniquely Oregonian. Oregon
is annually among the top 10 in business starts per capita.
It’s seen as fertile ground for entrepreneurs — for
many new arrivals starting a business is the reason they moved
here. “It’s just strange and open enough
here,” says a recently arrived technology startup chief
from Georgia.
Small-business owners cut across traditional divides in Oregon
like few other interests groups. Think of the ideological
diversity in this motley crew of proprietors — left,
right, Bushies, Blues, Libertarians, pro-choice, pro-life,
anti-gay marriage, anti-gun, immigrant hirers, Minutemen,
Homesteaders, California carpetbaggers and the irascible
don’t-give-a-damns running mail order burl operations
somewhere in the Siskiyous. Industries also have their specific
policy interests: It’s one reason lobbies with
small-business constituents also have had a hard time uniting
behind policy in Salem. (The Oregon Small Business Coalition
— a loose gathering of restaurant, farm and National
Federation of Independent Business representatives — has
a staff of one-half a person and is a sort of ghost entity in
Salem.)
Some of the very people who might benefit from a
small-business political strategy — business groups and
business owners — doubt it would ever come together,
pointing to the traditional fault lines in politics and policy.
Money talks, but the potential for a new voting block
doesn’t, says Oregon Business Association president Lynn
Lundquist. “Let’s face it, a Loren Parks has far
more influence,” Lundquist says of the medical devices
tycoon who put $760,000 in the pockets of Republican
gubernatorial candidate Kevin Mannix this spring.
A random smattering of small-business owners said recently
they weren’t sure they could be swayed to join a
coalition of their fellow owners. One startup CEO in Eastern
Oregon says his territory would always be solidly Republican. A
counterpart in downtown Portland, well-versed in public
affairs, promised to be a one-issue voter on gay marriage this
fall.
Only J.L. Wilson, head of Oregon’s National Federation
of Independent Business chapter, was somewhat open to the idea
of a small-business block (might have something to do with his
lobby being founded on that premise).
So it won’t be easy. It’s going to take a
candidate with vision, who can speak to this diverse audience
in the simple language of the small-business owner. The pitch
understands the unifying tie of this group: Economic life is
precarious and the owner bears the brunt of whatever
cash-hemorrhaging catastrophe comes along. Solutions that ease
that financial and emotional burden are what will win over this
voting block.
This year, health care provides a magnet issue for candidates
courting the small-business community. Though small-business
owners may have expressed disinterest in voting with each
other, they all spoke clearly about how health care costs were
holding them back. “Health care costs are the top issue
and there probably isn’t a close second,” Wilson
says.
Too bad Oregon’s two leading prospects for governor are
meek with their proposals to help small businesses out of the
health-cost whirlpool. They’re copping the plea that
health care is too complicated for them to take a comprehensive
shot at it.
So instead of seeing the opportunity to unite a block of
disparate voters around a pressing issue, the candidates are
doing the traditional divvying-up of small-business votes
— some left, some right and so on.
The problem is they lack the imagination to see a latent
voting block out there. It doesn’t take much. In the
fractured, stale world of Oregon politics, economic issues may
be one of the last commonalities. And at the root of the Oregon
economy are the small-business owners. What could be more
fundamental than currying favor with them?
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