By David Shapiro

When voters elected Linda Lingle as Hawai'i's first Republican governor in 40 years, there's little question they intended for her to exercise the full authority of the office.

It leaves legislative Democrats playing a dangerous political game as they pursue a Pandora's Box of bills seeking to restrict the governor's power and grab more for themselves.

Republican cries of "sore losers" will have resonance if voters see the Democratic maneuvers as a back-door attempt to overturn the outcome of the 2002 election.

It takes the look of a desperate effort to snatch power while they still can. If the GOP gains three seats in the House this fall, Lingle will be able to sustain her vetoes and defeat future Democratic moves to alter the balance of power.

The raid on executive authority started last session. Over Lingle's vetoes, lawmakers took control of state financial audits from the administration and curbed the governor's discretion in collective bargaining by granting binding arbitration to Hawai'i's biggest public workers union.

This year, there are some 20 bills floating around the Legislature that would constrain the governor's ability to control state spending, make executive appointments and enact governmental rules — mostly by adding a new layer of legislative review that no Democratic governor ever had to endure.

Any claim by the Democrats to the political high ground is undermined by the petty power-tripping reflected in some of the measures.

One bill, for instance, would transfer management of the Capitol from the administration to the Legislature, which is ill-equipped for the task.

A driving force behind the legislation is the perpetually perturbed Sen. Donna Mercado Kim, who's angry that she can't get a second Capitol parking pass.

Other bills would require legislative approval of fund transfers, land sales and administrative rules that have always been within the governor's discretion.

Lawmakers want to interfere in the governor's ability to shape an administration by requiring legislative approval of deputy directors and special assistants who never were subjected to such review under Democratic governors.

Democrats have floated proposals to involve the Legislature in nominating as well as confirming University of Hawai'i regents and members of the Land Use Commission.

As with everything else this year, the issue begins and ends with education reform, where lawmakers are dealing Lingle a double slap.

Not only has the House rejected her proposal to decentralize the school system into seven local boards, but Democrats are moving to further centralize the system by transferring what few powers her administration has over schools to an expanded Board of Education.

Democrats need voter approval of constitutional amendments to enact their changes, and they'll face hard questions about why they're putting their own proposals before voters without giving constituents a chance to vote on Lingle's suggested reforms as well.

The one thing that annoys voters more than no choice at all is a false choice that's contrived to limit their options.

Structural change certainly is needed in education, but it's so important that we cheat ourselves if we don't put the broadest array of reputable choices before voters and give all sides a fair chance to make a case.

As for the rest of the Lingle-bashing legislation, it's simply bad policy for lawmakers to chaotically restructure a government that has held up for more than 40 years just because they don't like the results of the last election.

If the balance of power really needs changing, let's call a constitutional convention and do it right with more thought and less politics.

David Shapiro can be reached at dave@volcanicash.net.