On Politics
BY RICHARD BORRECA
Senate leader could
take the pole positionWith Republican Linda Lingle holding a strong lead in the race for governor, the position of Senate president becomes all the more important.
If Lingle ends 40 years of Democratic control of the executive office, the top partisan positions in the state will be the House speaker and Senate president, and the GOP is aiming for victories in both the executive chamber and the state House.
"It will be hard, but it is attainable," says Rep. Galen Fox, House GOP leader.
If the House goes Republican, the No. 1 Democrat in the state will be the Senate president.
But with a Lingle victory would come an unusual twist that Hawaii hasn't faced since 1960. Lingle would have to send her cabinet to a Democratic Senate for confirmation. Judicial appointments also would need Senate confirmation.
By tradition and design, the Senate is a more independent body than the House and has found it easier to resist the lobbying of the executive. It was the Senate that led the first veto override in the state's history last year, and it was the Senate that rejected the confirmation of a Supreme Court nominee when John Waihee was governor.
Whoever leads the Senate will have the major say in designing the committee structure that will form the background for the cabinet confirmations.
"The Senate president will have some impact in the confirmation process, but so will the chairs of the committees. They will have a lot of say," says Robert Bunda, the current Senate president.
Both he and Senate vice president Colleen Hanabusa want to be Senate president next year, and while both downplay the importance of the office as a political stepping-stone, they are aware of the potential.
Bunda, 55, who ran unsuccessfully for Congress against fellow Democrat Patsy Mink, briefly considered running for lieutenant governor this year, but now says he will run for re-election to his Wahiawa, North Shore district.
He acknowledges that if Lingle controls the executive branch and the GOP has a majority in the House, then the next Senate president will be viewed as a likely Democratic candidate for governor.
Hanabusa, 51, discounts the immediate benefits of leading the Senate, noting "you take both the credit and the blame" for what happens there. But, like Bunda, Hanabusa is ambitious. She briefly considered running for Congress or mayor this year before settling on running for re-election to her Waianae district.
So this fall's Senate race may go a long way toward setting the future of the state Democratic Party.
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.
