TUESDAY'S governorship results may have left Linda Lingle with a broken heart. They leave Hawaii Republicans with a broken party, probably unable to take control of the governorship or either house of the Legislature in the next 10 or 20 years. Lingle’s defeat could
wreck Hawaii GOPMaui Mayor Lingle will be jobless soon -- with no political base from which to re-challenge for the governorship in 2002, when Ben Cayetano can't run again.
Lacking any local congressional patronage spots she might fill, the Republican Party might keep Lingle in the public eye by making her chairwoman. But that can't match the visibility of the Democrats' likely 2002 governor candidates -- Mayor Jeremy Harris of Honolulu and Lt. Gov. Mazie Hirono. Harris barely restrained his desire to run this year. Hirono will remember that she was 3,700 votes more popular than the governor in the September primary.
My bias always has been to see the Republicans rebuild as a strong second party. But even I started taking Democratic primary election ballots 20 years ago when it became apparent the Democratic primary was more important for some races, including the governorship, than the general election.
I think it may be that way from now on. This is heresy, but if I were an aspiring Republican middle-roader I might move over to the Democrats, as quite a few have in the past.
One of the Democratic Party strengths is that -- with rare exceptions -- all comers have been welcome under its tent. And under that tent the Democrats seem like cats: The more they fight, the more they multiply.
In our September primary more voters took GOP ballots than took Democratic ballots for the first time in more than 30 years. That was because Lingle faced a fight from former Honolulu Mayor Frank Fasi, who later sided with Cayetano. That race thus was immensely more exciting than the Democratic primary where the Cayetano-Hirono ticket had no significant opposition.
This phenomenon is unlikely to recur soon, if only because the Republicans are unlikely to have the bright hopes in the future they had this year, hopes fueled by a lousy economy and widespread recognition we have to fix things in our business environment and government bureaucracy. Lingle looked like a winner and almost was -- but Cayetano was successful in contending he already has worked for change and will keep at it.
There will be many explanations of why Lingle lost. Even I have a few -- more money behind Cayetano, a possible drag on the ticket by her religious right running mate, her failure to reiterate the substance in her economic programs in the final days, a somewhat patrician persona in the final debate in particular, letting the Democrats get the upper hand on the values issue even though she is a person of tremendous convictions and substance. She did demonstrate clearly that gender is not significant and drew multi-racial support, as did Cayetano.
IN an ideal world Lingle would remain on the political scene -- to articulate issues from the sidelines, to support the Democrats on some and oppose them on others.
But this means hanging onto the media spotlight. Patricia Saiki pretty much disappeared from view after she lost as the 1994 GOP candidate for governor. So has former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole after his 1996 defeat for the White House.
Frank Fasi has managed to stay visible after five governorship defeats and may continue to do so by running again for mayor of Honolulu two years from now when he is 80. But he has an audacity that escapes Lingle.
A.A. Smyser is the contributing editor
and former editor of the the Star-Bulletin
His column runs Tuesday and Thursday.
