Both parties prepare for ballot
By Lynda Arakawa
Advertiser Capitol Bureau
Still stinging from the loss of the governor's office two years ago, Hawai'i Democrats will regroup for the first time next weekend at their state convention to rejuvenate the party and gear up for battle in this fall's legislative elections.
Right behind will be Hawai'i's Republicans, who are holding their state convention the following weekend and are aiming to knock off majority Democrat incumbents in the House and Senate.
Both parties are focusing on grass-roots campaigning and fund-raising efforts in the legislative races, where every House seat and half of the Senate are up for grabs.
But the Democrats are also taking advantage of the presidential election and heated debate over the war in Iraq, which they say have sparked more interest in their party.
"A lot of people came into the party because they're upset with (Republican President) Bush," said Jane Sugimura, a lawyer and longtime Democratic activist. "If we can get them just as excited about local politics then that would be a good thing. ... These people are energetic, and I think they're going to stay around and be a driving force."
Hawai'i Democratic Party chairman Alex Santiago said thousands of people have signed up to become members, largely because they wanted to participate in February's presidential preference poll. In what also draws attention to the national race, the convention will feature former presidential candidate Howard Dean as a keynote speaker.
Recent poll numbers show support for the Bush administration has fallen.
An Advertiser Hawai'i Poll taken in late March showed almost half of Hawai'i residents think the Bush administration misled the American people about the rationale for the Iraq war, and most don't think it made the world safer. Subsequent accounts of American casualties in Iraq and the prisoner-abuse scandal have also not helped Bush, whose overall job-approval ratings have dropped to the low to mid-40 percent range, according to recent national surveys.
But political observers and GOP leaders are skeptical that any "anti-Bush sentiment" necessarily leads to a stronger local Democratic party here.
"I think that probably during a presidential election that certainly more people get interested in it, and in this election, because it's such a polarizing one, that you're going to get more interest in the Democratic party," said University of Hawai'i political-science professor Neal Milner. "Now the depth of that interest and how it translates is a question.
"Part of the interest may be they're just getting involved and they're going to vote for (Democratic presidential candidate John) Kerry and not do much else. The other has to do with the other things like fund raising and working in legislative elections and so on and that's a harder thing to know."
Hawai'i Republican Party chairman Brennon Morioka said any new members picked up that way probably won't stick with the party in the long term.
"Joining a party is a commitment of their beliefs and joining a political party just because you don't like the president or whoever, I don't think it's a good way to sustain membership in a party," he said.
Hawai'i Pacific University political science professor Gregory Gaydos said if anything, the controversies erupting from the Iraq war are overshadowing local politics.
"I think they have to find some way to wake up the people," Gaydos said of the political parties here. "The war and the atrocities of the (Nicholas) Berg beheading and the hazing of the Iraqi prisoners have sucked the oxygen out of local politics. And so no one's even paying attention to it."
Exciting people — or at least the party faithful — is precisely what the Democratic and Republican state conventions intend to do. Both party chairmen boast membership of about 25,000 people, which they say is up by thousands compared to several years ago.
The state conventions, both at the Sheraton Waikiki Hotel, are largely ceremonial and will be filled with speeches and rallies. New candidates and incumbents are paraded around and state convention delegates will select delegates to the national conventions this summer. Delegates will also work on a party platform.
The Democrats will also select a new party chairman — it's a contested race between the party's O'ahu county chairman Jimmy Toyama and radio personality Brickwood Galuteria — as well as a new national committeemember.
This year is also the 50th anniversary of the Democratic "revolution" of 1954, when Democrats first took control of the Legislature.
At least some Democrats believe that the next chairman will likely assume a new, more visible responsibility, particularly because the party no longer has the governor as its titular leader. And while recognizing that a large amount of the campaigning needs to focus on district-level grass-roots work, Santiago said Democrats understand they need to work on their political messages to counter those of the GOP and Gov. Linda Lingle, who became the first Republican governor here in 40 years when she defeated Democratic candidate Mazie Hirono in 2002.
"We need to realize that they're going to be formidable because they have figured out the formula for controlling public relations and we need to battle that," Santiago said.
Republicans also see a challenge, and it's largely based on numbers. The GOP holds 15 of the 51 seats in the House, and five of the 25 seats in the Senate. They at least want a big enough presence to block a veto override, which means three more House seats or four more Senate seats.
But that's just a minimum, said Hawai'i Republican Party Chairman Morioka, who noted: "We don't want anyone leaving (the convention) without volunteering for somebody's campaign.
"We're still looking at taking a majority in the House," he said. "Anything short of that is falling short of our goal."
Republicans are aiming to get candidates to challenge every Democratic incumbent in the House and pick off some Senate Democrats as well, he said. A Republican newsletter points to 23 confirmed new candidates, and Morioka said that number has grown.
Longtime Hawai'i Republican Jim Hall said getting more legislative seats to block a veto override is "an achievable goal" and that many of the new Republican candidates he has heard about "are young, energetic and won't be afraid to really walk door to door and do all the things they have to do."
"But it's always tough against incumbents," he said. "Incumbents win all the time here."
The interesting thing about legislative races, said University of Hawai'i professor Milner, is "how much of it depends on the particular candidate in that particular district."
"So getting swept in and out as a party doesn't happen here but it doesn't really happen in lots of other places," he said. "It's a district at a time, here and there."
Reach Lynda Arakawa at larakawa@honoluluadvertiser.com or at 525-8070.
