Posted on: Friday, May 3, 2002

The 2002 Legislature
State representative switches to GOP

Advertiser Staff and News Services

Linda Lingle welcomed state Rep. Lei Ahu Isa to the Republican Party yesterday, while Gov. Ben Cayetano bid Ahu Isa a chilly goodbye.

Ahu Isa announced she is switching from Democrat to Republican because she never felt welcome by the Democratic leadership.

She also said she is running for the state Senate this fall.

Ahu Isa, 58, has represented Alewa Heights, Kapalama Heights and Nu'uanu in the House since 1996.

"I helped the Democratic Party a lot," she said. "I was a good girl and I went along with the leadership.

Then the governor comes along and says even if a Republican had won my seat, it wouldn't have made a bigger difference.

"When I heard what he said, I thought, they don't even appreciate what I've done," she added, "and at the same time the Republicans are welcoming me with open arms."

Cayetano said Ahu Isa's party switch was no surprise, and predicted yesterday she will be "more comfortable" in the GOP.

"I knew and I felt that since 1998, when during the elections of 1998 she went to Washington, D.C., and met with Republicans there, came back and predicted that the Democrats would lose the gubernatorial election, and then attended my opponent's fund-raiser," Cayetano told reporters yesterday.

"That, to me, indicated that she was probably already leaning to become a Republican. I wish her the best. We're just going to try to beat her, that's all."

Former GOP chairwoman Lingle said, "Now that we are on our way to a strong two-party system, it has become clear that our ideas are more in line with a majority of Hawai'i residents.

"They are also more in line with Lei's, and I believe other Democratic members of the state Legislature."