As tough as he likes to appear, it really doesn’t take much for Ben Cayetano’s emotional core to surface.
In 1988, I remember seeing then-Lt. Gov. Cayetano as he sat with the Hawaii delegation at the Democratic National Convention in Atlanta.
Although not head of the local Democrats, Cayetano was the best interview, because as he sat after listening to the speech by presidential nominee Michael Dukakis, you could catch him wiping away a tear.
It was a good speech, as Dukakis knitted together his own family’s immigrant experience with the importance it played in being a Democrat.
"We’re going to win because we are the party that believes in the American dream," Dukakis said.
"A dream so powerful that no distance of ground, no expanse of ocean, no barrier of language, no distinction of race or creed or color can weaken its hold on the human heart," he told the crowd.
Cayetano said it was that speech that brought back his own feelings of being a Filipino-American and his pride in being a Hawaii Democrat in his own journeys and success.
So when the fiction factory at the Pacific Resource Partnership starts mailing out expensive, slick cards announcing that Cayetano is a tool of the state Republican Party, I started to see how people could believe in an "alternate universe."
"Hawaii Republicans have 2 goals on Nov. 6: Defeat President Obama, and elect Ben Cayetano," reads one mailing that includes a bizarre montage of signs endorsing former GOP Gov. Linda Lingle, the coiled snake "Don’t Tread on Me" Gadsden flag and a Communist Party hammer and sickle.
David Chang, state GOP chairman, said PRP was way off base.
"I have always found it interesting that instead of asking for votes based on what a candidate will do and their record, they try to convince voters to vote for them just because they are not Republican! It may have helped in previous elections, but I believe that many voters are beginning to see through that tactic," Chang said in an emailed response.
Chang noted that if local Republicans support Cayetano, it is because they "see Cayetano as a better candidate than (Kirk) Caldwell."
If anything, the mailings are likely to backfire. Lawmakers are telling me constituents are complaining about the PRP cards, saying they are an insult and should be stopped.
Interestingly, someone who already has some experience with dropping inopportune political mailings just endorsed Caldwell in his campaign against Cayetano for mayor.
Former Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann said when he put together his city management team "that led, shaped, and enhanced the county’s finances, public safety, wastewater, refuse, environment, tourism, intergovernmental, and transportation responsibilities, it’s important to note that Kirk Caldwell was a key member of that team."
During Hannemann’s campaign for governor in 2010, he mailed out a brochure asking voters to "Compare and Decide" between himself and the soon-to-be successful candidate, Neil Abercrombie.
Many said the Hannemann brochure unfairly asked voters to compare the candidate’s birthplace, their wives and their education.
The brochure was such a political disaster that Hannemann used a portion of his first televised debate to say the brochure was "not a good way or a positive way" to point out the differences between himself and Abercrombie.
"If we caused that kind of uneasiness and suffering from some people who saw it that way, certainly, it’s regrettable, and I’m sorry if it caused you that kind of feeling," Hannemann said.
Hannemann’s 2010 loss was called a "blowout" and his attempt to return to politics in this year’s Democrat primary was another resounding defeat.
Even though the PRP mailings and misleading TV attack ads are not paid for by Caldwell, but by the development-oriented Carpenters Union and local contractors, their association with Caldwell could prove just as successful as Hannemann’s brochure.
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Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Reach him at rborreca@staradvertiser.com.
