NANCY CHRISTENSON / NCHRISTENSON@STARBULLETIN.COM Just as political parties avoid crossing paths, so do the Kalihi streets Homerule, Democrat and Republican.

Democrat and Republican
streets do not cross paths

It's perhaps fitting that the parallel Kalihi streets called Democrat and Republican never cross. They're about the same length, cluttered with small shops and are otherwise identical. Someone with a sense of humor named these streets, about a century ago, in a time when partisan politics began to consume the islands. More interesting is Home Rule, the equally identical street between them.

Just a few months after Hawaii became a U.S. territory -- and Hawaiians became citizens with full civil rights, including the right to vote -- Hawaiians took a hard look at the imported American political parties and created their own, the Home Rule Party. In the 1900 election, Home Rule gained control of the territorial House and Senate, and sent revolutionary monarchist Robert Wilcox to Congress as the first Hawaii delegate. Their slogans included "Hawaii for Hawaiian" and "Look to the Skin."

That first legislative session has been charitably described as chaotic, with Home Rulers speaking Hawaiian, attempting to free native prisoners and license kahunas as doctors. It was known as the "Lady Dog Legislature" because the pressing issue of the day was a repeal of a $3 tax on female dogs, prized as a luau dish. Sanford B. Dole, appointed by the United States as governor, kept busy with his veto power.

Hawaii Republicans reorganized and enticed Prince Jonah Kuhio into their ranks, away from the Home Rulers. In a hard-run second election, Wilcox lost to Kuhio and the prince became Hawaii's defacto political leader. With a Republican figurehead like Prince Kuhio in charge, the Home Rule Party pretty much vanished by the elections of 1912. The Republicans then shifted power to the largely white big business owners and retained firm control of the islands until the "Democratic Revolution" of the 1950s.

Today, all that remains of the Home Rule Party is a street sign in Kalihi, but it still separates Republican from Democrat.