The Quest
for Governor
CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM Linda Lingle
“When you get good people, you can let them go, as long as they understand that it is my policy that they are carrying out, not their policy, because people didn't elect them, they elected me."See also: Mazie Hirono interview
Star-Bulletin: Why do you want to be governor?"When I came to Hawaii, I had a good life. I had a close family and I was lucky, but I also had a life of fits and starts.
"My mom got sick, I lived with my grandparents, I lived with my uncle, I lived with my dad and step-mother for a while. I got married for maybe a year and a half when I was in college, so when I came to Hawaii after college, I had just left my first husband. I landed here. I didn't know anybody, except my dad and people just took me in.
POLITICAL PARTY Republican ON THE JOB Maui Mayor/ Maui County Council / Molokai Free Press founder
EDUCATION California State University / Birmingham High in Van Nuys, Calif.
AGE 49 / June 4, 1953
BIRTH PLACE St. Louis, Mo.
"My progression is just so improbable and I valued every bit. I never wanted to leave, never want to live anyplace else. My heart is here and I feel an obligation and responsibility to Hawaii.
"I think, honestly, it was better when I came than it is today. I think life was just better in those days and I am convinced and I feel strongly that it can be better again.
"So, for whatever reason I got put in this position, I just feel a very strong obligation to do everything I can to make it better. I feel a huge obligation to give back because I have so much because of Hawaii."
Star-Bulletin: How did you learn to give speeches?
"The Toastmasters Club was part of it. Whoever designed the program (made) a very effective program that helps people in government who have to communicate. When I was mayor, we started a Toastmaster Club and the county government would pay for whomever wanted to join it.
"I felt it is so helpful for people to be able to stand up and express themselves in a clear way.
"But, it takes practice and taking it seriously. I don't approach any speech in a light way.
"It may appear to the audience that I just walk in and talk, but I spend an awful lot of time before I reach an audience thinking about who are these people, where did they come from, what are they thinking the next governor should be able to do for them. Are they used to someone who is a fiery speaker? Is that too overwhelming?"
"Instead of worrying so much about what you are going to say, think about who you are talking to, spend your time thinking what is important to them. If you focus on your audience and not yourself, it allows you to do better.
"You don't speak to all your children in the same way. Your children are unique and you talk to them differently."
Star-Bulletin: Tell me about your grandmother.
"She came from Poland, she had red hair and she was very pale. Her family was everything for her. She would excuse anything. There was nothing you could do that was wrong if you were her grandchild, and she had 11.
"I'm not sure she graduated from the eighth grade, but that is as far as she got in her education. She came to America as a child. She spent her whole life with the family.
"She worked for the City of Hope, she worked for the asthmatic children society, she worked for the Heart Foundation and the Cancer Society. She would go downtown on the bus. She never drove a car and she would put up her card table and chair, she would collect money for these charities. It was a very big part of her life. It wasn't that she had to, she just wanted to do it and it rubbed off on everyone around her.
"When my folks got divorced, I lived with my grandparents for a year or so, before living with my aunt and uncle. I was in high school and my grandmother used to walk me to school every day. I thought it was great. It didn't bother me.
"Some people in high school may say how they don't want their parents around, but I thought it was terrific.
"For her it was a classic sense of what grandparents are; you can do no wrong.
"She enjoyed everything and she always saw the good in people. I would get mad at my dad about something and she would say, 'That's your father, just let it go, forget about it.'
"I never heard her say a bad word about anybody. I don't think she had it in her to talk In a bad way about anybody. She always had something good to say and so it was a terrific thing to walk around with her, you always felt good. You never walked in the house and heard anything that was negative or bad.
"She was a very simple person. Maybe I get that from her. She had no desire for any material things. There was nothing she wanted or craved or wanted to obtain, except for the grandchildren.
Star-Bulletin: Why did your family move? What happened with your mother?
"My mother was hospitalized off and on since I was young in St. Louis. My Dad moved us to California when I was 12, thinking the change in scenery would help, not understanding that a chemical imbalance is not aided by a change in scenery.
"My grandparents actually moved to California to stay with us, to help us. It was a huge move for them, all their friends were there. My folks did end up getting divorced. Eventually my grandparents came out to Hawaii.
