The Bernstein Perspective: Campaign for Officers
Restaurant operators can help the industry in public office.
By Charles Bernstein, Editor-at-Large -- Chain Leader, 8/1/2005 12:00:00 AM
The restaurant industry needs more courageous operators to seek public office to support and give a voice to restaurant companies and other service industries in general. Kudos to the handful of restaurant operators who have entered the political arena.
I also applaud those restaurateurs who have tried but narrowly lost in bids for public office. Eateries Inc. CEO Vince Orza lost the race for governor of Oklahoma in 1990 and 2002. Albuquerque, N.M.-based K-Bob’s CEO and National Restaurant Association Vice Chairman Ed Tinsley was defeated in a tough congressional primary race in 2002. And former Godfather’s Pizza CEO Herman Cain lost Georgia’s close senatorial primary in August 2004 but has not given up on running another day.
Certainly this big step is not an easy one. “You have to be very thick-skinned in elections,” Orza affirms. “You are criticized by people who have never started a business or made a payroll. My opponent, who won the governorship in 2002, labeled me a millionaire, called me a hamburger flipper and dug up worker’s comp allegations to say we abused employees.”
Entering the Fray
Mike Whalen believes he’s up to the task. Whalen, who graduated from Harvard Law School in 1978 and took over a failing 100-seat restaurant in Davenport, Iowa, has steadily built a business with 17 restaurants and nine hotels in six states. President and CEO of Heart of America Restaurants & Inns, Whalen is determined to win a Republican seat in Congress in November 2006.
“I am a student of politics and public policy running a business with ideas and intelligence that I feel can make a significant difference in helping to find solutions for Social Security and getting health care fixed,” he says.
“The restaurant industry is a major employment force and should get credit for being so,” Whalen adds. If elected, he plans to use lessons he learned as a restaurateur and asserts that “we’ve been eating the food that the federal government has been serving for too long. It is time to send a voice to Washington more concerned about the next generation than just the next election.”
Indeed, the demands of running a restaurant company make many operators uniquely qualified for such positions. Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, the former Wynkoop Brewing Company executive, asserts, “I can think of no better training for elective office than the restaurant industry to do a budget with limited amounts and how to manage people. You certainly learn to deal with unhappy customers.”
Industry Advocate
Five-year Republican Rep. Mark Kennedy, former corporate finance director at Pillsbury and Burger King, who will seek the Minnesota Senate seat next year, shows how an operator turned politician can help the industry. Among other things, he has co-sponsored the state’s “cheeseburger bill” that bars obesity lawsuits against the food industry and helped pass the NRA-supported Class Action Fairness Act.
Former restaurateurs in office like Hickenlooper and Kennedy have been able to advocate for and raise the status of the restaurant industry. I encourage others to seek public office and urge you to support the efforts of those who do.
