When I wrote last year about the prospects for the 2002 governor's race and didn't list Lt. Gov. Mazie Hirono among the contenders, one of her supporters was indignant. Does Hirono have
the right stuff?I meant her no slight. It was just that Hirono had been so invisible during Gov. Ben Cayetano's first term that I assumed she had no interest in the top job. But sure enough, when she showed up for an editorial board with Cayetano and was asked about running for governor, she answered in an annoyed voice, "If it can be imagined, it can happen."
After that, I expected to see a lot more of Hirono in the second term. Not so far. Since the election, she's back to setting a new standard for lieutenant gubernatorial invisibility.
Until she injected herself into the dispute over the University of Hawaii School of Health this week, Hirono was all but absent from the news this year. In the only significant story about her, Cayetano in January put her in charge of regulatory reform. There's been little news on that project since.
Her supporters would argue that this shows she's not a publicity hound. But all politicians are publicity hounds so it more likely means she's not doing much that matters.
One Hirono admirer wrote a letter to the editor extolling her executive abilities, citing as examples the downsizing of her own office and removal of elections from her oversight.
If her election theme is going to be that her biggest accomplishment as lieutenant governor was to make an already do-nothing job even less significant, it's going to be a tough campaign.
It's difficult enough already. Hirono may find herself facing Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris in the Democratic primary. If he cruises through next year's mayoral election as easily as he did in 1996, he'd have to be the favorite for governor in 2002 if he wants it.
Awaiting the Democratic winner will be a wiser and more experienced Linda Lingle, the Republican who lost to Cayetano by only 5,000 votes last year. You think the Senate's ouster of Attorney General Margery Bronster hasn't already driven at least 5,000 outraged Democrats to the GOP?
This is not to underestimate Hirono, who is an excellent campaigner. My strongest impression of her was during the 1994 campaign when she appeared at a candidates' forum we sponsored with KITV and Hawaii Public Television.
The air conditioning broke down and it must have been 120 degrees under the lights in the TV studio when Hirono arrived wearing a heavy suit. I wouldn't have blamed her if she had refused to participate under those conditions.
But Hirono went on and outclassed her opponents in two hours of brutal debate. Watching her on TV, she looked incredibly fresh and relaxed. She didn't show the strain until it was over, when a dehydrated and dripping-wet Hirono threw herself against a giant fan.
It proved that she's tough, focused and cool under pressure.
Proving to voters that she's qualified to be governor will be a greater challenge. She wasn't a heavy hitter in the Legislature and hasn't left much of a footprint as lieutenant governor. She has no real administrative experience.
The powers that prop up the old-guard Democrats might be able to pull Hirono through as they did twice for Cayetano. But she can't count on it without doing more for herself. Every election the state's demographics move further away from the old-line Democrats, the Democratic Legislature finds new ways to insult voters and the sell gets more difficult.
David Shapiro is managing editor of the Star-Bulletin.
He can be reached by e-mail at editor@starbulletin.com.
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