Face it: Hawaii Republicans are not a winning brand. Again next year they are not expected to crack double digits in the Legislature and, with Donald Trump as their standard bearer, they are likely to be a political role model for only the most desperate.
Too bad, because Hawaii Republicans have the absolute political inspiration for them in Windward Oahu’s Cynthia Thielen. Unfortunately Thielen announced last week she is retiring from the state House next year, after winning 15 House races in a row, many without any Democratic opposition.
Thielen is what a successful Hawaii Republican thinks and acts like. She should be the template for how to win.
Her political palette of issues may have started with the state’s first bikeway in Lanikai, but soon grew to convince the Legislature to preserve the views of Mount Olomana, which were threatened by development.
Her legal representation of the Protect Kahoolawe Ohana helped secure the former target island’s place on the National Historic Register.
At the time the designation couldn’t stop the bombing, but as Thielen said in 1981, “The Navy can no longer treat the Island as their own private sandbox.”
She was one of two attorneys fighting to block H-3. In her own feisty way, Thielen argues that she was winning in court when then U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye persuaded Congress to exempt H-3 from applicable environmental laws.
“It’s the only freeway in the whole United States that is above the law, and now we are paying the price,” Thielen said in 1992. Land use and protecting Hawaii’s environment are Thielen’s key issues. She is one of only a few local Republicans ever endorsed by the Sierra Club. In an interview, she ticks off the issues that still need attention.
“Property owners are getting 60-year permits for seawalls, it is crazy. And where is the plan for how we deal with environmental changes?” Thielen said.
Still, at 86, Thielen, the mother of state Sen. Laura Thielen, a Democrat, said night meetings and tough neighbor island inspection tours are becoming more of a strain.
“My mind is fine, but my body is starting to feel like it is getting close to 86,” Thielen said.
In politics, Thielen describes herself as a moderate, an “Eisenhower Republican.”
“In dealing with people be liberal, be human. In all things dealing with people’s money or their economy or their government, be conservative,” Thielen quoted the former president.
Asked who is her favorite Hawaii governor, Thielen touches on Linda Lingle, but stops.
“I want to say Gov. Lingle, but I tried in vain to move her interest from supporting windmills for energy to wave energy. That leaves me with Gov. Cayetano, who signed the law to allow planting hemp in Leeward Oahu. It was the first time hemp was planted in the U.S. in more than 50 years,” said Thielen, a passionate crusader for a local hemp industry.
Cayetano returned the compliment, saying, “Cynthia persuaded me to approve hemp mainly because I knew she was honest and her word was good. Cayetano added that Thielen is “liberal on social issues, compassionate and supportive of most social programs designed to help the poor and most vulnerable.”
Thielen’s positions include support for the right to choose an abortion, saying in her first House race that “women must retain the right to choose when and whether to bear children.”
If local Republicans can learn to embrace issues like Thielen does, their chances of political success would soar. I’m betting that’s not a flight many in the Hawaii GOP are likely to take.
Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays. Reach him at 808onpolitics@gmail.com.
