A look back and my challenge to ASA members moving forward

By Bill Condron, ASA Chairman

For starters, I really enjoyed the chance to be your 2022 ASA president. It was a year filled with meeting ASA members I had never interacted with before, and one where ASA continued to move the needle to the right when it comes to providing maximum value for its members.

Thank-you to my wife, Julie, for her support and encouragement over the last year while I was president, as well as to ASA CEO Mike Adelizzi and his team for the great work they continue to do in making ASA the great national trade association it is today.

In my travels as ASA president in 2022, I talked about the base case for what ASA does in terms of education, advocacy, benchmarking and networking. If you stopped at just the “base case” with those four longstanding pillars, ASA would remain a wonderful organization that provides relevancy at a time when many other organizations are waning.

But what always impresses me about Mike Adelizzi and his team is they don’t stop at the base case. They take it to the next level, always looking for ways to provide members with even more value.

One great example is the Vitality Growth Assessment survey offered to member companies. This confidential survey, conducted by ASA partner New Edge, is taken by your employees and is designed to improve and accelerate your growth. The survey is based on 20 years of New Edge research with other companies and is a proven game-changer for firms large and small.

The great thing about PROJECT VITALITY is wherever you sit on the company spectrum — ranging from the far left (lifestyle companies) to the far right (innovators/change agents) — there is no wrong answer! Some of the strongest companies and most successful businesspeople I know in our industry are operating well-run lifestyle companies. And there are plenty of great companies in the middle and plenty more to the right.

However, if you are not sure where you fit, or maybe one generation would like to be somewhere where you are not, or you are beginning the process of a strategic planning session, then PROJECT VITALITY could be for you. Get your leadership together and use this tool. It’s a great launching point.

I’m also excited about what ASA’s D.NEXT innovation lab, located in the University of Illinois’ Research Park in Champaign-Urbana, is doing in terms of helping our members tackle an ever-changing business landscape with rapidly evolving technological needs.

Simply put, D.NEXT is a repository where we can ask questions. We know technology moves fast and none of us have the answers on our own. D.NEXT is a safe place where we can ask questions, iterate, test and seek solutions.

We are still in the nascent stages with the lab, but it has quickly developed into a platform where we collectively can lean into these technologies and trends that currently befuddle us and learn more about how to best utilize these solutions to help run our companies more effectively.

Of equally vital importance is the work ASA is doing to lead the charge to help solve the growing labor problem in our industry through its PROJECT TALENT careers recruitment platform.

You can’t continue to grow without great people and ASA is leading that charge for us.

ASA is leading these investments for us, and as an industry it allows each member to figure out how to redeploy those investments the best ways possible within our own companies.

Before I leave you, I want to issue a challenge to all our members.

First, take a moment to think about someone who helped you out as you were coming of age in this business. Somebody who supported you, invested in you, answered your questions and mentored you.

If you are lucky enough to still have them in your life, reach out and thank them.

Let’s face it, we are our own worst marketers in this industry. There have been a lot of missed opportunities to tell people how great our industry is. PROJECT TALENT is changing that conversation to one that tells prospective jobseekers that the PHCP-PVF industry is, indeed, one filled with great people and great career opportunities.

We are getting the word out there and driving those clicks, views and likes on websites and social media — all the communication platforms that matter these days.

ASA is helping its member companies tackle this very prominent problem through the PROJECT TALENT platform.

And the second challenge is to pay it forward. It is incumbent upon us to help people move up and on in their careers. Take the time to mentor, support and invest in some of the young people in our industry. They are the next generation of leaders for this great industry, and it is up to all of us to take the time to support them as they move on and up. It’s a virtuous cycle and it is one of the things that makes this business such a great one.

The time is now to invest in that next generation. Your businesses and our industry depend on it.

Here’s to a great 2023 and thank you for a great year, Bill

Dissecting the current political landscape

What direction will the U.S. take from a policy standpoint going forward?

By Steve Rossi, Director of Government Affairs

After $16.7 billion was spent on campaign activity during the 2022 election cycle and seeing an epic battle between Republicans and Democrats played out across the country for Senate seats and newly redrawn House districts, the real work of the 118th Congress began at the start of January.

However, the national campaigns give some clues as to the direction the country will take from a policy standpoint, and it is important to understand the election cycle itself and how both political parties have emerged from a bruising political contest.

Going into the 2022 cycle and even into the last few weeks of the campaign, it wasn’t the Democrats that were expected to do well. The President’s poor approval ratings, epic inflation, an unstable labor market and historic precedent all pointed to success for Republicans. Still, there were some issues that swung independent voters towards the Democrats and away from Republicans that essentially changed historic patterns.

In July, the Dobbs decision began to energize the Democratic base, that up until that point, was experiencing low enthusiasm for their party’s candidates. While polling initially showed an uptick in Democratic intensity, by September it fell to mid-pack on issues voters cared about. This was clearly an issue that too many ignored.