"She was a dominant figure in the family, not that she told anyone what to do, but she held family above all else. It was a great value to have."
Star-Bulletin: Did you ever perform in a play or sing?
"I did two plays when I was mayor. I did community theater. I did "Love Letters." The woman's part was one of the best parts ever written. Albert Gurney wrote it.
"This boy and girl and then man and woman. It Is a series of love letters written from when they are five years old to 65 years old. Her part, she Is mentally ill, she was an alcoholic and she cusses up a blue streak. So it was very liberating to be able to do while you are the mayor and you can go up to the public in this other role. That was a tremendous amount of fun for me.
"And then I did the part of the mayor in 'Inherit the Wind.' I like theater because the people are so different. They could care less about politics and they don't talk about it and I like that, because this is such an intense life that I like to be with people who don't care about it and don't know anything about it.
"I like to be around people who are not talking politics. It is a very self-absorbed lifestyle if you don't make some effort to get out of it."
Star-Bulletin: What are you reading?
"Right now I am reading John Adams biography by David McCullough and it is excellent. It is kind of funny, at this point Adams is over In France with (Benjamin) Franklin and there is a lot of tension between them. Adams is talking about people accusing Franklin of earning commissions off of contracts that the French were signing to send munitions to the United States. So it is the insider contracting stuff that was happening 225 years ago instead of today.
"I just finished a book, called the 'Tipping Point.' It is a very interesting book, not as great as everyone hyped it to be, but it is about this basic concept in society that when something goes ands build up a head of steam, there will be one thing that tipped it. They talk about it in terms of a neighborhood. A neighborhood just doesn't go bad. There may be rubbish on the ground, graffiti, drug people come in and then all of a sudden something happens and it is just lost."
Star-Bulletin: How will you pick the people for your administration?
"I have a vision of rather than one group, (we would have) subgroups to not only review resumes, but to surface the names of people we think we should go after.
State positions are very different (from Maui) county, some are very specialized and technical. For instance, there are a lot of people who are concerned about the (state) insurance commissioner. The industry really doesn't like the person who Is there now. They just don't think he Is fair.
"He Is a lawyer and they think he leans toward the lawyer's side. So for a position like that it seems reasonable that you would have people from consumer groups, insurance groups and legal groups telling you who you think would be reasonable for that job.
"The health department would be another position like that. I would want to meet with the community clinics, the hospitals, the care homes, the nurses, the doctors and get them all to say, 'Who do you think would be a great health director for Hawaii?'
"The good thing about me is, I don't have a bunch of cronies in position.
"I wouldn't keep any of the people in their current positions. What I would do is as I did as mayor that I would offer them the chance to reapply or if they wanted to work in a different position, I would give them a fair chance like anyone else, but my philosophy is obviously different from what they came from."
Star-Bulletin: Would people from your past administrations be in a new cabinet?
"I would expect some. I expect some would apply and there might be some staff also.
"People around the capitol say there is no way a new Republican can fill all the state positions without relying on the existing work force.
"I am getting e-mail from people working in the system. They say, 'There are a lot of things that can be done, and here's how I would do it.'
"The fun part about running county government or rebuilding the Republican Party is being able to spot people who are talented and get them in a position to do things they thought they could never do, mold a team and motivate a team and go after a common vision. It's a lot of fun and I enjoy it."
Star-Bulletin: People say you are a policy wonk, you really like to know all the details of government policies. Is that true?
"I think it was truer in the earlier years. Many of the people I hired (when mayor of Maui) were from the business world and didn't know that much about government. I had to be more hands-on, but as time went on, I went through a big transition, because the people I had around me were very good. It did give me a freedom. I enjoyed a greater freedom.
"When you start out I want everyone to understand my expectations. When you get good people, you can let them go, as long as they understand that it is my policy that they will be carrying out, not their policy, because people didn't elect them, they elected me and I think that is an important distinction."
Star-Bulletin: Do you consider yourself a professional politician?
"I hear a lot of people talking about professional politicians as if that is a negative. I have never heard any other profession discussed that when you get good at it and are focused and spend time at it and hone new skills and they say that Is a bad thing.
"I don't think it is a bad thing, because it is profession and it is a decision I made to do and you want to be good at it, all the aspects of it."
