Veteran political consultant Joe Napolitan shared the 112 lessons he learned from a career in politics for the first chapter of “Winning Elections,” a 2003 compilation of articles from Campaigns & Elections magazine.

A local political observer who was reading the book thought lesson #103 sounded familiar:

103. It’s the candidate’s campaign and he or she has the ultimate right to make the decisions.

Even if what the candidate decides to do is wrong, it’s his or her call. His neck is on the line and he has the right to trust his own counsel. Unfortunately, this sometimes means losing a campaign that could be won.

Recently I was involved in a gubernatorial primary in which the candidate, contrary to advice from me and others, decided to spend much of his time in the final days before the primary in a remote area of the state with less than 25 percent of the vote while virtually ignoring the most heavily populated section and also failed to follow some recommendations that would have almost certainly swung a few thousand votes in his direction.

In the end, after starting with about 5 percent of the vote in a three-way race, he lost, 41-40, by 2,600 votes. He won the most populous area by 2,000 votes but lost the less-populated section by 4,600 votes.

I was incensed — but when I calmed down I remembered it was his campaign and his call. In my opinion, he made the wrong decision — but it was his right to do so.

Napolitan, who did not mention any names in his lesson, was a consultant for Ed Case during his unsuccessful 2002 campaign in the Democratic primary for governor.

Case lost the primary to Mazie Hirono 41% to 39%, or by 2,613 votes. Case won on O’ahu but Hirono swept the Neighbor Islands.

We asked Case what he thought:

It’s my ‘02 Governor primary campaign. Joe was and is a great political consultant, he gave us great advice, most of which we followed, and his consulting was a major reason we came from so far back to just missing a win by another one or two campaign days.

The last ten days were the most fluid of any of my campaigns, and it was anyone’s guess what was really going on. Joe, who was on the East Coast, wanted me to spend the last week exclusively on Oahu, which was sound generic advice. On the ground here, we felt the Neighbor Islands were far more fluid than Oahu. Additionally, I’d made commitments to my county campaigns and to traditional events (like the Democratic rally at Mooheau Park in Hilo) that I didn’t feel I could break, and I also felt that I should do one last whistle stop around the whole state, including the too-often-ignored Neighbor Islands, in the last week.

As it ended up, I recall I spent most of the last week on Oahu, with one rally/signwaving/event on each of Kauai, Maui and the Big Island.

The election results are pretty much as Joe describes them: we lost by 1% overall; we won Oahu; and we lost the Neighbor Islands. Those results can be interpreted a number of ways: that we should have spent more time on Oahu, as Joe believes; or that we held a lead on Oahu and got it close (but not quite close enough) on the Neighbor Islands; or otherwise.

One thing I’ve discovered in a few very close elections is that when it’s that close, anything and everything is the reason for the result. Personally, I don’t believe my time on the Neighbor Islands in the last week accounted for the loss; there were other factors which had far more to do with the result than this one, if in fact it had any negative impact.

I do agree with Joe’s overall lesson that it’s ultimately the candidate’s campaign and call and he or she is responsible for the decisions and outcome (although in today’s consulted-out political world it’s getting harder and harder to find the candidate), and would add a few of my own: campaigns are fluid; usual rules have to be balanced against rapidly-changing conditions on the ground; it’s hard to get it exactly right; and nobody really knows all of what accounts for an outcome.

Hope that helps, and thanks for the trip down memory lane. Of my 14 elections and election nights to date (plus two Neighborhood Board elections), this one was the most … everything.

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