UHPA endorses Lingle; The University of Hawaii Professional Assembly today became the second public employee union to endorse Republican candidate for governor, Linda Lingle, while the state's largest public employee union, Hawaii Government Employees Association, this morning announced it would support the Democrat, Lt. Gov. Mazie Hirono, for governor.
HGEA will back Hirono
The UH group, the second public union
to back Lingle, also endorsed her in 1998By Richard Borreca
rborreca@starbulletin.comLingle, who earlier was endorsed by the State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers, won the UHPA endorsement four years ago in her unsuccessful bid for governor.
This morning Russell Okata, HGEA executive director, praised Hirono as an independent candidate who will help the union.
"She has openly disagreed with (Gov. Ben) Cayetano by leading the fight to protect collective bargaining and fund our arbitrated pay raises," Okata said, recalling that Hirono urged Cayetano to fund public employee raises when Cayetano refused.
In the primary election, the HGEA, which has 43,000 members, urged votes for either Hirono or D.G. "Andy" Anderson. Union officials said the union was split between the pair, but was opposed to the third major Democrat candidate, Rep. Ed Case.
For UHPA, the endorsement came after a secret ballot. According to J.N. Musto, executive director, 57.4 percent of those voting chose Lingle while 42.6 percent voted to endorse Hirono.
Lingle received a majority of the vote on every campus with the exception of UH-West Oahu, which accounts for 1 percent of the UHPA and voted in favor of Hirono, Musto said.
The largest campus, UH-Manoa, voted 59 percent in favor of Lingle. The votes in favor of Lingle totaled 58 percent at the community colleges and 55 percent at UH-Hilo.
"She has promised to reverse the decline in the University's share of state general revenues, to encourage state agencies, contractors, and grantees to use University of Hawaii faculty and students as consultants and researchers," Musto said.
