Lingle’s run differs
from Saiki’s failed
’94 campaign

Two front-runners,
two divergent strategies

By Mike Yuen
Star-Bulletin

Four years ago, when former U.S. Rep. Patricia Saiki was the leading Republican gubernatorial candidate, her campaign established a "Saiki Rumor Hotline."

"If you hear a rumor or possible distortion of her record . . . check it out . . . get the truth!" said wallet-size cards distributed by the Saiki campaign that carried the hot line's telephone number. "Don't just stand by when the rumors fly."

But Saiki's hot line never did create the sort of sparks that Linda Lingle recently did. The Maui mayor and front-runner for the GOP gubernatorial nomination in this year's campaign has accused Democratic Gov. Ben Cayetano of fanning a rumor that she's a lesbian, which Lingle denies.

Since Lingle refuses to substantiate her claim, her assertion -- which Cayetano likened to "McCarthyism" -- will hurt her, the governor predicted.

What Saiki did was more benign, Cayetano said.

"When you create a rumor hot line, you create in people's minds that somebody is spreading a rumor about you," Cayetano added. "Nobody was spreading any rumors about Pat Saiki in 1994."

The handling of rumors is one of the differences between Saiki's 1994 gubernatorial campaign and the one Lingle now has under way.

Although both are Republican women with extensive records of public service, their gubernatorial campaigns have other key differences as well. They include:

Saiki offered a more detailed issues plan than Lingle has, and did it much earlier.

Saiki didn't shy away from debates with Cayetano, the winner in 1994 who's now running for re-election, and former Honolulu Mayor Frank Fasi, then a third-party candidate now running as a Republican.

Lingle has a stronger grass-roots campaign.

Bob Awana, Lingle's campaign manager, said Lingle strategists did "take a look" at the Saiki campaign, but did not do an extensive critique of it. "We set out to develop our own strategy and build own campaign organization," Awana said.

While Awana declined to offer a detailed comparison, he did say: "I can just tell you we decided to spend more of our time early on the neighbor islands, and then to focus on Oahu this year.

"Neighbor island folks make decisions earlier. The decisions are based more on personal rapport and family relationships that are established early on. We decided to make that early investment rather than do it as an afterthought, when some people say, 'We got to get to the neighbor islands now.' "

Lingle has intertwined her campaign with those of GOP legislators and legislative candidates, who help her stage "talk story" rallies in their communities.

Ten months before the 1994 election, Saiki unveiled the first of six detailed initiatives to reform Hawaii. It was a white paper to restore public trust, and it touched on judicial reform, electing rather than appointingthe state attorney general and barring public officials from being appointed trustees of the much-criticized Bishop Estate, the nation's largest charitable trust, for at least two years after they leave office. Other papers dealt with education, the University of Hawaii, Hawaiian issues and the economy.

It was only two weeks ago -- three months before the election -- that Lingle unveiled her blueprint for Hawaii. She said, for example, that one of her top priorities is to reduce class size in isle schools, but she doesn't explain how she'll do it.

"We spent a lot of time on the issue papers," said Franklin Kometani, who was Saiki's campaign chairman but is not part of Lingle's inner circle. "Maybe they learned from us that detail doesn't matter."

Lingle, Kometani theorized, may be smart for campaigning on "the big picture" rather than a highly detailed plan. The election, as Kometani sees it, is not so much about what Lingle, Cayetano or Fasi have done or what they're promising. Rather, it is a referendum -- by an electorate perceived as restless and volatile -- on Cayetano and the long-dominant Democratic Party, Kometani said.

Lingle said: "The election will hinge on whom the public believes has the ability to implement changes to get the state back on track -- the candidate who can make it happen. If (Cayetano) could have, he would have."

Cayetano, who describes Lingle's plan as having lifted "70 percent of the stuff we're doing now," said Saiki's proposals had substance. His idea for waiving airline landing fees as a way to stimulate more travel to the isles came from one of Saiki's initiatives, Cayetano revealed.

Four years ago, Saiki supporters were convinced that Cayetano and Fasi were ganging up on Saiki when all three shared the same forum. That was because Saiki was the front-runner, Kometani said.

Saiki lost to Cayetano.

While Awana declined to comment on Lingle's apparent reluctance to appear at the same venue with Cayetano and Fasi, Kometani said he now would be particularly reluctant to have Lingle, also the early front-runner, debate Fasi, even though he believes she is capable of doing so.

"Fasi is the master of half-truths," Kometani said. "Under those (debate) situations, he talks so fast you don't have enough time to refute him."

Cayetano has concluded that Lingle isn't making as many joint appearances as Saiki did four years ago because, he said, Lingle fears that some of her positions and statements may lead to attacks from people in the audience.

Lingle wasn't at a recent forum in Kapolei at which Cayetano and Fasi appeared. Cayetano's conclusion: Lingle apparently realized that her criticism of Cayetano's close friend Bert A. Kobayashi getting $40 million in nonbid contracts to build schools in Kapolei wouldn't fly.

"The people out in Kapolei were very involved in the process of building their schools. When you have a Republican state representative like Mark Moses criticizing her as being uninformed, I myself wouldn't show up," Cayetano said.

Moses, who supported Fasi in 1994, won't say who he is backing this election.

"It has been," Cayetano said, "a year of constant attacks -- nothing but criticism and attacks (from Lingle). Saiki was never like that."

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More might donate organs
if paid, governor suggests

By Bruce Dunford
Associated Press

Admitting the idea sounds macabre, Gov. Ben Cayetano says people might be more inclined to donate organs if they knew their families would gain financially from such an act.

While unveiling a commemorative stamp for the National Kidney Foundation in his office this week, Cayetano was asked what might prompt more people to sign donor cards. Hawaii ranks last in the nation for organ donations, with only seven since Jan. 1.

"I think we need to do more in terms of providing incentives for people to become donors," Cayetano said. "One thought is that the state government can provide some kind of financial incentive to the families of the donors, should they be involved in an accident or something like that, to motivate people to become donors."

But Glen Hayashida, executive director of the National Kidney Foundation of Hawaii, said the national organization opposes any payments for donated organs.

"Without the benefit of talking directly with the governor about his proposals, we do not believe this concept will help turn the public on to becoming organ donors," Hayashida said.

Tony Sagayadoro also opposes a financial incentive program, even though it could help save his life.

Sagayadoro, 45, is program coordinator of the Minority Organ Tissue Transplant Education Program, which operates under a federal grant at the Organ Donor Center of Hawaii. He's been waiting three years for a donated kidney.

"I don't believe we can do that," he said, noting federal law prohibits the sale of donated organs to prevent the creation of a potentially dangerous black market, especially in the Third World.

There is a tremendous need in Hawaii for organ donors, but certain cultural and ethnic beliefs, such as those held by many Filipinos, hinder the program, said Sagayadoro, himself a Filipino.

Last year, only 18 donations were made in Hawaii. There currently is a waiting list of 191 patients, Sagayadoro said.

Hawaii is too far to make importing organs from the mainland feasible, and having patients go to the mainland to wait for organs is generally too expensive, he said.

"Filipinos hesitate to agree to be donors on religious grounds. They are mostly Roman Catholics and believe that you need to be full in body and spirit when you die," Sagayadoro said. "But I'm Catholic, and Catholic teaching doesn't really say that."

Another problem is a state law allowing any family member to veto an organ donation, even though the donor has a drivers license indicating they want to be a donor, Sagayadoro said.