honoluluadvertiser.com

Sponsored by:

Comment, blog & share photos

Log in | Become a member
The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted at 12:02 p.m., Monday, December 9, 2002

Lingle names GOP officials to cabinet posts

Hawai'i GOP lawyer Mark J. Bennett was selected attorney general, Gov. Lingle announced today.
Republican Party Chairman Micah Kane was named head of the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands.

Photos by Rchard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser

By Gordon Y.K. Pang
Advertiser Capitol Bureau

Gov. Linda Lingle today named Hawai'i Republican Party lawyer Mark J. Bennett as attorney general and GOP Chairman Micah Kane as director of the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands.

Bennett, 49, is a partner with the high-powered Honolulu law firm of McCorriston Miller Mukai MacKinnon. Previously, he was an assistant U.S. attorney. He has been Republican counsel since earlier this year.

As the state's top legal officer, the attorney general is among the most powerful positions in the state and traditionally held in high confidence by the governor. Bennett has represented a variety of clients, from tobacco company Philip Morris Inc. to the Hawai'i Employee Retirement System.

Lingle said Bennett's broad experience, including representing the state and counties on occasion, will serve him well in his new post.

Bennett said today he will recuse himself from cases he has been involved with while he was a private attorney.

A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., he received his bachelor's degree from Union College and his juris doctorate degree from Cornell University Law School.

Last year, Bennett was one of the finalists to become U.S. attorney but lost out to Ed Kubo, who was appointed to the federal position by President Bush.

Kane, 33, is a Native Hawaiian. Before becoming chairman of the Republican Party in February, he had been executive director since May 1999.

Before that he spent five years as government affairs liaison for the Building Industry Association. Kane has a master's of business administration from the University of Hawai'i- Manoa.

Kane said his goal will be to distribute homestead lands to all individuals holding a legal right and desire for such property within five years.

He said he also will work on reinstating the Hawaiian Home Lands Trust Individual Claims Review Panel to resolve past claims.

Kane has a bachelor's degree in business administration from Menlo College, Calif., and is a Kamehameha Schools graduate.