Republican leaders
were biased toward
Lingle, Fasi claims

By Mike Yuen
Star-Bulletin

Defeated but still full of spunk, political maverick Frank Fasi has lashed out at Republican gubernatorial nominee Linda Lingle and isle GOP Chairwoman Donna Alcantara, saying they are "liars" who undermined his campaign.

Fasi, who has lost two gubernatorial bids and a mayoral campaign in the last four years, also gave notice that he will again run for office.

Don't be surprised, he said, to see him running in the year 2000 for Honolulu mayor, the office he held for 22 years.

"I'll be back. Don't sell me short," said Fasi, a former Democrat and third-party candidate who has endorsed Democratic Gov. Ben Cayetano for re-election.

Cayetano has asked him to do some radio spots for the Cayetano campaign, Fasi said.

Defeated by Maui Mayor Lingle in the GOP primary last week, Fasi said he did not run against Lingle as a spoiler. He spent $400,000 of his own money on the election, he said. He added he would have endorsed Lingle, but she supposedly was calling him a liar during meetings with party faithful in which reporters were not present.

"She is the master liar of them all," Fasi said.

In materials he gave to reporters, Fasi said, "Lingle makes too many self-serving statements (about her Maui record) that are false."

Lingle choose to ignore Fasi's remarks.

"We have nothing more to say about Frank," said Lingle spokeswoman Kitty Lagareta.

Fasi said he rejoined the Republican Party because he was assured by party leaders that he would be given equal treatment to win the GOP gubernatorial nomination.

But Fasi said he was not allowed to post his material on the isle GOP Web site. Moreover, Alcantara and her husband gave $12,000 to Lingle's campaign and their car displayed a Lingle bumper sticker, Fasi said.

"As far as I'm concerned, (Lingle) was using loaded dice and a stacked deck," Fasi said.

Alcantara said Fasi was barred from the party's Web page because his material didn't discuss his strengths, but rather "consisted of trashing Linda Lingle."

"We don't allow anyone to do that. We do not allow that kind of material on our Web site."

She and her husband decided to contribute to the Lingle campaign, she said, after it became apparent that Fasi "was not keeping his word of a clean campaign" and because he was focusing on Lingle, not Cayetano.

Alcantara said Fasi called the Hawaii GOP headquarters yesterday and threatened to run as a Republican in 2000.