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Capitol View
WHEN the state GOP meets in convention this spring it will be the first time in more than a generation that the GOP won't be faking it. State GOP is
reveling in gainsIn the past, the Republicans would wind up the legislative session and trudge to the neighbor islands, where they would proclaim victory over their Democratic foes, promise amazing election gains in November and then someone would open the phone booth and they would all go home.
Those conventions were a chance for the non-party faithful to marvel that someone could gather so many dozens of people for a losing cause.
Others would make jokes about retiring the GOP to the Bishop Museum and having the whole thing stuffed.
Now, however, the Bishop Museum may be bought by Kamehameha Schools and the Republicans are dreaming of a huge political population explosion.
There is a lot of reason for the GOP to feel confident. First off are the numbers shown around town by Linda Lingle, party chairwoman.
She says in the last two years more than 2,000 new members have joined the GOP and, perhaps even more encouraging, more than 2,800 new contributors have given to the party.
To emphasize that new money, the GOP packed last week's Lincoln Day dinner at the Sheraton Waikiki with more than 1,600 donors.
One GOP veteran recalled how a decade ago the party was lucky to get 300 to attend, with the day before spent begging people to come down for a free dinner to help keep the hall from looking deserted.
Another old-timer and former GOP chairman marveled at the crowd, saying there were people there who "wouldn't have dared show up 10 years ago."
Before expenses, the party raised around $220,000. State Campaign Spending Commission figures show that the GOP has raised $340,000 in the last two years.
Almost all of that has been spent on developing candidates. The magic number repeatedly mentioned as last week's dinner was seven, as in "with seven more Republicans, we take control of the House."
With 19 already there and Lingle primed to help the candidates who failed last year run again, the GOP is not through growing.
ALTHOUGH Lingle's comments that her party is now "fighting for the little guy against the powerful insiders, just as the Democrats fought the entrenched old guard Republicans 50 years ago," must be drawing laughs from the Democrats, Lingle has clearly energized the party.
"I am focusing on identifying, mentoring and motivating a new generation of leaders in this state," she said.
Democrats may actually be aiding the GOP as this year's Legislature continues.
With an unleashed torrent of new funding requests, legislators are trying to find a million more dollars to pay for new buildings, schools and computers. Plus there's a federal court order requiring more special education teachers.
But the single biggest demand is for the public worker unions to get pay raises.
Obviously the raises won't be paid unless the Legislature either cuts the budget or raises taxes.
Republicans are hoping that all they have to do is sit on the sidelines and preach the virtues of economic self-restraint, while hoping that the wasteful Democrats spend and spend.
And for Lingle, who has taken to calling the 2000 election "historic," the next few months will go a long way to developing the issues that will frame her next run for governor in 2002.
Richard Borreca reports on Hawaii's politics every Wednesday.
He can be reached by e-mail at rborreca@starbulletin.com