Hawaiian vote key in race for governor
By Kevin Dayton
Advertiser Capitol Bureau Chief
Early in the race for governor, Republicans are looking to Native Hawaiians as a potentially critical swing vote that could tilt the outcome of the election.
Hawaiians have tended to vote with the Democrats in recent years, but didn't side decisively with either Republican Linda Lingle or Democratic Gov. Ben Cayetano in the 1998 gubernatorial race.
This year, Lingle sees an opening.
Some early polls suggest Hawaiians regard Lingle more favorably than Democratic front-runner Jeremy Harris or even D.G. "Andy" Anderson, who is Hawaiian.
Lingle has Hawaiians in very public positions as her campaign manager and as Hawai'i Republican Party chairman, and has encouraged Hawaiians such as City Council Chairman John DeSoto and retired Circuit Court Judge James Aiona to run for lieutenant governor.
Aiona yesterday announced that he is running for lieutenant governor as a Republican.
State Rep. Charles Djou, a Republican who had expressed an interest in running for lieutenant governor this year, announced last week he will step aside and instead run for the City Council.
Djou, who is not Hawaiian, said he chose to run for council because he felt he could have a greater influence on public policy there than in the "largely ceremonial" job of lieutenant governor.
He said the Hawaiian voter issue was not a factor in his decision, although he acknowledged he had had many discussions with Lingle about the race, and knew that Lingle was interested in attracting more votes among native Hawaiians.
Lingle said the Hawaiian vote will be critical in the campaign this year, and that her record on Hawaiian issues as Maui mayor makes her a good candidate to tap support in that group.
"It is very important in this race, I think, because they have voted in the recent past traditionally Democrat, and yet they feel let down by the Democratic Party," she said.
The state Republican Party platform supports Hawaiians' efforts at self-determination, but the stalled federal recognition bill may present a problem for Lingle and other Republicans who hope to attract Hawaiian voters: The measure has been blocked by Republicans in Congress, and U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawai'i) contends Lingle must answer for what the national Republicans are doing.
Politicians and campaign organizers have believed for years that Hawaiians had the potential to become a critical swing group in state elections, and some now believe Hawaiians are becoming increasingly active politically.
In the 1998 general election, Hawaiian voters accounted for about 15 percent of the votes cast, and their turnout was higher than the overall state average for registered voters.
While only about 50 percent of the registered voters statewide participated, more than 58 percent of the voters who were registered for OHA elections participated. At the time, only Hawaiians could register to vote in OHA elections.
Courting Hawaiian vote
Lingle courted the Hawaiian vote in her 1998 campaign against Cayetano, citing her actions on Maui when she took steps such as eliminating county regulation of building on homestead lands, and waiving county property taxes on homestead lessees. She also reminded voters of her appointments of Hawaiians to top cabinet positions on Maui.
But Lingle and other political observers said they believe Hawaiian voters split in the 1998 campaign, and didn't rush to support either Cayetano or Lingle.
Hawaiian activist and former OHA trustee Mililani Trask said she believes many Hawaiians simply stayed home on election day in 1998 because they were unhappy with the choices.
Since then, many in the Hawaiian community have been angered by the Cayetano administration, and that could translate into an opportunity for Republicans.
The governor has been locked for years in a dispute over how much the Office of Hawaiian Affairs should be paid for use of ceded lands, a quarrel in which hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars are at stake.
At issue is how much money OHA is owed for rent and other income from 1.8 million acres of ceded lands, which were crown lands seized by the United States after annexation and returned to the state in 1959 for the public benefit, including the betterment of Native Hawaiians.
After the Cayetano administration won a key ruling before the state Supreme Court, the issue landed at the Legislature. But the ruling Democrats there are struggling to balance the state budget, and almost certainly will refuse to hand over a large sum this year to settle the ceded lands dispute.
In 2000, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the Hawaiians-only election that brought them to office was invalid, Cayetano called the OHA trustees "dysfunctional," and moved to remove them.
DeSoto said he hears from many Hawaiians who have soured on the Cayetano administration after the state investigation into Kamehameha Schools.
Many believe the trust was well-run, and was targeted by the state because it was "too successful," DeSoto said.
"I think Linda is right. I think a lot of Hawaiian people are very hurt by all of what is going on," DeSoto said. "We can agree to disagree, but for some reason they felt they've been used and abused for too long already. And I think maybe Jeremy, and I think maybe Andy can do it, but I think a lot of people have been talking about Linda doing it."
Cayetano can rightly claim his administration put more Native Hawaiians on Hawaiian homelands than all the other governors combined, but that may not be how he will be remembered.
Shift to GOP
OHA trustee Clayton Hee, who plans to run for lieutenant governor as a Democrat, said unhappiness with Cayetano in the Hawaiian community won't necessarily translate into a mass shift to the Republicans.
"I think, generally, people are unhappy with the economy, and rightly or wrongly, they blame the governor for that," Hee said. "Whether that makes people switch parties or not, I believe, frankly, people elect candidates on the basis of individual likes and dislikes."
Hee also took issue with Lingle's approach to the lieutenant governor's race.
"The point is, if she is picking lieutenant governors (candidates) on the basis of ethnicity, as it appears, regardless it's an insult to the ethnicity," he said. "It's an insult because it strongly suggests that Hawaiians only vote for Hawaiians and not on the basis of qualifications. That is insulting."
Regardless of ethnicity, Lingle said she is looking for lieutenant governor contenders who have "strong character and background."
She said it was DeSoto and Aiona who contacted her about running, not the other way around, and noted she also encouraged Dalton Tanonaka, who announced his candidacy in November, to run. Tanonaka is not Hawaiian.
"I think it's good for the ticket that you can appeal to the widest group possible in lots of ways, and what a person's ethnic background is is certainly one of those ways," she said. "Everybody who runs for office would prefer to see variety on the ticket."
Lingle said she met with Aiona two years ago when she was seeking candidates for office. But she said the lieutenant governor's race did not come up at that time and she hasn't had much contact with Aiona since.
Aiona said the Republicans did not recruit him to run and that he chose the GOP because "it's the best party now." He called Lingle "one of the best candidates running for governor."
Another factor will be how the voters feel about Republican actions in Congress to block federal legislation to set up a process for federal recognition of Native Hawaiians. That members of Lingle's party are blocking the bill has "serious implications" for the governor's race, Abercrombie said.
Lingle and other Hawai'i Republicans have asked congressional Republicans to support recognition legislation.
"Either they aren't taking her seriously, or they understand what she wants and are not inclined to listen to her," Abercrombie said. "She's got a real dilemma. She can talk all she wants, but I know I've done everything I can to get this on the floor for a vote."
Lingle replied that the problems with the bill reflect on Abercrombie and the rest of the delegation, not her.
"What he's saying is that our congressional delegation has no clout with Republicans, and he's right, they don't," Lingle said.
Reach Kevin Dayton at kdayton@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8070.
