In politics, business, the West needs help

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Tuesday, February 3, 2004

In politics, business, the West needs help

By BILL VIRGIN
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER COLUMNIST

Another Tuesday, another round of voting to sort out the candidates for the presidential nominations, between hopefuls from Massachusetts and Vermont and North Carolina and Connecticut and Ohio and New York and ...

Wait a minute. When did the West get shut out of participating?

Not shut out from the voting -- unlike past years, there may still be a contest by the time the primary and caucus season reaches the West Coast.

But where are the candidates with a Western perspective, or at least a Western mailing address?

In fact, a scan of the whole cast of candidates Republican and Democrat, still in and now out, turns up just three from west of the Mississippi -- Bush (Texas), Gephardt (Missouri) and Clark (Arkansas). The rest of the dropouts tilt the list back toward the East, in the form of Moseley Braun (Illinois) and Graham (Florida).

That leaves more than a third of the country, geographically speaking, without a player in the game.

Granted, there's a whole lot of empty space in that third of a country.

But how about California? You know, most populous state, birthplace of trends, laboratory of ideas, all that? California has not been a factor for years when it comes to national politics, what with a parade of less-than-dynamic governors and senators and a state racked by monumental social and economic problems. It could be argued that California hasn't had a nationally significant political figure since Ronald Reagan left office.

(To forestall the trivia enthusiasts, yes Jerry Brown was a presidential candidate in 1992. He finished fifth in New Hampshire. Now back to the plot.)

The scene is even bleaker when it comes to the Pacific Northwest as a subset of the West -- how long has it been since the days of Mark Hatfield, Scoop Jackson and Warren Magnuson as leading figures in the Senate?

In fact the pickings have been scant over the past decade and a half for Westerners as influential figures in presidential contests -- McCain, Dole, Babbitt and Hart come to mind. The cast of characters has had a decidedly Midwest, South and East Coast flavor.

Which raises the question: does the Western United States exert as little influence in the world of business as it does in politics?

Actually, it raises two questions, the other being: Does it matter?

The answer to the second question is, yes it does, in both cases. Politically, not having a face in the crowd means that whatever the region's prime issues, or the region's take on national issues, they aren't being heard.

The perspective is a little different in the business world, although the importance is the same. If you have companies that are leaders in their categories, you have more potential for job-creating growth, more and earlier access to the ideas and trends that are shaping the direction of the economy. If you don't, then you're always playing catch-up and your fate is largely being dictated elsewhere.

So how do the West Coast and the Northwest stack up?

It's a mixed bag. Not surprisingly, financial power is still concentrated back East. That has only been enhanced with the sale of several major West Coast banks in the past decade, leaving just two national-scope West Coast players -- Wells Fargo and Washington Mutual.

Entertainment? The West Coast has more of a say in that business, what with the concentration of executive offices and production studios in California. Entertainment matters as a business, not just because of the dollars directly involved but because it sets so many trends and tastes. But the center of the media world, where those trends and tastes get amplified and disseminated, is still on the East Coast, so it's a split decision.

In the commercial aerospace realm the Northwest still matters since it's basically a two-horse race and since one of those horses, The Boeing Co., has decided to continue grazing here a while longer.

The retailing world these days seems to revolve around Bentonville, Ark., and a certain merchant based there whose reach and influence is shaking up not only the retail world but the suppliers and shippers who serve it.

But in individual slices of the retailing world Northwest companies are able to exert some national influence. Starbucks has turned what was a niche -- high-end coffee -- into a mass market, a strategy that other retailers are trying to emulate.

Technology is an area in which the West Coast is, for all the bad news of the past four years, still significant. In computer software, for example, the Northwest has a major role to play, thanks to Microsoft's presence here and dominance of that industry. Some have argued that it's too dominant, hence the efforts to move to other platforms such as Linux.

A weakening of Microsoft's grip on PC software would weaken the Northwest's role in that industry; at the same time it might be strengthened by the previously chronicled convergence of computing and entertainment devices, a business in which Microsoft hopes to have a major influence. That effort will be challenged, however, by the rejuvenated Apple -- another West Coast company.

It doesn't take much to launch a presidential candidacy, and even less to end one. Establishing and perpetuating a core of companies that help shape an industry is a much tougher and longer task. Having a representative in either contest is a more productive approach to getting noticed than just jumping up and down trying to be noticed, and yelling "Hey! Way over here! We matter too."

P-I reporter Bill Virgin can be reached at 206-448-8319 or billvirgin@seattlepi.com. His column appears Tuesdays and Thursdays.

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