The lawmakers say they would do a better job of giving voice to the people's desires.

Lingle's administration claims Democrat lawmakers are playing partisan politics since she was re-elected to a second term in November.

"It's really about the majority flexing their muscles," said Lt. Gov. James "Duke" Aiona, who will recommend that Lingle veto several bills that would chip away at gubernatorial power. "The reasons they give are completely self-serving."

Eight pending bills in the Legislature would snatch some of Lingle's powers to fill legislative vacancies, name candidates for judicial vacancies, appoint members to the Hawaii Tourism Authority board, pick nominees for the University of Hawai'i Board of Regents and approve free trade agreements.

Democrats want more of a role in making these decisions, rather than leaving them up to Lingle, said Majority Leader Kirk Caldwell, D (Manoa). He characterized the conflict as a power struggle between branches of government rather than between political parties.

"The electorate is saying, 'We want to make sure our voice is reflected in some of these decisions,"' Caldwell said. "It's not un-American for one branch to pull away from another."

Hawai'i's governors have long held significant influence over the direction of state policy in the islands, more so than most other states. This tradition of central leadership comes from Hawai'i's history as a kingdom, a republic and then a territory, Caldwell said.

In some states, legislatures have more say on state spending; more top state officials are directly elected by the people, including secretaries of state, attorneys general and state treasurers; and political parties and others play a larger role in appointments, including replacements for elected opposition party members who leave office early.

Hawai'i governors hold the purse strings on budget allocations and have broad flexibility to appoint unelected department heads. Gubernatorial vetoes are often difficult to override. The state was ranked as having one of the 12 strongest governors' offices in the country in a 1987 study by the National Governors Association.

Lingle's allies believe Democrats are trying to undermine her for their own political gain.

"The only reason they're taking it back is because she's doing such a good job of upstaging their political failures," said Sen. Fred Hemmings, R (Lanikai-Waimanalo). "She's not feeding the old boy network."

Most of the bills would reduce Lingle's appointment power.

The Board of Regents proposals designate the composition of a diverse committee that would submit a list of candidate names to Lingle to choose from to nominate for the job. Currently, the governor chooses nominees on her own.

Another measure requires the governor to choose from a list of three candidates when filling vacancies in the U.S. Senate or the state Senate. She now is simply required to appoint a replacement from the incumbent's political party, leaving open the option of choosing a weak or little-known member of the opposition party.

Other bills limit the governor's choices in filling judicial vacancies and reduce the number of voting members she appoints to the Hawaii Tourism Authority board.

One plan gives more appointment power to the Contractors License Board to House and Senate leaders.

The proposal requiring the Legislature to ratify international trade agreements would protect the state from deals that give preference to foreign products instead of local ones, said Rep. Roy Takumi, D (Pearl City-Pacific Palisades).

"It shouldn't be one person — in this case the governor — who commits the state to an international trade agreement," Takumi said. "We, as a state, ought to have the ability to enable public input."

Although the Legislature has put restrictions on previous governors who were Democrats, Lingle's re-election probably increased lawmakers' desire to assert their influence over the state's direction, said University of Hawai'i political science professor Ira Rohter.

"Had Lingle been a Democrat, would they be doing this? Probably not," he said. "They just want to somehow claim more powers."