By George F. Lee, Star-Bulletin
The leading GOP candidates for governor reviewed plans during
a break at last night's debate. Alan Hoffman, campaign volunteer, goes
over a few issues with Linda Lingle while Frank Fasi gets advice from
his son, David. This was their only scheduled debate before the
Sept. 19 Republican primary.

Lingle, Fasi spar
before the big bout

Domestic partnerships and
reducing class sizes are two of
many issues on which
they differ

By Mike Yuen
Star-Bulletin

In a debate marked more by civility than fireworks, Republican gubernatorial candidates Frank Fasi and Linda Lingle last night politely sparred over whether the hotel room tax should be raised and whether the death penalty should be imposed.

Fasi is for raising the tax and for capital punishment; Lingle is not.

And while Fasi declared his support for having the Legislature pass a measure that would prohibit Hawaii Supreme Court justices from appointing trustees to the Bishop Estate -- the nation's largest charitable trust, now under investigation by the state -- Lingle was not so certain. She said she wants the issue to be evaluated first by the public, particularly native Hawaiians.

Fasi, Honolulu's mayor for 22 years, and Lingle, currently Maui's mayor, also reiterated their opposition to same-sex marriage and legalized gambling.

Fasi frequently jabbed gently at Lingle during the hourlong debate, which was sponsored by KHON-TV and The Honolulu Advertiser.

Lingle, he said, was vague when asked how she would pay for reducing school class size or fund other initiatives.

It would cost $3.5 million just to reduce public schools' teacher-student ratio statewide by one student, Fasi said.

"Where and how is the money going to come from? This is what bothers me more than anything else about the statements that Miss Lingle has been making," Fasi asserted.

When Lingle said Fasi had "misstated" her position on domestic partnerships -- which Fasi labels as "just another name for same-sex marriage" -- Fasi was forced to backtrack.

He conceded that he couldn't recall the publication that he supposedly read that quoted Lingle as saying the state should take each couple applying for a domestic partnership "on a case-by-case basis."

She never said that, Lingle insisted.

Asked if the 78-year-old Fasi is too old to run, Lingle, who's 45, said he isn't. But she did take a dig at Fasi, who has a reputation for being confrontational.

"I feel the next governor will have to be the kind of person who really can get along with other people. I have a proven track record of doing that," said Lingle, who is making her first bid for statewide office.

Fasi, running for governor for the fifth time, said he's not too old to be governor. He noted that U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond, the South Carolina Republican, is 95 and that the isles' senior U.S. senator, Democrat Daniel Inouye, who will be 74 on Monday, is running for re-election.

The debate was the only scheduled televised confrontation between Fasi and Lingle before the Sept. 19 primary. The winner will face Democratic Gov. Ben Cayetano in the general election.

Lingle said raising the hotel room tax, which climbs from 6 percent to 7.25 percent on Jan. 1, is a bad idea because Hawaii is competing with destinations that "are a lot cheaper to get to."

And it makes no sense to raise prices at a time when Japan, which provides the state with its largest share of visitors from Asia, is suffering its own economic crisis, Lingle said.

Fasi said that in Asia, Europe and on the mainland, the hotel room tax has been as high as 27.5 percent, so visitors will come to Hawaii even if the hotel room tax is raised even higher.

Criminals who prey on children, pushers of hard drugs and killers who are vicious or who kill police should be subject to the death penalty, Fasi said.

"I think it's about time when somebody murders somebody else, you do the same to them," Fasi intoned. "That's it. That's the Bible I read."

Rather than capital punishment, Lingle said she favors a "truth in sentencing" law that would require convicted felons to serve at least 85 percent of their sentences.

She also backs a law that strikes at habitual criminals who, if they keep on commiting the same offense, will find the penalties much more serious.

Fasi said he should be the Republican gubernatorial nominee because of his lengthy experience in running Honolulu, which he stressed is significantly larger than Maui.

Her strength, Lingle said, is the ability to create jobs in her county despite the eight-year economic slump that the state has endured.