Democrats in swing Senate seats and other challenging races across the country went all-in on the abortion issue (particularly with suburban women) and it worked. Second, considering the Jan. 6 hearings and the raid on former President Trump’s home in August, Democrats made a pitch to independents that the democracy itself was at stake. They were able to convince many independent voters that if they did not keep the reins of power, democracy would cease to exist.

To reinforce this argument, they pointed to several statewide GOP candidates that publicly stated the 2020 election was stolen. This also worked. What is confounding to many political pundits is these issues overcame the Democrats’ huge deficit on economic issues that cut across socioeconomic lines.

In the Senate, there are some that will point to candidate quality as to why Republicans underperformed. In Pennsylvania, Dr. Mehmet Oz took some initial political hits for having recently moved from New Jersey, 30 years of remedies he advocated for on television, and his terminology for a vegetable (crudité) platter — all caused him to stumble out of the gate. Even with the endorsement of Donald Trump in the primary, Oz barely won and started off with a money deficit and an unclear message. He later fixed many of these issues but was never able to get back on track. Lt. Gov. John Fetterman was a known quantity to Pennsylvanians and even after he suffered a stroke that took him off the campaign trail for a time, 300,000 voters (especially independents) trusted him more than Oz. Oz also had the challenge of running with an unpopular GOP nominee for governor in Doug Mastriano. Mastriano was defeated by Democrat Josh Shapiro by 15 points — a result that did not help voter turnout for Republicans.

Georgia was another Senate race where the top of the ticket mattered. Sen. Raphael Warnock (D) was seeking reelection only two years after winning a special election in 2020. He faced the formidable Georgia football legend Herschel Walker, who was almost invulnerable to allegations of mental health challenges, paying for women’s abortions, domestic violence and other issues. While his star power partially helped him to overcome this, he was also running at the top of the ticket with popular Republican Gov. Brian Kemp. Gov. Kemp was in a rematch with formidable Democrat Stacy Abrams. Before the 2020 election, Gov. Kemp was one of the most popular governors in the country.

After that election, Kemp took a political hit from his base when former President Trump highlighted his resistance to overturn votes in Georgia. Due to this, Kemp was able to appeal to independents and moderate Democrats to easily dispatch Abrams by 7 points. This may have provided some of the boost that Walker needed to keep Warnock under 50% and force a runoff. In the runoff election, Gov. Kemp’s voter turnout operation was handed over to Walker, but in the end, it wasn’t enough. Warnock had the power of incumbency, is a prolific fundraiser and had the benefit of several Democrats coming to campaign for him —including former President Obama — and with that, able to seal a 2-point victory.

House update

In the House, Republicans were able to increase their majority, with 222 seats to 213 for Democrats. While this wasn’t the massive accumulation of seats many political watchers expected, they were able to pull off some key victories, including the defeat of the head of the Democratic campaign committee (DCCC),Sean Patrick Maloney in NY-17. The GOP picked up four seats in New York overall. Republicans in the House were also able to do well in other blue states and suburban areas. Republican California reps. Mike Garcia, David Valadao, Michelle Steel and Young Kim (as well as reps.-elect Kevin Kiley and John Duarte) were able to emerge victorious in a state that has been hostile to Republicans for decades.There was a net gain of 4 seats in Florida, with Republicans riding the impressive red wave in the Sunshine State, led by the 17-point victory of Sen. Marco Rubio and 19-point win of Gov. Ron DeSantis.

The real surprise came with the last House race called — Rep. Lauren Boebert’s seat in Colorado’s 3rd District. Most never would have thought that Rep. Boebert would have any real challenge to winning her new district in western Colorado, but Democratic opponent Adam Frisch exceeded expectations. The race was not called until mid-December (after a recount), but Boebert emerged victorious with 50.06% of the vote.

The 2023 landscape

As this article goes to print, the contrast between the House and the Senate could not be starker. On the Senate side, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell R-KY) is appearing with President Biden in Kentucky to tout the benefits of last year’s infrastructure bill. In the House, multiple ballots have taken place to elect a new Speaker with no success. In that chamber, it has been shown, both on the Democratic and Republican sides, that a coalition of like-minded individuals can either shift policy or derail parliamentary procedure. Serving as a caucus leader has its share of challenges. At this time, given the roughly 20 Republicans that have prevented Kevin McCarthy an easy path to the Speakership, it will be difficult to keep legislative and parliamentary procedure moving forward, especially when it comes to controversial issues.

Congress and the Biden administration have critical issues to address in 2023. Legislation concerning a new farm bill, FAA reauthorization, immigration, tax extenders and the government’s debt limit will all be addressed this year. House Republicans had already filed bills to address the reduction of funding for the IRS, barring the federal funding of abortions, as well as expanded action on immigration and border security — all to be addressed in the first few weeks. With the Speaker’s vote still up in the air and no members of the House yet to be sworn in, those policy decisions will be delayed.

ASA will continue to monitor and advocate on behalf of the industry on these federal issues, as well as the multitude of state legislative and regulatory actions throughout the year. If you have any questions regarding legislative or regulatory issues, please contact ASA Director of Government Affairs Steve Rossi at srossi@asa.net