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Governor hopes
Cayetano wants respect over economy By Pat Omandam
for big OHA
election turnout
Star-BulletinGov. Ben Cayetano said he will vote for Office of Hawaiian Affairs candidates this November.
"I'm going to urge everyone to vote in the OHA election," Cayetano said. "That's the only way you can get some reasonable changes."
The task will be almost routine now that the state Office of Elections plans to give all registered voters who show up at the polls an OHA ballot.
Cayetano said yesterday he is still waiting for the Hawaii Supreme Court to act on a joint request for clarification filed in late March by the state and OHA. The request asks whether there are vacancies on the OHA board and who should fill them. It is based on the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that overturned the lower courts in the Rice vs. Cayetano case.
The U.S. justices ruled on Feb. 23 the election for OHA trustees, which was limited to those of Hawaiian ancestry, was unconstitutional and must be opened to all voters in Hawaii.
The governor said yesterday he will ask Attorney General Earl Anzai to recommend the best way to expedite the joint request, citing the logistical work needed to prepare for the fast-approaching election season. The state needs to know how many trustees, if not all, are up for re-election this fall and if there are vacancies now, he said.
Cayetano believes the court may be waiting for some "active controversy" to arise before it acts on the motion. The state and OHA had until May 7 to respond to a request from the Hawaii justices to provide for more legal documents on the Rice case. They now wait for the court to act.
The state Elections Office said every person who shows up at the precincts in November will receive an OHA ballot. In previous elections, those who attested they had Hawaiian blood could register and vote in OHA elections.
Elections spokeswoman Aisha Wang said yesterday the office will decide soon whether voters will receive a single ballot that includes the OHA races or a separate OHA ballot.
But in either scenario, she said, voters are not required to pick candidates in the OHA races and can leave them blank if they choose so.
"The voter has the right to refuse the OHA ballot either way," Wang said.
"If they go in and they don't want to vote in that race, they just leave it blank. That's always been the case."
There is no primary election for OHA trustees. Four trustees are up for re-election this fall; the other five in 2002.
OHA Special
Rice vs. Cayetano arguments
Rice vs. Cayetano decision
Holo I Mua: Sovereignty Roundtable
Cayetano wants
By Richard Borreca
appreciation for his
work on the economy
Star-BulletinGov. Ben Cayetano, like comedian Rodney Dangerfield, says he gets no respect -- this time about his attempts to rebuild Hawaii's economy.
He's bothered, he says, because not enough is known or appreciated about his efforts.
Cayetano told reporters yesterday at an informal news conference that he wanted to figure out a way to publicize the efforts made to reform worker's compensation and other pro-business stances taken by the Cayetano administration.
"Frankly, I'm looking to raise money to go out and make our case to the people," Cayetano said. "Perhaps we have not done as good a job as we should have in communicating.
"I want people to know what this administration has done," he said.
Later his spokeswoman, Kathleen Racuya-Markrich, said Cayetano was still in the planning stages of developing a plan and it was too early to come out with specifics.
During the news conference, the governor said the story of how the administration and the Legislature lower workers' compensation insurance costs has been largely untold.
"All this things are tedious and don't make good news copy, but they are part of what we have done to fix the economy. We need to better communicate that to public," Cayetano said.
One way, Cayetano speculated, would be to copy a program used by Mayor Jeremy Harris "to get private people to donate to a foundation and then use it."
"I'm not running for anything, so no one can accuse me of being political," Cayetano said.
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