VOLCANIC ASH
State GOP is off to a bad start
By David Shapiro
It's been a sobering week for Hawai'i Republicans.
Democrat Ann Kobayashi soundly defeated Republican Sam Aiona in the special election for the 5th District City Council seat, while an ugly public spat between Republican state Rep. Bob McDermott and GOP executive director Micah Kane undermined the image Republicans are trying to project of cohesive competence.
Not a good start to a year in which Republicans think they have their best chance in 40 years to wrest the governorship and at least one house of the Legislature from Democrats, who are in such disarray that some cocky GOP lawmakers are walking around the Capitol as if they already own the place.
GOP leader Linda Lingle is a formidable candidate for governor against a Democratic field frozen by the campaign finance problems of frontrunner Jeremy Harris.
Republicans also believe they can win the seven seats needed to take control of the state House with their agenda of tax cuts, education reform and breakup of monopolies that stifle Hawai'i's economy — not to mention the controversy over traffic cameras that fell into their laps.
With high expectations, Republicans seized on the Council special election — officially nonpartisan — as an opportunity to send an early message.
Instead, they got a reminder that Democrats aren't dead yet.
The seat was vacant because Democrat Andy Mirikitani went to prison for corruption. Ai-ona, a former legislator, was an experienced candidate who tried to paint the veteran Kobayashi as the kind of Democrat voters are supposedly tired of.
But Republicans failed to get the party faithful to turn out in big numbers for Aiona to take advantage of an overall light turnout and a diluted 14-candidate field. Kobayashi won with twice as many votes as Aiona.
Republicans grumbled that Aiona was unfairly slammed for inadvertently mailing out illegal campaign material, while criticism of Kobayashi's campaign contributions got scant attention. Ko-bayashi's big margin of victory rendered the gripes moot.
To gain control of the House and grow their tiny Senate caucus in November, Republicans will have to go into Democratic districts and take seats away from established Democrats. The council election showed it won't be easy.
And the indecorous McDermott-Kane conflict doesn't make the job easier.
Apparently without serious effort to resolve the matter privately, McDermott publicly accused Kane of illegally soliciting campaign funds at a GOP Capitol caucus.
When colleagues questioned his facts and tried to mediate, McDermott launched a second attack blaming Kane for Aiona's illegal mailing.
Publicly, Republicans say the tiff won't affect support for McDermott. But privately, they are embarrassed and annoyed.
"Republicans have a big tent, but there's no room in it for traitors," growled one lawmaker.
The dispute exposed divisions in the party that Lingle has kept under control. As she turns her attention to her own race for governor, it remains to be seen if the party can duplicate the tightly unified legislative campaign Lingle ran in 2000.
Hawai'i Democrats are a resilient bunch who will field a competitive candidate for governor and fight to keep their legislative seats.
They have a history of pulling together to win big races they were expected to lose — John Waihee vs. D.G. "Andy" Anderson for governor in 1986, Daniel Akaka vs. Pat Saiki for the U.S. Senate in 1992, Ben Cayetano vs. Patricia Saiki and Frank Fasi for governor in 1994 and Cayetano vs. Lingle in 1998.
If Republicans are smart enough to take a lesson from recent events, they'll lose the swagger and get down to the hard teamwork it will take to make things turn out differently this year.
David Shapiro can be reached by e-mail at dave@volcanicash.net.
