On Politics
By Richard Borreca
Sunday, August 26, 2001
Politicians know this almost by instinct. You are supposed to "stay on message." Isle Dems need to
get the messageVoters howl about taxes, but you tell them education is your great concern.
The bureaucracy is dysfunctional and ripe for a cleaning, but you tell everyone that education is key.
The economy chokes with minimum wage, 20-hour-a-week jobs, but you recommend more education.
A single-minded fascination with one message is not difficult.
The question for Hawaii's Democrats today is not how to stay on message, but what exactly is the message?
In past elections, Gov. Ben Cayetano so repeatedly talked about searching for the "soul of the Democratic Party" that you would have thought he was raised in Motown, not Kalihi.
Today, not only is the Democratic Party searching for its soul, but two separate groups of old-time party loyalists have joined the hunt.
First, U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye, fueled by a fear that Democrats will lose the crown jewel of Hawaii politics, the governorship, has pushed up by a year the coordinated campaign to organize the party's election.
Second, Jimmy Toyama, long-time party worker and the Democrat's Oahu County chairman, has launched a new dialogue along with Tony Gill to establish the primacy of the party over the politicians.
"Along the way with the success of the political leaders, the party membership has become marginalized," Toyama says.
"What we are trying to bring to the discussion is not about getting elected, but getting elected for something," Gill says.
Calling Hawaii "a picture of the success of diversity" and a "social miracle," the pair feels that political message is a lesson for the rest of the nation and it is a message founded in the state's Democratic party.
"The political message is most effective when it comes from the ground up -- the difference is when people have a deep feeling in their guts... otherwise it is cynical message and nothing more than a McDonald's commercial," Gill said.
Starting with an extensive focus group and conversations within the party in 1999, Toyama and Gill have concluded that the party's malaise and apparent vulnerability is not because of acceptance of the Republican Party or GOP values, but by "disappointment in the Democratic Party."
Meanwhile Inouye's own committee held its own focus group. Because someone as important and powerful as Inouye is calling for the early organization it has a lot more credibility, according to party insiders.
The findings, according to party members confirmed a fear: Democrats don't like their candidates as much as Republicans like theirs. That means that Democrats will not win close elections next year just because of party loyalty.
Finally, the Democratic party is attempting to raise money to pay for more research and party-building help. Efforts so far have been mixed. A fund-raiser planned in April was canceled, although some supporters still sent in money. It has been rescheduled for December. A fund-raising "work-day" to help clean the Honolulu Zoo planned for earlier this month was also canceled.
Inouye has brought in some top-rate "communicators" such as Chuck Freedman, communications director for former Gov. John Waihee, to help design one simple message for next year's campaign.
That tension between a part of the party coming up with a "top-down message" and another part with a "bottom-up message" is typical of a political party as big and diverse as Hawaii's Democrats, but in a time when the Republicans are viewed as the agents of change, staying on message could be a confusing challenge for the Democrats.
Richard Borreca writes on politics every Sunday in the Star-Bulletin.
He can be reached at 525-8630 or by e-mail at rborreca@starbulletin.com
