WASHINGTON >> Ask Hawaii's top Democrat about the status of the local Democratic Party and the response comes fast. Inouye blasts Hawaii Dems
for lack of leadershipHe says the party
has evolved into fiefdoms
and can't raise money
By Richard Borreca
rborreca@starbulletin.com"I have never been happy with it," U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye said during an interview in his Capitol Hill office. "My message is always the same: 'We have got to get our act together, let's get some new blood in here.'
"We have a party that has evolved into an organization of fiefdoms or baronets or whatever you call it," Inouye said.
The Democratic Party, which lost the Governor's Office for the first time since 1962, has become just a combination of the leaders of the party, "who have a following," Inouye said.
"This is not the way to run a party," Inouye continued.
A good example of the party's problem, according to Inouye, is the party's inability to raise money.
"In the last election, I tried my best and succeeded in a marginal fashion to set up an organization to raise funds, and it wasn't to raise funds for me," Inouye said.
Inouye headed up an early effort to start a coordinated campaign and told Democrats during last year's campaign that he had raised about $500,000.
Inouye said the party should be the one raising money and not his own "coordinated campaign."
It was the coordinated campaign that last year brought in Democratic Party workers from the mainland to help with political ads and mailouts. Some of those ads became a controversy of their own, as Republicans charged that the Democratic ads falsely accused Republican candidates who had never held office of voting for issues in the 2002 Legislature.
Inouye said the coordinated campaign did basic political activity such as teaching candidates how to write news releases, appear on television and organize voters.
"The party should be doing that," Inouye said.
Lorraine Akiba, Democratic Party chairwoman, said that while the coordinated campaign was "in the driver's seat" in terms of fund-raising, it was not alone.
"I acknowledge the effort of the coordinated campaign and I would say it is not a criticism, I have talked to Sen. Inouye about it and we definitely feel it was very successful," Akiba said.
"I don't see the coordinated campaign as being separate from the party," she added.
The state Campaign Spending Commission reports do not break out a difference between the Democratic Party and the coordinated campaign. The official reports show that the Democratic Party raised $1.2 million during the 2000-2002 campaign season and spent $1.1 million.
In comparison, the Republican Party raised $844,153 and spent $789,870, according to the commission's figures.
Inouye, who is starting to prepare the groundwork for a re-election campaign next year, says he will not be able to help as much as he did last year because people will misinterpret his fund-raising efforts.
"If I start a coordinated campaign now, it would be suspect, they would say I was raising it for myself," Inouye said.
Sen. Daniel Inouye
Hawaii Democratic Party