Hawaii’s Republican Party is limping into this general election season. It is one weary political party.
The hope is that if they can’t find a cure for what ails them, local Republicans can at least stop the bleeding long enough to hobble to the emergency room.
The glory days of being a significant minority in the state Legislature are past. So, too, are the days of both the leadership and fundraising ability of Republican Gov. Linda Lingle.
Today the party is more a question mark than a statement.
With Rep. Barbara Marumoto’s retirement, Rep. Kymberly Pine’s switch to a City Council race and Rep. Gil Riviere’s primary election defeat, the GOP is just barely there. The eight state House members could slip to five. GOP Sen. Sam Slom has a general election race, but the veteran legislator is considered the favorite against Democratic newcomer Kurt Lajala.
There is some potential for former Sen. Fred Hemmings to return, as well as former GOP Rep. Colleen Meyer. Hemmings will have to defeat Laura Thielen, who handily disposed of incumbent Sen. Pohai Ryan in the primary, and Meyer will have to take out the well-known veteran Democrat, Sen. Clayton Hee.
Freshman Riviere seemed like a fairly solid GOP candidate, but he was knocked out in the primary by another perfectly viable Republican, Richard Fale.
"We want to pick up four or five House seats; that is a realistic goal," says David Chang, GOP state chairman.
The Hawaii GOP is always going to be the Linda Lingle party, and how she performs in the general election will go a long way toward dictating the Hawaii GOP’s future.
It was Lingle, who after her gubernatorial defeat in 1998, threw herself into rebuilding the local GOP as its most dynamic party chair. She was able to both pump up the party regulars and recruit scores of likely supporters and potential candidates.
Lingle’s hard work was reflected in the state House opening in 2000 with 19 GOP members. Today Lingle is gone, the House could be at five minority members and if everything doesn’t break the GOP’s way, Slom could be the lone GOP senator.
Chang sees the local GOP and the Lingle campaign helping each other during the general election season with coordinated research, door-to-door canvassing and phone bank help.
"We are not relying on each other, but we will complement each other," Chang says.
Before Chang took over as party chairman last year, it was Lingle’s supporters who eased out Jonah Kaauwai, the conservative Christian leader who had been criticized for the GOP’s past performance.
Of course, while Chang and company will have some help from the Lingle camp, the Democrats go into the fall with far bigger allies.
The Democrats’ arsenal includes the well-organized help from the public and private sector unions, the cachet of Hawaii as a Democratic stronghold, and the star power of both U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye and President Barack Obama.
The last two Hawaii Polls have shown that Lingle would lose by a nearly 20 percentage point margin to U.S. Rep. Mazie Hirono in the U.S. Senate race. So Lingle’s election is certainly not an assured outcome.
A Lingle defeat also would do much to move the Hawaii GOP from the emergency room to hospice care.
