Hirono, Lingle push hard to break dead heat

By Lynda Arakawa and Kevin Dayton
Advertiser Capitol Bureau

With only a few days left in an election that pollsters say is a dead heat, Mazie Hirono and Linda Lingle tried to boost voter turnout yesterday and sway undecided voters.

Mazie Hirono got a kiss and a hug from Auntie Aggie Cope of Nanakuli at a rally yesterday at Waimanalo Elementary School. Cory Lum • The Honolulu Advertiser

Lingle encouraged the crowd to vote and tell others about her and lieutenant governor candidate James "Duke" Aiona.

"I ran in 1998 and I lost by 1 percent of the vote, but I didn't give up," Lingle said. "I didn't quit, because it wasn't about winning one office, it really was about making life better. And I've kept my commitment, and I've worked hard.

"The momentum is really building out there and, wherever we go, people are starting to say back to us the things we've been saying to them — that it's time for a change," Lingle said, between signing a poster for a little girl and taking pictures with families.

"They're looking for a fresh leadership team, and Duke and I have just had the greatest few days, because you can just feel the support growing every day."

About half of those who attended also had showed up at Democrat Hirono's rally held at the school last week, said La'ie resident George Kittoe, a retired public school counselor.

Education has taken such a back seat," he said. "The old regime needs to get kicked out and new people need to come in."

Kittoe's wife, substitute teacher Judy Kittoe, disagrees with Lingle's plan to decentralize the education system and create seven school boards, but is leaning toward voting for her nonetheless. "I don't think the Democrats have done what needs to be done for this state," she said.

The Kittoes voted for Democratic Gov. Ben Cayetano in 1998, and both said they regretted it.

Helaman Gago of La'ie, a former truck driver, said he had not decided, but hearing Lingle at yesterday's event had pushed him toward voting for her.

"I've seen governors from (George) Ariyoshi up to Cayetano," he said.

"They all say the same thing, promise the same thing, and when they make it into office everything is put on the back burner."

Gago said he was impressed that Lingle took the time to answer questions and talk with people. He said people should give her and Aiona a chance. "Give them four years," he said. "If they don't do a good job, put somebody else in."

Eliu Matagi of La'ie, a 55-year-old hotel engineer for the Hilton Hawaiian Village, said he was encouraged by the way Lingle, former chairwoman of the Hawai'i GOP, boosted the party.

"Even if she doesn't win, it's interesting what she has done to bring people together to build the party." At least now people know there's a Republican Party, he said.

Linda Lingle hugged 8-year-old Keahilani Kaahu of Hau'ula at a rally at Lai'e Elementary School yesterday. Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser

The latest Honolulu Advertiser/ News 8 Hawai'i Poll shows Hawaiians as the group most likely to say they are undecided in the governor's race, which is neck and neck between Hirono and Lingle.

In the Democratic camp, entertainer Mel Cabang led a Waimanalo political rally serenading Hirono with "Happy Birthday" at midday yesterday — she turns 55 today — but the candidate herself focused on a serious, get-out-the-vote message.

With only three more days until the voting, "it's chicken-skin time for me," Hirono said. "When we show up at the polls Nov. 5 — when we show up — we win."

A modest crowd of about 300 people ate shave ice and listened to hours of Hawaiian-style entertainment at the rally at Waimanalo Elementary and Intermediate School, where Hirono shook hands and hugged supporters as she went from person to person under a tent set up for the rally.

On the other side of the island, supporters of Lingle and Hirono staged a brief sign-waving competition on Farrington Highway last night, with both sides calling out to passing cars as hundreds of Democrats gathered at Waipahu Intermediate School for the largest rally for the day.

Cayetano joked to a crowd of more than 1,000, most of them Filipino, that "some of your friends out there, they are holding the wrong sign."

The governor ticked off a list of programs that he said had been passed by Democrats to benefit working people, such as Social Security, workers' compensation and unemployment compensation. Republicans oppose those programs "because that party is not the party of the working people," Cayetano said.

The nation's first Filipino-American governor, Cayetano enjoys great popularity in the Filipino community. He received enormous support from them in his close race with Lingle in 1998.

Cayetano reminded the audience that Japanese voters and politicians such as Hirono and her running mate, Matt Matsunaga, also backed him four years ago. "They supported us in 1998. In 2002, we must support them."

He also said Lingle had no Filipinos among her top appointees when she was mayor of Maui.

The governor told the enthusiastic crowd that odds-makers in Chinatown were predicting Hirono and Matsunaga would win by 3 percent, "and they have never been wrong." In an interview later, Cayetano said Chinatown gamblers also predicted the outcome of his 1998 contest.

Democratic heavyweights Sen. Dan Inouye, Sen. Daniel Akaka and Rep. Neil Abercrombie also were on hand.

Earlier, in Waimanalo, Dennis "Bumpy" Kanahele, a sovereignty activist and head of state of the Nation of Hawai'i, said Hirono had been backed by Hawaiian leaders from different islands and backgrounds, and that would carry weight.

"We come from different beliefs, different values, different everything, but I think the one thing that we have in common is that there is some good in what the Democrats have done in the past 40 years," Kanahele said.

Hirono said her campaign was targeting undecided voters, and "the trend is really good for us.

"It's upward, and it's close, but I feel good. I'm not overconfident. We'll just keep on working," Hirono said.

"I've been told that a lot of people make up their minds literally the day before or when they set their foot in the booth," she said.

In La'ie, Lingle told the crowd: "I've been campaigning for five years. ... Now, after five years, it's down to four days."