GOP chairwoman
stands by ‘race card’
accusation
Alcantara has refused to
Mike Yuen
apologize for her recent
fund-raising letter
Star-BulletinHawaii Republican Party Chairwoman Donna Alcantara has refused to apologize for her recent fund-raising letter that isle Democrats have branded as playing "the race card."
"I have absolutely nothing to apologize for," Alcantara said yesterday after Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris, co-chairman of the statewide Democratic coordinated campaign, demanded that she disavow her two-page letter, dated Sept. 18.
The appeal, Harris said, smacked of "a reverse smear." The letter claimed that Democrats will be engaging in "intimidation tactics and smear campaigns" and trying to convince isle residents to vote on the basis of "the color of our skin."
"We don't think that's what we're doing," Alcantara said. "We're simply pointing out what Democrats have been doing every election cycle. Every election, they dredge up old stereotypes."
Democratic Gov. Ben Cayetano has publicly acknowledged that he is losing with Caucasian voters and he has continually been giving campaign speeches about Democratic values.
"Those are code words," Alcantara said.
"He is invoking racial stereotypes. What we're trying to do is to get people to realize that this election is not about race. This is about getting the state back on track," she said.
Alcantara said the Hawaii GOP was the political arm of a white oligarchy that controlled the then-U.S. territory in the 1940s and 1950s, while the modern-day Hawaii Democratic Party's backbone is isle Japanese-Americans.
But, she said, today's isle GOP is far different from what it was five decades ago.
"This is our 1954," Alcantara said, alluding to the 1954 election in which Hawaii Democrats rose to power.
Maui Mayor Linda Lingle is the GOP nominee who will be facing Cayetano in the general election Nov. 3.
The letter that riled Harris and other Democratic Party leaders was mailed to 42,000 people.
"This went to people who indicated that they may be interested in voting Republican. This did not go to our donor base. This went to a lot of identified Democrats," Alcantara said.
