Women are the key to winning

Frank Luntz spoke in Tucson for the Goldwater Institute this week. He is considered one of the top political researchers in America. In fact President Obama said following a PBS presidential debate “when Frank Luntz asks you to talk to his focus group you talk to his focus group”. Frank was very erudite and worked the room like a ring master. You would think that his interactions with the crowd were staged because of how well orchestrated they seemed. When a middle aged ladies cell phone rang he quipped “that is the worse ring I have ever heard” and snatched her phone and gave it to a teenage boy in the audience. Frank told the kid “I will give you $100 for your favorite charity if you will program the ring to “play that funky music white boy”. The kid accomplished the task and received his $100 gift. At one point he asked how many Jewish people were in the crowd. One woman raised her hand and he said “raising your hand when someone asks if you’re Jewish has not worked out so well for us in the past”. This caused the audience to gasp. But, Frank is not shy. Neither was he reticent to let us know that Republicans have a huge public relations problem. He played many campaign ads complete with focus group graphs (republicans in red, democrats in blue) assessing their positive or negative responses during the ads. One ad that cost the Republicans a seat in Pennsylvania featured an enormous grotesque puppet of Nancy Pelosi hovering over America menacingly mouthing that she was going to take over the country. This played particularly poorly with women. They may not like Nancy, but they took offense to the caricature of her and the portrayal of her as a monster. Another ad that cost the democrats the Massachusetts senate race featured the scary voice announcer that you hear promoting movies talking negatively about Scott Brown. Women were turned off. Brown countered the negative scary ad with him in his kitchen in short sleeves with his kids pictures on the fridge saying “my opponent has been running negative ads about me; let me tell you who Scott Brown is”. It won the women and the election. The language that we use presenting the ideas is critical to winning elections. Capitalism is out, free enterprise is in. Republican sounds too much like repugnant, but most people like "independent thinkers". And it is also important that we select candidates that have the "happy warrior" characteristics of Ronald Reagan. Reagan was hard not to like, even if you didn’t like his ideas. Luntz talked about the Republican leadership and quipped that when Mitch McConnell had heart surgery it took 10 hours, 8 of which the doctors were trying to find his heart! If Republicans are going to win elections they will need to win women and independents. We not only need to bring the right ideas to the table, we need to have the right table cloth and settings.

Let's do business

I watched an interview with Paul Krugman. He is an economist that has been the biggest proponent of the stimulus package. He was asked how well it was working and he acknowledged that it wasn’t working that well because they hadn’t done enough. This sent a chill up my spine. I am becoming increasingly more concerned that government intervention whether it is picking the winners in the automotive manufacturers buyout, or closer to home Rio Nuevo is usually not productive. I toured the Fox Theatre this morning. It has been beautifully redone at a price tag of 13 million dollars. The money came from Rio Nuevo. The director explained that after the initial opening of the theatre they had to be taken over by the Tucson Convention Center (City of Tucson) because they ran out of money. They had hired too much staff and didn’t have enough business (renting the facility). They have a budget of $400,000 per year and they have a loan of 5.5 million owed to Rio Nuevo (I guess the rest of the 13 million is forgiven). Considering the staffing, utilities and maintenance of the facility I don’t see how they can service the loan (they would need $500,000 a year to do that), so that loan won’t be paid back. The Fox was renovated to be the “jewel” of downtown redevelopment. It was the “if we build it they will come” type of proposition. Seems like I heard the same thing about Tucson Electric Park. The government needs to get out of the business of business (being a developer or landlord) and free up business to do what we do best. I had to do ownership reports for the FCC this week. In the past all we had to do is write a letter and say nothing had changed from our original ownership report. Now they have decided it is necessary for us to do the reports anew. Because of the number of radio stations we own and the different corporations I had to do 8 different reports (and pay 8 fees!) that were duplicates. The time and expense of doing this exercise could have been used for something productive in our business. This does keep FCC staff employed, but is this is not productive employment. Government exists because we pay taxes. If they got out of our way we could be more productive. I am reminded of the movie Braveheart Mel Gibsons' character William Wallace screamed "freedom". That note is ringing clearly now. Give us the freedom to do business!

Ask not what your country can do for you?

“Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country” we have come a long way baby from a time when a statement like this would resonate with Americans. Now it’s ask not what you can do for your country but what your country can do for you. I think John Kennedy would be shocked at what has happened to his party and to America. On Wednesday night there was an open meeting for the Rio Nuevo project. They wanted input on the proposed new hotel that would be funded and owned by the city of Tucson. A friend of mine attended the meeting and told me that there were many service union workers there with signs that said JOBS. Now jobs are something all of us can get behind. The rallying cry for the Arizona Small Business Association is jobs. ASBA is focused on advocating for small business so that they can get through the red tape of government so that they can create jobs. It is far better for the private sector to create jobs than it is for the government. Not to mention that after the taxpayers pour hundreds of millions of dollars into building this new hotel they will have to fund the shortfalls. A similar project was built in Chicago and had a 5.7 million dollar shortfall this past year. My friend talked to one of the union members after the meeting and asked him if it bothered him that the money for this project is coming from the tax payers. He smiled and said “I don’t pay much taxes!” It reminds me of this statement that is oft quoted today:

A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can
only exist until the voters discover they can vote themselves largesse
from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always
votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public
treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose
fiscal policy, and is always followed by a dictatorship

This has been attributed to Alex DeToqueville, but it may have been originally made by a Scotsman named Alexander Tytler. No matter, I think that it is a true statement and worthy of our attention today. It would be a good idea to have 1000 rooms downtown and a revived convention center if it makes financial sense. The smartest thing the city could do is offer incentives for a developer to do it and then get out of the way. But, that could be difficult since that actually makes sense.

4 C's

We had Rod Pace the CEO of Rosemont Copper on KVOI this morning. Rod does not hype the project; he just gives the facts and acknowledges that there are people that oppose the mine. I really did not have a strong opinion about Rosemont Copper until recently. What convinced me to support the mine are three things:

1. Jobs – Rosemont Copper will employ hundreds of people from Southern Arizona. Mine jobs pay an average of $60,000 per year. Instead of focusing on raising the minimum wage, why not attract jobs that actually pay a good wage?
2. Copper – We need copper and the other metals that will come out of Rosemont. A hybrid car has about 100 pounds of copper under the hood. And green technology (solar panels, wind turbines etc.) use a lot of copper.
3. U.S. made – The technology and the regulation of the mining industry are much better in America than it is in Africa or South America. Those that are concerned about the environment and safety shouldn’t limit their concern to their own back yard. Do you remember when we discovered that clothing was being manufactured in sweat shops overseas with child labor? I think it is better to mine in the U.S.A where we can control it than closing our eyes to mining in third world countries.

Arizona used to be known for the 4 C’s; copper, cattle, cotton and climate. 60% of the copper mined in the U.S comes from Arizona. This is both a blessing and a curse. When you see the ugly open pit mines in Green Valley and Bisbee you assume that Rosemont will be another eye sore. The new technology will allow a much smaller footprint and the restoration of vegetation on the landscape and environment. In 4 years you won’t be able to distinguish the mine from the surrounding area. Just like our insatiable appetite for illegal drugs fuels the crime below our border and the trespassing of our border, our importing of copper fuels overseas operations that are unsafe and environmentally unsound. Hundreds of high paying jobs, millions of dollars spent locally and millions more in tax revenue, a safe and environmentally sound operation that will supply 10% of the copper for America. What’s not to like?

Oh say can you see?

Some of you may remember the Christian Rock band Degarmo and Key (D and K). Yesterday Dana Key passed away at 56 years old when a blood clot burst. Since I am 55 this hits close to home. We can be making our plans and plotting our future and in a heart beat our life on earth is over. We know he is now in heaven with no pain or suffering and enjoying the presence of our Lord. But, when someone passes over those of us that remain mourn. Jesus said “blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted,” so the mourning process is a good thing.

