Cayetano reminds Lingle
about her past ‘cronyism’

He brings up the hire of her
husband on Maui 10 years ago

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By B.J. Reyes
Associated Press Writer

Republican gubernatorial front-runner Linda Lingle and other GOP candidates should be wary of making blanket accusations of corruption against Democrats this election season, Gov. Ben Cayetano said Friday.

A day after a meeting of Democratic Party leaders, including U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye, Cayetano said it will be up to the party to rally behind its nominee, and "clear up some of the issues that have been raised by the Republicans regarding corruption and violation of ethics."

Lingle, a former Maui mayor, said ethics in government is the "single most damaging factor" in Hawaii's antibusiness image, and has proposed mandatory prison sentences for officials convicted of corruption and fraud.

But Cayetano said Lingle is unfairly branding all Democrats as crooks.

He said that if Lingle wants to make ethics and cronyism an issue, she should remember that as mayor of Maui she once was criticized for hiring her husband to do legal work for the county.

"Cronyism means hiring your friends and things like that," Cayetano said. "It's no secret that she hired her husband using county funds and later admitted that she was wrong.

"There are other things in her background that I think will give people the opportunity to determine whether she's entitled to preach to other people about ethics and things like that."

Lingle spokesman Lloyd Yonenaka said the issue raised by Cayetano is almost a decade old, adding that at the time, the concern wasn't whether Lingle could hire her husband, but whether she could hire any outside counsel without approval of the County Council.

"I think the governor should understand that he shouldn't use government time and government facilities to do politics," Yonenaka said. "That being said, this issue that he's brought up ... shows they have nothing to talk about except ancient, worn out issues."

State GOP Chairman Micah Kane last month filed a complaint with the Hawaii State Ethics Commission accusing Cayetano of improperly using government resources to provide a fiscal analysis of Lingle's campaign platform entitled: "A new beginning for Hawaii."

"The attorney general says he believes that what I did was correct, so they have offered to assist me in my appearance before the Ethics Commission if any is necessary," Cayetano said. "We have until August 20 to file a response to the complaint and we will do so in due time."

Meanwhile, Cayetano said his staff has been unable to provide a similar fiscal analysis of a proposal introduced this week by Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ed Case.

Case said the proposal he introduced was the first part of his campaign platform entitled: "Blueprint for Real Change."

He said he will implement a plan that begins with a focus on strict spending controls and improve operations to balance the budget and lead the way for economic revitalization.

Unlike Lingle's plan, Cayetano said, Case's proposal did not include hard figures that could be analyzed.

"It's part one of his plan, and I don't know what part two, part three or whatever the rest of the parts will hold, but in this one there's no tax cuts proposed, there's no revenue enhancement proposal that we can quantify," Cayetano said. "Basically, he's talking about reprioritizing the state government.

"Those things are kind of like a difference of opinion, so on the money side there's really nothing to analyze because he hasn't made some of these wild promises to cut taxes."

He said his staff will provide a similar fiscal analysis of Case's plan and any other candidate's plane once actual figures are proposed.