U.S. Rep. Mazie Hirono, evoking the financial challenges she faced growing up, told Democrats on Sunday that she understands the families still struggling in the economy and would fight for them if elected to the U.S. Senate.
On a day when Democrats honored retiring U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka at their state convention, Hirono praised the senator’s gift of aloha but said he has also shown a "fighting spirit" as a voice against the Iraq War and for veterans and Native Hawaiians.
Hirono said her own strength comes from her mother, who fled an abusive husband in Japan and brought Hirono and her older brother to Hawaii when Hirono was a young girl.
Former Congressman Ed Case, Hirono’s rival in the primary to replace Akaka, has said the campaign should move beyond the candidates’ backgrounds and into public policy, but Hirono said her life experiences shape her.
"Those early years were hard. And I know what it feels like to live paycheck to paycheck, to not have any job security because my mother had none, to not have any health insurance, to know what it’s like when the end of the month you’re running out of money," she told delegates at the Sheraton Waikiki. "Our families are challenged. I understand those challenges.
"And the favor my mother showed me — she didn’t talk to me about it, she showed me — to always be strong, to never give up."
Hirono described former Gov. Linda Lingle, the leading Republican candidate, as the GOP’s "No. 1 draft pick" in the drive to take control of the Senate. She said the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has already spent $500,000 in television advertisements in Hawaii "to reform Linda Lingle’s image." She said national Republican strategist Karl Rove and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin — whom Lingle backed for vice president in 2008 — would like nothing better than a Lingle victory.
Hirono, like Case did in his remarks to the state convention on Saturday, said a Republican Senate would jeopardize women’s rights, labor and other core Democratic values, but the congresswoman received a far more enthusiastic reception. "That is not going to happen on my watch," she said. "That is not going to happen on our watch."
Dozens of Hirono volunteers carrying "Mazie for Hawaii" signs converged in the Hawaii ballroom for Hirono’s speech, the largest visible display for any candidate at the convention.
"I ask for your support," Hirono told delegates.
"You got it!" one woman shouted.
Foreshadowing a potential theme for the November general election, Hirono closed with a reference to the unpopular furloughs for public workers that Lingle used to help reduce the state’s budget deficit during the recession.
"Linda Lingle gave us Furlough Fridays," Hirono said. "On November 6 let’s furlough Linda Lingle."
U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, who supports Hirono in the primary, and other powerful Democrats were careful not to show their preferences publicly at the convention and instead directed fire at Lingle and the Republicans.
Inouye said Sunday that if Republicans capture the Senate, he would lose his chairmanship of the Senate Appropriations Committee and title of Senate president pro tempore.
He said Lingle left the Governor’s Office "in shambles." He also doubted her claims that she would be bipartisan in the Senate and would function as a partner, like his friend, the late U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, did for decades.
"I can’t believe it. She comes on and she says, ‘I am bipartisan,’" Inouye told delegates. "And she says, ‘I want to be a partner to Dan, just like Ted Stevens.’ Let me assure you: She is not any Ted Stevens."
Lenny Klompus, Lingle’s deputy campaign manager, said Democrats — particularly Hirono — avoided issues in favor of attacks.
"Mazie has chosen to stand on the sidelines and sling attacks from her dusty, old Democrat playbook," he said in a statement. "This resulted in her launching into what can only be described as a tirade about several issues she obviously does not understand. If she did, she would know that stating a false claim over and over again, does not make it true.
"Peppered together with myths and outright falsehoods, her remarks echoed what we have come expect: Hirono is attempting to make this election about anything and everything except the issues the people of Hawaii care about today."
Democrats voted Sunday to re-elect Dante Carpenter as their party chairman, former Hawaii Government Employees Association Executive Director Russell Okata as Democratic national committeeman, and Hirono finance chairwoman Jadine Nielsen as Democratic national committeewoman.
In an emotional moment, the party also paid tribute to Akaka, who was addressing a state convention for the last time as a U.S. senator. His presence was a reminder that choosing his successor is not only about whether Hirono or Case is the correct shade of blue and can duel with Lingle, but whether some of his spirit might survive in Hawaii politics.
Escorted to the stage by Gov. Neil Abercrombie and former Gov. John Waihee, the 87-year-old senator, the first of Native Hawaiian ancestry, was greeted by a standing ovation by the more than 600 delegates.
Lovingly introduced by his son Dr. Gerard Akaka and his granddaughter Rachel — grandchild No. 13, who just finished her junior year at New York University — Akaka was characteristically gracious. Speaking in Hawaiian and English, he thanked delegates for their decades of support.
Akaka, an educator, reminded Democrats that his goal was to become state schools superintendent before being drawn into politics by Gov. John A. Burns and Gov. George Ariyoshi, who told him that Hawaiians needed a leader in elected office.
The senator, who, with Inouye, was in the minority that voted against giving President George W. Bush the authorization to go to war against Iraq, told delegates that Democrats should always do what is right, not what is popular.
Akaka left Democrats with what he described as a hope and prayer. "If at any time in your life you are given aloha, appreciate it, live it and pass it on, because that’s the nature of aloha and that is the spirit of aloha," he said. "It means nothing unless you share it."
