time
By Anne Rosso
capsule
Tossing Your Hat Into the Ring
In 1961, ACA member Kenneth Maher urged fellow members to get involved in the political process
ACA International encourages
credit and collection industry
members to get involved in the
political process and establish
relationships with local and national
elected officials. Occasionally, ACA
members have decided to toss their hats
into the ring and run for office
themselves. This group includes Kenneth
Maher of Old American Company in
Portland, Ore., who wrote an article in
the December 1961 issue of Collector
urging his peers to consider running for
public office.
In the article, “Business and Politics
Do Mix,” Maher, who represented
Oregon’s Multnomah County in the
Oregon State Legislature, described his
experience in the political arena.
“For most of us, it is not possible to
combine public office with attention to
our businesses and homes,” he wrote.
“[But] for those who would like to do
both, a state legislative career should be
considered.”
Whether members of the credit and
collection industry choose to run for a
position on their local school board or in
their state senate, Maher counseled
would-be legislators not to be
discouraged by a few early-career election
defeats.
“There is hardly a public official alive
who has not been beaten,” he noted.
“Learn the lessons involved in a defeat
and bounce back, you’ll be better
prepared to serve.”
Maher got started in politics in 1944,
when he decided to run for a seat on the
Oregon Legislature, largely “just for
kicks,” he said. At the time, there were 13
seats open in his county, and he ran 32nd
among the 33 hopefuls. “That’s starting
about as close to the bottom as possible,”
he wrote.
Each month, Time Capsule looks back at a different piece of ACA’s history. This month’s
Time Capsule remembers a 1961 Collector article about political involvement.
As a member of the Young
Republicans, Maher served as first vice-president of the Multnomah County club
in 1955/56 and as general chairman of
the statewide Young Republican
Convention in 1955. He ran for
constable in 1952, auditor in 1954 and
state representative in 1956, but
unfortunately lost the elections.
He noted that by 1960, his agency
had been built up to where it was
possible to take the time to serve in the
state legislature, so he ran for a seat and
won.
Mahler encouraged ACA members to
take an active role in government, stating
that it is “too powerful an instrument,
too glittering a prize to be left alone by
those with bad motives or poor ability,
especially when those with good motives
and fine ability leave it a vacuum.”
Business people especially should take
an interest in politics, he said, in order to
foster a pro-business environment.
“Most state legislatures are constantly
passing laws detrimental to the interests
of the collection business,” Maher said.
“It is extremely helpful to have someone
inside the legislature who can watch these
proposals, who has the contacts and
influence to change the committee and
floor votes of other legislators.”
“I do not wish to detract in any way
from the fine work of many lobbyists in
behalf of the collection industry, but it
simply cannot be as effective as
membership in the legislature itself. Not
only can one’s own views on a bill be
more effectively presented, but other
legislators are more reluctant to pass
legislation harmful to the personal
business of a well-liked, fellow member.”
For example, Maher noted that the
Oregon legislature passed a provision for
the state real estate commissioner’s office
to hire a full-time auditor to do annual
audits of collection agencies throughout
the state to ensure that Oregon’s
collection agencies were being operated
ethically. “It serves to protect both the
public and the ethical collector,” Maher
said, adding that the bill was supported
by Oregon Real Estate Commissioner
Robert Jensen, the state collection
agency board and most Oregon
collectors.
“While there is certainly a sacrifice of
business during the time a candidate is
campaigning and during his service in
the legislature,” Maher wrote, “the
rewards are worth it, the friends made,
the fun had and the sense of service
rendered.” cm
Anne Rosso is associate editor of
Collector.
