Opinion: Raw political power a moving force

The exercise of raw political power is more comfortably viewed in a political science classroom lecture than in the real world, especially when you are the unwilling or unwitting victim.
Most people, including surprisingly some business CEOs, lobbyists, and elected officials, don’t fully understand political power, its uses, and its realities.
The “poly sci” view of the political system is that it’s an arena for the exchange of ideas, for intelligent debate about the merits of important issues.
But the harsh reality is, these concepts are, at best, only superficially accurate. The fact is “good ideas” are of only secondary importance in the political world.
Think that’s unduly cynical? Well, if “good ideas” were of themselves persuasive, our problems would have been solved by past innovative thinkers. It really would be possible, for example, for a group of high-powered CEOs with “good ideas” to present those concepts to the Idaho Legislature and see them implemented.
But we still have problems with air quality, transportation infrastructures, education systems, prisons, health care problems, and myriad industrial-strength societal problems. Clearly, it takes more than “good ideas” to make progress.
A discussion of “political power” is appropriate because of the pending demise of legislation designed to allow Idahoans to vote on the question of local-option taxes for transportation infrastructure improvements.
Local-option tax authority has been anathema to generations of Idaho legislators. But this year, facing local-option proposals from a strong coalition of business and government leaders, key legislators indicated they’d finally support such authority – wait, on condition that it be amended into the Idaho Constitution, and – oh yes (wink-wink), such authority can apply only to the county where voters approved it, not to a regional majority.
Not surprisingly, the coalition splintered over these unacceptable politically motivated demands. So, when the package dies, these same legislators can piously claim, “golly, they were willing to grant local-option tax authority, but gosh, the coalition couldn’t get its act together.”
So what is “political power?” My definition is “ability to change minds, implement courses of action, and enforce decisions.”
Over three decades-plus of work as a political reporter and a lobbyist, I’ve often been on the winning side – i.e., the side with the political power. But my back figuratively bears scars of arrows fired at me by opponents or erstwhile “friends” who turned out, to my surprise, to have the political muscle on their side.
Case in point 1: In 1983-84, scores of high-powered business people concerned about education formed the Idaho Task Force on Higher Education. They raised nearly $200,000 money to support a comprehensive 18-month professional study of Idaho higher education.
In 1984, our business coalition pulled out all the stops to win legislative approval of the Task Force recommendations. It came down to voting on a five-bill package (2 constitutional amendments, 3 statutory). 
As legislative debate began, we had exactly the 24 committed votes needed to pass the constitutional amendments, the package’s core. A freshman Democrat senator from Blackfoot broke his commitment and the first proposed amendment failed, dooming the package.
What happened? Minutes before the vote, a Blackfoot-area school principal phoned the senator and convinced him the legislation would have an ill effect. The education package, worked on in behalf of education by business, was shot down by – an educator.
Case in point 2: By the mid-’80s, Idaho business faced growing abuses and cost in the state’s tort system. In 1986, we formed a bipartisan organization called the Idaho Liability Reform Coalition. It included all kinds/sizes of business, educational, medical, agricultural communities, and county/city government, it was the largest coalition ever formed in Idaho on a single public policy issue.
That’s potential power. We were committed, impassioned and organized, which actualized that power. Result: In 1987, over bitter opposition of Idaho’s trial lawyers and powerful legislators, we won passage of one of the best tort reform packages in the nation, including repeal of joint and several liabilities.
In 1992, nearly the same coalition (with a name change) defeated the first 1 percent property tax initiative by a 2-1 margin. In 1996, we killed a similar property tax initiative by 2-1. In 1997, we became the first state in the nation to reform its initiative statutes. In 2002, we became the first state in the nation to repeal a term limits law. Power.
But legislators have something interest groups don’t have: The vote. Legislators have more subtle powers, too. A powerful legislator, such as a member of legislative leadership, can let it be known to corporate PAC managers that it “will not be good for their businesses if they contribute to his opponent.” Raw political power? Yes. Illegal? No. That’s the reality of political power.
For practitioners of political power, nothing is sweeter than a victory so subtle that you know you foxed the other side, and they know they’ve been foxed, and they know you know that you foxed them – and there’s not a thing they can do about it.
But ultimate political power – even beyond the legislative vote – belongs to voters themselves. Legislators can’t reject their votes, and the governor can’t veto them. They have the final political power – if and when they become convinced to exercise it.

Steve Ahrens is the retired president of the Idaho Association of Commerce & Industry and a former political editor of The Idaho Statesman.