Don’t Get Mad…Get Madden

It was my second week as a citizen reporter for MTV News Choose or Lose and I opted to hit the west Maui caucus to see if the young people were being represented in this area of Maui, Hawaii.  When I arrived at the caucus there were no youth.  In fact, the people that were represented were white, Republican and older, all who seemed to know each other pretty intimately…they had obviously been around the “political” block.

It wasn’t until about two minutes prior to the start of the caucus that young people started to show up en masse.  All of them, almost unilaterally were sporting their Ron Paul buttons.  Not until fifteen minutes into the start of the caucus did Ramon Madden show up.  He quietly took a seat near the front and listened while many people started their pitches to be the delegate for the district.  My camera panned the room and rested on Madden when he raised his hand to nominate himself for the position.  He stood up and quietly said, “You know, I don’t know the entire Republican Party platform.  But I’m willing to learn.  I’d like to nominate myself as a delegate for the Republican Party caucus.”

When each delegate was given a few moments to talk on why they wanted this position, Madden skipped over the impressive resume and went straight for honest: “I went to New York last year and while I was there this guy started telling me all of the reasons why he is Democrat.  It was when he named his reasons that I realized…I’m a Republican.”  He universally got laughs, but then quickly followed it up.  “There are just too many issues that we deal with here in Maui that have been ignored far too long.  We do not have a hospital on this side of the island and as a result many people die each year because they cannot get to a medical facility in time.  There is no Lahaina Bypass, and as a result, our traffic only gets worse each year.”  As he continued to speak I realized that Madden had done his homework.  He knew what our area needed and was willing to address the tough questions that arose with the problems.

Later that evening Ramon became the focus of my story at the caucus:  he was young, quiet, unassuming, ready to listen, ready to learn.  I was impressed from the beginning of the interview as he repeated to the camera what we both already knew: that he had won the place as delegate for the district.

Months later I flew to Honolulu to film the Republican Convention and Ramon’s role in it.  For the Ron Paul Republicans it was basically a slaughterhouse of universal proportions but Madden only got stronger.  He stood his ground even when nobody was willing to listen.  Most Ron Paul supporters left defeated, Madden had a new plan.

It wasn’t until I ran into him at our local farmers market in July that I heard of his next steps.  He had decided to run for Representative in the State House and had started a very grassroots campaign.  Using his own money and his own friends as campaign managers he started canvassing the west Maui region.  Over the next few months I saw Ramon everywhere…sometimes standing alone with a Madden sign, sometimes riding his sign-bedecked moped throughout Lahaina town.  Wherever he went, there was a crowd.  He called me one afternoon from a football game and then apologized for cutting it short, “I’m surrounded by voters!” he yelled into the phone, “I’ll call you back!”

Last week I was out at a bar with some friends.  There were ten of us enjoying the music when Ramon arrived and made a quick beeline to us.  “These your friends?” he asked.  Right then and there he leaned over and started talking politics while handing out a flyer to one of my friends…”I’m Ramon,” he said.  “I work here as a chef, I’m just a normal guy.  But I’m running for State Rep.  You’ve got to vote for me.”  And that seems to be the story of his whole campaign.

Next week, should our schedules coincide; I plan on following him on the Big Day throughout the island while he wraps up this aspect of his campaigning.  My hope is that this hard working, young guy will be the fresh face in the House that is necessary here on our island.  He is the epitome of what politics needs these days:  a local, grassroots, “for the people” representative.  If I have learned anything this year, it is the realization that local politics is where real change can begin.  It is finally a time in America’s history that young people can be the change that local politics need.  And Ramon’s slogan wraps up this political climate, “Don’t Get Mad…Get Madden.”

Ramon Madden’s website can be found at http://www.votemaui.com/node/6