Mink’s name The late U.S. Rep. Patsy Mink's name will remain on the Nov. 5 general election ballot after the state Supreme Court denied yesterday Gov. Ben Cayetano's request that would have allowed the Democratic Party to replace her with a candidate.
will stay on ballot
The state's high court denies
Title IX renamed for Mink
Cayetano's bid to let the
Democrats name a substituteBy Crystal Kua
ckua@starbulletin.com
Cayetano asked the high court on Tuesday to direct the state's chief election officer, Dwayne Yoshina, to extend the deadline for the party to name a replacement because of Mink's death.
Mink won her party's nomination on Sept. 21, but she died Sept. 28, two days after the deadline.
The ruling means that there could be three elections over the next three months for the 2nd Congressional District seat -- the Nov. 5 general election, a Nov. 30 special election to fill the remaining month of Mink's current term, and a Jan. 4 special election that would only be held if Mink posthumously wins. The district covers rural Oahu and the neighbor islands.
It is the second defeat for Cayetano in his attempt to eliminate the need for a third election.
Earlier this week, the court ruled against Cayetano's request to combine the Nov. 5 general election with the special election to fill the remainder of Mink's term.
Cayetano said yesterday that the most recent estimate on the cost of the special elections would be up to $1.4 million each.
State Rep. Bob McDermott, the GOP candidate opposing Mink in the general election, said he was surprised by yesterday's decision but believes that it was the correct one.
"I want to do everything in my power to make sure that (the governor) doesn't have to spend that extra $2 million for a January election," McDermott said.
McDermott had filed a motion with the Supreme Court yesterday opposing the governor's petition.
Cayetano said he was disappointed but would accept the court's ruling.
"The court ruled that the chief elections officer does have the discretion to grant the exemption in terms of replacing Patsy Mink's name. However, the court noted that the chief elections officer can exercise that discretion only according to the rules adopted by the elections commission," Cayetano said.
"The problem is -- and we've known this; that's why we went to court -- is that the chief elections officer says they have adopted no rules covering this."
Cayetano said it is a shame that election officials did not adopt the rules.
"Maybe one question would be to ask them, Why don't you have rules to cover this particular situation?"
Rex Quidilla, spokesman for the Elections Office, said Yoshina was consulting with state attorneys on the ruling.
But Julie Duldulao, who was a member of the panel charged with adopting the elections rules, said a lack of funding prevented the rules from being adopted.
"That's the only reason why we weren't able to do it," said Duldulao, who resigned from the panel earlier this year to run in an unsuccessful state House bid. "It's an unfunded mandate."
The Elections Appointment and Review Panel gave preliminary approval to administrative rules in 1999, but the panel did not have sufficient funds in its budget to advertise or travel to hold the required public hearings on the rules.
"We have rules, but we cannot even move to publish them, and to get it done, you need to publicize," Duldulao said.
Cayetano acted to replace Mink's name on the ballot after the New Jersey Supreme Court allowed a candidate substitution for embattled Democratic U.S. Sen. Robert Torricelli, who quit under a cloud of scandal.
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The law that mandated gender equity in education now bears the name of the woman who spearheaded the effort, the late U.S. Rep. Patsy Mink. House honors Mink
By B.J. Reyes
by renaming 1972 law
Associated PressThe U.S. House of Representatives unanimously approved a resolution yesterday renaming the landmark legislation known as Title IX after Mink, said Mike Slackman, a spokesman for Mink's Capitol Hill colleague, U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie.
Title IX now will be known as the Patsy T. Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act.
The Hawaii Democrat was co-author of the 1972 law that bans gender discrimination in schools that receive federal funds.
Proponents credit it with revolutionizing women's sports and the public's attitudes about women's abilities in athletics.
"Every single woman in this nation who today has been given an equal opportunity in education, and by extension in virtually every other field of endeavor, owes the impetus to that in modern times to Patsy Mink," Abercrombie said in a speech on the House floor. "She was one of the pioneers who transformed Hawaii and transformed this nation."
Mink died Sept. 28 after a monthlong hospitalization with viral pneumonia brought on by chickenpox. She was 74.
Her daughter, Gwendolyn, a professor and the acting chairwoman of the Women's Studies Department at Smith College, said Title IX will be part of a very broad legacy left behind by her mother.
"She'll certainly have a legacy, in substantive terms, as one of the valiant defenders of equality -- both equality of access and opportunity, but also equality in a concrete sense of everybody having a right to a decent existence and health care and food and shelter and so forth," Gwendolyn Mink said.
"In those sort of social-justice terms, I think she has a powerful legacy that will live on. That's a powerful legacy."
