New-growth areas The hard-fought 2002 race for governor shows Republican Linda Lingle making some inroads in traditionally Democratic areas while also capturing the new growth areas of Mililani and Kapolei.
voted mostly for
Lingle ticket
The governor-elect did well in
the usual GOP strongholds but
also in Kapolei and MililaniBy Richard Borreca
rborreca@starbulletin.comA review of the precinct-by-precinct vote totals show that Lingle's 17,000-vote victory came from some expected Republican areas, such as Hawaii Kai and Kailua, but also showed that Lingle was controlling the new areas.
Lingle and her lieutenant governor running mate, retired state judge James "Duke" Aiona, won House District 40, which represents the Kapolei area in Leeward Oahu -- picking up 4,646 votes to 2,925 won by the Democratic team of Lt. Gov. Mazie Hirono and former state Sen. Matt Matsunaga.
Lingle also won in Mililani in central Oahu, which is seen as a key area because of its many young families.
Critical to Lingle's victory was the absentee vote, which this year was a record-setting 110,000.
In previous general elections the absentee vote has never gone higher than 70,000, or about 17 percent of the vote. This year, about 28 percent voted absentee.
In the Democratic primary election in September, those absentee voters were key to Hirono's narrow victory over former Rep. Ed Case. Case won the vote on election day, but Hirono prevailed in absentee balloting.
In the general election, Lingle, who had a well-organized absentee vote program, was able to get about 1,000 more absentee votes than Hirono. Lingle also won the regular vote to give her a big 17,000 margin of victory.
A major success for Lingle was holding many of her strong GOP areas from 1998 and increasing her margin of victory.
Bob Toyofuku, Hirono's campaign manager, said his analysis of the results showed that in areas that Lingle showed strength, she was very strong this year.
For instance, he said, in the Kona districts on the Big Island, Lingle won and the heavy GOP vote also had other Republicans, like Bob McDermott, a GOP candidate for Congress, winning.
McDermott, a former state representative, lost in a bid to defeat former Rep. Patsy Mink, who died Sept. 28. He lost in almost all areas, but did win along the Kona coast.
"There are certain areas that even though you are going to win, you have to win big -- by larger amounts than we did," Toyofuku said.
Bob Awana, Lingle's campaign manager, was not available for comment.
On Oahu, Gov. Ben Cayetano four years ago handily beat Lingle in the Manoa house district, but this year, Lingle lost by only 13 votes, showing that Hirono was not able to win big in areas that she would need for a statewide victory.
Finally, Lingle did not appear to get much of a boost with the inclusion of Aiona, who is part-Hawaiian, in native Hawaiian areas such as Waianae and Waimanalo.
In fact, Lingle, who won the Waianae precincts four years ago, lost them this year. She lost Waimanalo four years ago and was not able to capture it this year, either.