Degarmo and Key were pioneering Christian musicians. In the early eighties Christian music was not nearly as popular as it is today and secular media shunned Christian music and Christian artists. I remember trying to buy commercials on mainstream (secular) stations for our church and being told that there was a separation of church and state and that they couldn’t run them. Now we are used to hearing and seeing church commercials on main stream media. Degarmo and Key led the way with a music video that was played on MTV for their song “666”. This was revolutionary to have a Christian band on MTV. Within a short period of time the video was banned by MTV as too controversial. This is the same MTV that has broken all barriers for sex and violent content, but a Christian video was too hot to handle. D and K were great musicians but more than that they were unwavering in their faith. Songs like “Destined to Win” and “Casual Christian” were intended to get folks out of the pews and the comfort of the church to proclaim the faith to those around us. I was involved in bringing the first Christian music night to the New Mexico State Fair back in 1981. We had Degarmo and Key that September evening and over 5,000 people attended the concert. We wanted D and K because we knew they would represent the best in Christian music and they did not disappoint us. Their musical presentation was unmatched but the part I remember the most was when Dana Key shared the Gospel. He talked about how Christ changed his life and that Jesus died for sinners to set us free. This message is timeless but particularly important because none of us know when we will run out of time. They continued to put out great Christian music through the nineties and to produce other Christian artists. Dana was the head of Ardent records and was the great, great, great, great, great grandson of Francis Scott Key the author of the Star Spangled Banner. It is interesting to note that his ancestor through his music memorialized our struggle for freedom in America; Dana continued the tradition by musically music sharing the freedom that is found through Jesus Christ.

Guess whose coming to Tucson?

I was talking to a friend of mine who has been very connected to Tucson politics. He shall remain nameless because he is still involved in the downtown redevelopment. I asked him what went wrong. He explained that when the money came in for Rio Nuevo instead of investing it in projects that would generate revenue the council members divided it up in a quid pro quo fashion. The money went to pet projects that generate no revenue. He went on to say that he believes we can turn the corner and he is working to make that happen, but I am not sure that it is possible. We were asleep at the wheel while other communities were driving their cities to prosperity. I have shared before about Salt Lake City’s “I believe in Utah” campaign that helped change the attitudes and bring economic growth to their city. They enjoy a 3% unemployment rate during a time that our nation is inching close to 10%. And I am continuing to be impressed with Albuquerque (where I grew up) and depressed that they keep beating us to the punch. They have lured the film industry to New Mexico and now they have announced that they are the solar capital of the U.S. Bill Richardson was wooing companies on CNN saying bring me your energy starved masses and we will give you solar power. He made it clear that if you want to locate your solar company in New Mexico that he will work with you to make it happen. I was talking to David Welsh from Tucson Regional Economic Opportunities a couple of months ago. Albuquerque was offering a high tech company free land and job training to get them in. I asked him what we were offering and he said sunshine. And now Albuquerque has taken that! As the clock ticks we are moving closer to becoming the Detroit of the Deser; we must act swiftly before our demise. During these economic times smart business people have made adjustments to reposition their companies. Our city needs to do that. We need to take a page from Bill Richardson’s playbook and begin wooing businesses to move to Tucson. The city should not be building a new hotel for the convention center; they should be giving incentives for private development. I encourage you to call or write your council person and give them some good advice; otherwise it might be you that has to move.

Open For Business

One of the things that I have been focused on is the plight of small business people in the Old Pueblo. It really got my attention when I was doing the business roundtables with our city council members and government officials. The main concern I heard from business people was that our development services department was a stumbling block rather than a stepping stone. I spoke to the city council and they voted to give Ernie Duarte (the head of the department) the authority to make the changes in the culture and policies to become business friendly. During that process I kept wondering who stands up for small business people in our community. The silence was deafening. I joined the board of Arizona Small Business Association this year. ASBA has over 2500 members statewide (500 in Tucson) and has been a leading advocate for small business at the state level. Joe Higgins (Wake Up Tucson) and I made a presentation at the last board meeting concerning our lack of advocacy and meaningful events for small business in Tucson. The good news is that ASBA will now be taking that role in Tucson! Joe is forming a committee that will get input from small business people about their concerns. These will be reviewed and position statements put together for the approval of our CEO Donna Davis. She will represent ASBA to our government officials and bureaucracies. Small business now has a real advocate in Tucson. ASBA already has strong membership numbers, but these numbers will grow as small business people realize who is representing them. ASBA will also be doing forums that will keep business people informed on government regulations and policies that affect us. If you are a small business person I urge you to contact Suzette Colley at ASBA’s Tucson office and become a member. ASBA also has great membership benefits that offset the nominal membership fee. We now have a voice and would like to add yours to our chorus to change Tucson and get our economic engines running! Here is Suzettes contact info:

suzettec@asba.com