GOP ranks
swell with new
converts
Disenchanted voters
By Gary Kubota
hope isle Republicans can
succeed where Democrats
have failed
Star-BulletinWAILUKU -- Sugar irrigation supervisor Orlando Tagorda says he voted for Democratic Gov. Ben Cayetano in the last election but is switching his support to Republican Linda Lingle this year.
Tagorda, 49, a third-year law student when he left the Philippines in 1971 hoping for better opportunities in Hawaii, says he's worried about the lack of job growth and economic diversification in the state.
In the last five years, his pay has increased by only 6 percent, which is better than many of his friends have done, he says.
"I have friends who left Maui to move to Las Vegas for jobs. I'm independent. I vote for people who can do the job," he said.
Tagorda is part of group of independent voters who believe the Democrats under Cayetano cannot provide the leadership needed to pull the state out of its economic slump.
They are among the new faces appearing at Republican rallies.
Others becoming more active in GOP politics are retired executives and small-business owners and managers, including some sons and daughters of Hawaii Democrats.
They carry with them an entrepreneurial spirit, a disdain for raising taxes, a disenchantment about the lack of economic growth and a frustration with government waste and doing business in Hawaii.
The new GOP supporters are also less likely to discuss issues that have divided the Republican Party in the past, such as abortion.
Democrats saw some disaffection in 1994 when Cayetano won the election with less than 36 percent of the vote.
Republican Patricia Saiki received 28.6 percent, and the Best Party's Frank Fasi, 30 percent.
Some new Republicans, independents and former Democrats, are being drawn in by Fasi, who has returned to the GOP, and especially Lingle, who is running for governor for the first time.
As mayor of Maui, Lingle's voting strength has come from new and expanding districts such as Kihei, Lahaina, Haiku and Kula, predominantly white, more business-oriented than union-affiliated.
In her 1994 re-election against veteran Democrat Goro Hokama, she received more than 82 percent of 1,255 votes in one Kihei precinct.
Dale Webster, a retired AT&T executive who has lived in Kihei for four years, says he liked Lingle's support for a reduction in residential property tax rates.
At the same time, he cites his own frustration waiting for a state response to fund a proposed high-technology imaging center, capable of reproducing art paintings.
"So we decided to do it ourselves," said Webster.
In the last two mayoral elections, Lingle has captured only three of 12 to 13 precincts in the old middle and working-class neighborhoods of Wailuku and Kahului, with large Japanese and Filipino communities. But she has been able to maintain a steady level of support there -- almost 37 percent in 1994.
Republicans say support has been wide-ranging at campaign rallies this year, with ethnic diversity and people from different occupations.
Myles Kawakami, Lingle's campaign manager on Maui, says some retired government employees, such as his uncles and aunts, are beginning to believe their best financial protection is a good economic climate.
"These old-line Democrats, they're saying, 'Wait a minute. Let's take a look at it,' " Kawakami said.
Kawakami, 51, whose grandparents came from Japan as sugar workers, says his uncles have a great deal of affection for the Democratic Party and a lot of it is very warranted.
But as owner of Hawaiian Carpet One, he says, he has come to the conclusion that if politicians are not going to support contractors like him, he's not going to support them.
He also favors Lingle's push for contracting some government services to the private sector.
"Whoever delivers the quality product at a cheaper price wins. That's how the real world works," Kawakami said.
Merle Lam, 56, the Big Island chairwoman for Lingle, says more than 1,000 people attended a Lingle fund-raiser in May in Hilo -- a number surprising for a Republican in a traditionally Democratic region.
Lam says that while union leaders aren't backing her, some union members and Democrats are supporting her.
Fasi proving a draw
Star-Bulletin staff
for GOPBecause she was interested in the governor's race and dissatisfied with the other candidates, Jo Bautista, 47, a Pearl City resident who owns a public relations business, started looking around.
She found Frank Fasi, former mayor campaigning as a Republican, although he has run as a Democrat and independent before.
"Although I've been a Democrat, I never voted for Mayor Fasi before," she says.
After hearing Fasi speak, however, Bautista decided to volunteer. Her background in public relations and media buying, as a former radio station advertising executive, proved handy for Fasi.
Although Bautista said she used to help Gov. Ben Cayetano's campaign when he was a Pearl City legislator, she hadn't been active in politics until the economy got so bad that she was losing business.
"I'm saying, 'Oh my God, we've got to do something,' " said Bautista.
By Cindy Ellen Russell, Star-Bulletin
Jake Manegdeg, 66, has been backing the Democrats'
candidate for governor since 1962. Shown here
at party central, he's at it again.
The faithful turn out
By Richard Borreca
again for Democrats
Star-BulletinTurk Tokita is making another run.
A veteran of the famed 442nd Regimental Combat Team and a Democrat from the old school, Tokita grumbles: "I'm 78. I should be retiring. I am not what I used to be."
But he's going. Just like he did for John Burns in 1962, 1966 and 1970. Just like he did for George Ariyoshi in 1974, 1978 and 1982.
Just as he did for John Waihee in 1986 and 1990 and then for Ben Cayetano in 1998, Tokita is running the Democratic gubernatorial campaign on Kauai.
Loyalty to the party and to the governor's office today calls old-time Democrats across the state back to this year's election.
Back in Honolulu, another old-time Democratic partisan, Jake Manegdeg, 66, who like Tokita has been backing the Democrats' candidate for governor since 1962, is organizing committees, setting up phone banks and holding meetings with community groups.
He's in charge of coordinating Cayetano's campaign in the Kalihi to Moanalua areas.
"I know he works hard and I believe in him. He is an honest man for these tough times," Manegdeg said.
Neither man is expecting an easy time.
"Of all the years, this will be the toughest," Tokita said.
"It looks like (Maui Mayor Linda) Lingle is well organized. She has a lot of business people. I think we are going to have some difficulties," he said.
Cayetano, according to public-opinion polls, trails Lingle, a Republican candidate for governor. But Cayetano is still buoyed by the knowledge that he has never lost a campaign and neither has an incumbent Democratic governor.
"I have always been with the governors' campaigns," Tokita explained when asked why he is supporting Cayetano.
Prompted to elaborate, he added that friends asked him to campaign for Cayetano four years ago.
"A good friend asked me to carry on with Ben Cayetano. I met Ben and was convinced he would be the best for the job," Tokita said.
Today, he is involved in the detailed planning for Cayetano's campaign, drawing up committees to write letters, hold signs, stage rallies -- all the traditional events key to a campaign.
Still, he complains that the party just isn't like it once was.
"The Democratic Party has really deteriorated," he said. "It must be because we are fat cats. It is because we aren't the have-nots.
"The young ones have become complacent and forgotten how we got here."
If that lack of drive worries Tokita, he is equally concerned about the economy.
He sees it as selfish that small businesses protested Cayetano's plan to raise excise taxes to lower personal income taxes.
"When the economic task force came out with recommendations, I came out for it," Tokita said.
"I'm willing to give up -- to pay this excise tax to improve this economy," he said. "I am really disappointed in small business. And it is the small businessmen who are going to be the recipients of a better economy.
"Yet they can't see it. I think they are crazy; they should be helping the government."
