"Personal Attack Politics of Muavaefaatasi and Eni on Amata"
September 20, 2006

Reprinted from Samoa News

"PERSONAL ATTACK POLITICS"
Dear Editor,

As someone who is not at all involved in this year's campaign but who strongly has supported Amata for Congress in the past, I am among those who have believed that, with two candidates coming from the same village and the elimination of majority voting, she did not stand a chance this year, no matter how close she finished last time.

But following Muavaefa'atasi's ill-considered challenge to her residency, I was surprised to see Eni himself, not a staffer or supporter, respond in Samoa News last week to a letter-writer's complaint that Eni has disrespected Amata's matai title, if not Amata herself, by refusing to refer to her by it.

Really, now.

Differing with her approach to the issues is legitimate, but personal attacks like these, which have absolutely no bearing on her fitness for office, should be out of bounds.

It is difficult to know what goes into a person's voting decision but over American Samoa's electoral history two factors are clear: voters do not like personal attacks and they insist on fair play. Indeed, Samoa News in the past has demonstrated its own appreciation of readers/voters desires by declining in final, pre-election weeks to publish attack letters from supporters of any of the candidates.

Conventional wisdom is that Eni's late hits on Amata in the last campaign were just enough to propel him back into office. I have the opposite view. I think the personal attacks actually cost him votes and made the race closer than it otherwise might have been. Just compare his winning percentage among absentee voters, who were unaware of his 11th-hour attacks, with his percentage among on-island, Election Day voters, who were exposed to his radio and newspaper ad blitz.

If these opening shots in the 2006 campaign are indicative of what can be expected over the next seven weeks, I am going to have to revise my estimate of who will be the next delegate to Congress.

If Amata emerges as the winner, it would be an important signal of just how high a premium voters place on fair play and respect, while rejecting the politics of personal attack. What works on the Mainland doesn't work in American Samoa. Never has. Never will.

Name Withheld by Request

[Editor's note: This political campaign season, letters endorsing candidates will be accepted. However, such letters should focus simply on issues in the campaign and the candidates' qualifications as they relate to those issues. Flattery or disparagement of a candidate's personal life will not be used. We will attempt to present a representative cross section of public sentiment and will not necessarily print every letter we receive.]

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