Upcoming election to test Democrat-union bond

By Lynda Arakawa
Advertiser Capitol Bureau

The election of 2002 may put the relationship between the Democratic Party and organized labor to its biggest test since the two groups joined forces nearly 50 years ago to win control of state government.

Linda Lingle is preferred by union households in a recent poll. Advertiser library photo

What isn't certain is who the rank-and-file will support. What was once a sure thing — high voter turnout and nearly unanimous support of Democratic candidates by union members — is today anyone's guess.

In a shift that would have been unthinkable only a few years ago, The Honolulu Advertiser Hawai'i Poll found in early June that Republican gubernatorial front-runner Linda Lingle held significantly more support among households with at least one union member than any Democratic candidate for governor. The poll also found that more than half of the voters in union households who prefer Lingle to Democratic front-runner Lt. Gov. Mazie Hirono are those who usually vote for Democrats.

The numbers are a major departure from political tradition in Hawai'i and an especially troubling statistic for Hirono, who has worked hard to maintain friendly relations with the unions.

Randy Perreira, deputy director of the Hawai'i Government Employees Association, said the poll results are not surprising.

"Certainly the Democrats have been and, I would like to believe, continue to be the party of choice of working people," he said. "But I think now labor is open because I don't think we can say that universally every Democrat has decided to step to the fore when necessary to help working people out."

The signs of strain between the Democrats and the unions have been growing since the mid-1990s, when the eroding economy wiped out tens of thousands of construction jobs and the administration of Gov. Ben Cayetano, as well as some prominent Democratic legislators and municipal officials, began taking a hard line with public employee unions. The public teachers' union also remains bitter at Cayetano since last year's strike.

The union's anger at Cayetano and certain lawmakers may trickle down to other Democratic candidates and feed some union members' cynicism about politics. In the meantime, Republicans are working on establishing a more union-friendly image.

"I think whether you attribute it to the governor directly or to the actions of the Legislature, in particular with public employees, clearly what's happened in the last couple of years has soured the opinions of public employees of the Democratic party and a lot of the incumbents," Perreira said. "It's too simple to lay the blame on any one place, but I think the governor is a good place to start."

Lt. Gov. Mazie Hirono may have the most union support for a Democrat. Advertiser library photo

"Let's put it this way, I guess the unions have found less responsiveness from politicians over the last few years and they're going to have to reevaluate how they proceed," he said. "I think certainly some Democratic elected officials have strained their relationship with labor, and I don't think there's any question of that.

"Does that mean they're going to go Republican? I doubt it. I think people may focus their efforts on individual candidates based on whether they need to be elected or defeated and they could be Republicans or Democrats. But I don't sense a lot of labor trying to become Republican."

Lingle, who was endorsed by the University of Hawai'i faculty union and some smaller labor organizations in her 1998 bid for governor, said she knows she received the votes of many members whose unions didn't endorse her. Cayetano beat her by only 5,000 votes.

"The public is finally starting to see the difference between the actions and the words," she said. "The words haven't been backed up by actions. And so I think people are more willing to look at an individual now regardless of party."

Hirono acknowledged that the unions' enmity toward some Democrats and the fallout from the teachers' strike may be a factor in the poll numbers but said she believes as the election draws closer the unions will make a strong case for supporting Democratic candidates.

"The unions really have a challenge, and that challenge is their leadership needs to really communicate with the members as to what they've been doing and the importance of unions to the lives of the families," she said.

Hirono is expected to receive the most labor support out of the pool of Democratic gubernatorial candidates. Rep. Ed Case has had some bitter disagreements with some public worker unions, and the Hawai'i Poll found that his support among union households was weak. D.G. "Andy" Anderson received an endorsement from the United Public Workers union, but other unions may not like that he spent most of his political career as a Republican.

Don Clegg, a political consultant who has polled for Democratic candidates, said the Hawai'i Poll numbers show that union households follow the same pattern as voters in general. The poll found Lingle leading Hirono by 15 percentage points.

"There's a general movement away from the liberal thought toward being more centrist," he said. "Union members are moving with the general population. ... As a general rule when you put it all together, the union households don't follow their leaders' recommendations."

Still, the biggest value of a union endorsement is the manpower for campaigns, he said.

"When Ben Cayetano was running four years ago, he had sign wavers from River Street to Keeaumoku and King streets," Clegg said. "You don't do that just from your grassroots operation. You do that by unions turning up the people for that kind of show."

But Clegg said unions may be playing a lesser role in this election than ever before. The bond union members shared decades ago has faded as working conditions and lifestyles improved.

"I think their influence is waning," Clegg said of union leaders. "As the rank and file become more sophisticated, they tend to listen to their leaders less."

Ron Taketa, financial secretary and business representative for the roughly 5,500-member Hawai'i Carpenters' Union, acknowledged the challenge of getting members to listen. He is also co-chair of the Labor Alliance of Hawaii, a formal coalition of the approximately 135 unions in the state. The alliance, representing about 145,000 public- and private-sector workers, aims at educating the public about organized labor.

"If you look at the kind of thinking that goes on nowadays, I think you'll have to agree that in every sector and in every institution, no one commands the kind of following that they did 20 years ago," Taketa said. "I think it impresses upon us that we need to work harder to re-establish communication with the membership and to address their needs in a way that it is more effective so our endorsements will make more sense. I think the unions have been working on that."

Taketa also said he believes labor will still largely endorse Democrats.

But he quickly added: "That's not to say things won't change in the future. I'm just saying for this election that seems to be the case."

Reach Lynda Arakawa at larakawa@honoluluadvertiser.com or at 525-8070.