RICHARD WALKER / RWALKER@STARBULLETIN.COM
Swarms of Linda Lingle and James "Duke" Aiona supporters lined the sidewalk in front of the state Capitol yesterday afternoon expressing their thanks to passing motorists in the wake of the Republicans' ascent to top elected offices Tuesday night.
Lingle criticizes Governor-elect Linda Lingle says she disagrees with Gov. Ben Cayetano's plans to close five small state airports if they can't be turned over to a private firm.
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Lingle, in an informal news conference at her headquarters, said: "It is a bad idea to close the airports.
"There may be other management arrangements, but we shouldn't close those airports," Lingle said.
She was also critical of another Cayetano administration plan to raise fees for state harbor users. The state is considering raising fees by 35 percent to 185 percent under a proposal.
Lingle called the plan "poorly thought out."
"It was a last-minute thing tossed out there," Lingle said.
She added that it was not good policy to allow fees to remain the same for years and then try to make up losses in one increase.
In response, Cayetano said yesterday he hoped that Lingle would study the reasons the state moved to close or privatize the airports and raise harbor fees.
"The rationale behind these measures is pretty clear," Cayetano said.
Lingle has been working nearly full time since winning the race for governor against Democrat Gov. Lt. Gov. Mazie Hirono Tuesday evening and becoming the state's first woman governor.
Lingle fielded several congratulatory telephone calls yesterday from high-profile party members, including President Bush and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
"That was pretty neat," she said. "The president was joking around a lot. He wanted to know if there was surf up today."
Though she had no public appearances scheduled, her campaign volunteers were out waving signs to thank voters for their support.
Lingle spent most of yesterday meeting with staff members to begin planning the transition to the state Capitol.
Among her first tasks will be appointing a Cabinet. In all, the governor appoints more than 50 state posts, including the attorney general, insurance commissioner, health director and the tax director. She also will appoint a team to look for a tourism liaison position that she promised to fill in the governor's office.
"We're setting up a process to have individual search committees for the various positions," she said.
Lingle's staff said she held her first transition meeting at 2 a.m. yesterday and worked with her staff for two hours.
Cayetano said Tuesday night that he already addressed the transition issue with his staff.
"My instruction to them was, we need to make the transition as smoothly as possible," Cayetano said. "If the state government does not make a smooth transition, then the people we service are the ones who are the losers, not the political parties."
Meanwhile, defeated gubernatorial candidate Hirono said she will be spending the next week touring the state to thank her campaign workers.
Hirono lost the race for governor by 17,000 votes.
Hirono was asked if she would run in the special election to fill the vacancy left by U.S. Rep. Patsy Mink, who died in September.
Hirono declined to say whether she was running but offered no specific plans for her political future.
"I am going to be doing those things that make a contribution. I haven't decided what those might be, but trust me, that's where I am going," Hirono said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
