Dispute rises over The debate between Republican Linda Lingle and Democratic Lt. Gov. Mazie Hirono may have ended Friday night, but the debate over the debate continues.
questions asked at end
of televised debate
Ratings for Hirono rises, dips for Lingle
McDermott is skeptical of latest poll
By Richard Borreca
rborreca@starbulletin.comBecause of a communications problem, the moderator of the debate, Linda Taira, called for closing arguments from the two candidates for governor early.
To fill out the hour broadcast, each candidate for governor was asked two more questions after they had made their closing statements.
Supporters of Lingle say Hirono after the debate asked that those extra two questions be dropped or edited. Hirono's camp insists that they made no such request, saying that the debate agreement stipulated that Lingle would give the first opening statement and Hirono would give the final closing statement.
But Lingle supporters claim that Hirono "vehemently complained" that the final questions should be edited out. Hirono's supporters, however, said Hawaii Public Television CEO Mike McCartney offered Friday evening to have the station edit the tape to include the two questions within the debate and put the closing arguments at the end of the broadcast.
But Republicans said that is not what happened and condemned Hirono's campaign and McCartney, who is a former Democratic state senator and chairman of Gov. Ben Cayetano's re-election campaign that defeated Lingle in 1998.
"This is not only outrageous, it is unethical and a breach of the public trust," said Bob Awana, Lingle's campaign chairman.
However, Hirono spokeswoman Barbara Tanabe denied that Hirono had asked for any edits or changes.
"What the Lingle campaign says is completely false," Tanabe said. "It is a total falsehood. We complained on the evening of the debate, but we didn't make any demands for editing."
McCartney was not available for comment last night.
