Posted on: Tuesday, October 8, 2002

ELECTION 2002
Candidates face student body

By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer

Democrat Matt Matsunaga listens as his Republican opponent, James "Duke" Aiona, addresses Iolani School students at a forum held at the school chapel. Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser

Iolani School students asked the candidates for lieutenant governor occasionally pointed questions yesterday, from whether their ethnic backgrounds help or hinder their campaigns to their best guesses on whether Democrats concealed U.S. Rep. Patsy Mink's medical condition for political gain.

Republican James "Duke" Aiona said he understood a family's pain when a death occurs, but mostly deferred the Mink question to Demo-

crat Matt Matsunaga, whose legendary father, Sen. "Spark" Matsunaga, also died in office.

"I don't think the family would play politics about their feelings for Patsy," Matsunaga said about Mink, who died last month of viral pneumonia. And it didn't make sense for Democrats to withhold information about her deteriorating condition, he said.

The Democratic Party would have been better off submitting a strong replacement candidate for Mink's House seat, Matsunaga said, rather than risk having several Democrats dilute the vote against a single Republican candidate.

"If the Democrats are trying to manipulate it," Matsunaga said, "it certainly doesn't make sense to me."

Aiona, 47, and Matsunaga, 43, generally stuck to the main themes of their campaigns at an hour-long forum put on by Iolani students inside the school's chapel.

A couple of times, Aiona held up the 28-page glossy booklet produced by his running mate, Linda Lingle, and repeated the campaign's message that Republicans are the true agents of change. And he stressed Lingle's message of restoring integrity to government, fixing public education and diversifying and improving the economy.

Matsunaga agreed that public schools need to be improved. He also told the students that young people lack positive role models, "such as my father."

But there were a couple of moments when the students' questions veered away from the candidates' main talking points.

Asked about the benefits and downsides of their ethnic backgrounds, Aiona instead spent several moments listing his professional experience and Lingle's.

"I'm not focusing on ethnicity," Aiona said.

But he did talk about his Hawaiian, Chinese and Portuguese heritage, as well as his wife's Filipino-Caucasian ethnicity, and said he cares deeply about Hawaiian issues.

"Whether that's an advantage or not an advantage, I don't know," Aiona said. "But I have a passion for it."

Matsunaga, like Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mazie Hirono, is Japanese American. He joked that he thought at first the name Hirono "was Italiano." He then acknowledged that "to some people, ethnicity may be a factor."

"But most voters are smarter than that," Matsunaga said. "Most voters won't judge us by the color of our skin or the shape of our eyes."

After the forum, a group of 13-year-old eighth-graders was evenly divided in their preferences.

Rachel Won clearly sided with Matsunaga, a lawyer and state senator. "He's organized," Rachel said. "And he seems like an amiable person."

Ayako Tokuyama liked that Matsunaga "didn't care about the advantages or disadvantages of being Asian."

But Eliza Browning preferred Aiona's "passion." And Aron Wilson liked his background as a former city prosecutor and Family Court and Circuit Court judge.

"He seemed more aggressive," Aron said.

Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8085.