Mike Hightower is the vice president of governmental relations for Blue Cross and Blue Shield. A Chicago native, his family moved to Jacksonville in the late 1950s when he was 12. He dragged his feet through junior college, got scooped up by the draft and split his Air Force years between Washington, D.C. and Turkey. He finished his bachelor’s degree at Jacksonville University in 1972 and became a middle school civics teacher. Hightower quit the school system within five years to work on Jimmy Carter’s presidential campaign. He’s been involved in politics for 35 years, worked as a lobbyist for 21 and has been involved in a number of successful local campaigns, including former mayor Ed Austin’s and current mayor John Delaney’s. He is currently tasked with coordinating fund raising efforts for John Peyton’s mayoral campaign as a member of his finance steering committee. Hightower met recently with Daily Record staff writer Glenn Tschimpke to discuss campaign financing.
Question: What is the key to campaign fund raising?
Answer: Fund raising is all about relationships. It’s all about how people see you, how they feel about you and how you make them feel. It’s not magical. It’s work. I’m convinced that the more tenacious you are, the more up-front you are, the more candid you are with someone, the more successful you’re going to be.
Q: What is one of your life theories?
A: When I always hear these people say, ‘I’m a self-made person.’ Nobody makes it by themselves. It’s all about relationships. Somebody has helped. Somebody has opened the door for you. Somebody’s given you an opportunity. What you do with it is different. The classic line of, ‘The harder you work, the luckier you get,’ that’s right. Along the way, people have helped me.
Q: What should the role of the candidate be in terms of fund raising?
A: I don’t think candidates should be calling and dialing for dollars. That’s not how you want to see a candidate. The campaign should be in charge of fund raising, not the candidate. We didn’t allow John Delaney to make any phone calls for money. If the campaign candidate is in charge to be the campaign treasurer, that’s not where your focus should be. You should be out there being the candidate stating what your policies are. You shouldn’t be worrying about the books. You get good people, you get campaign folks to help you raise the money, you get a competent treasurer and you get legal advice so you can go out there and keep your focus on what your objective is. You can’t be the campaign strategist. At some point, you have to trust the people you want to advise you.
Q: So you’re the enforcer?
A: There’s an old saying, ‘The business of politics is business.’ If you’ve made a commitment to a candidate, then what you’ve done is you’ve made a commitment and you’ve made a promise. I don’t think the candidate should be the enforcer. That’s my job. All I want them to do is to complete their commitment. It’s not the amount that matters. There are a number of people who have helped me in past campaigns and they have worked their butts off and they may be good for $500, $1,000 — a small amount. I’d take that person in a heartbeat because they’re going to work their tail off for that $1,000 as opposed to someone who will say, ‘Oh, yeah, put me down for $10,000.’ I start with the guy I know who consistently says, ‘Put me down for this.’ That’s where campaigns have gotten in trouble in the past... there has not been somebody to enforce.