KEN IGE / KIGE@STARBULLETIN.COM
Gov. Linda Lingle mingled in the crowded ballroom yesterday at the start of her 50th-birthday celebration. At the Hilton Hawaiian Village's Coral Ballroom, she received so many leis that she had to offload them several times to her assistants.
Lingle collects
birthday donationsSupporters chip in
at the fund-raiser for
her future campaign
Gov. Linda Lingle turned 50 yesterday, and 2,000 friends were on hand to help sing "Happy Birthday." They also paid $100 each to help Lingle push for more Republican victories in a state controlled by the Democrats for 40 years.
Lingle gave a short talk, telling supporters:
"We are just getting warmed up. Our best years are still ahead of us."
Supporters who packed the Hilton Hawaiian Village Coral Ballroom for the low-key cocktail party seemed to agree.
Lingle's Honolulu birthday celebration was the largest gathering in a series of fund-raisers across the state this week to raise money for her political campaign.
Tuesday, she held a fund-raiser on Maui; today, she has one planned in Hilo; and a final one will be held Saturday on Kauai.
Lingle then leaves for a week on the mainland. After stopping in Los Angeles to spend three days with her parents and attend a fund-raiser hosted by billionaire David Murdock, Lingle will attend a Republican leadership meeting in Portland, Ore.
"I'm seeing a lot of Democrats here tonight," Brennon Morioka, Hawaii GOP chairman and executive director, said in an interview. "I think she has an appeal that bridges party lines."
The event drew two of the major candidates for mayor: former City Councilmen Duke Bainum and Mufi Hannemann.
Other supporters, such as Dallas Wheeler, an administrator for Office Pavilion, came to sign a 7-foot-high birthday card for Lingle.
"She is not afraid of change, that's why I like her. Nobody likes change, I don't like change, but we need it in Hawaii and she has original ideas," Wheeler said.
"She has a lot of common sense, and she is still strong and compassionate," added Shana Camanse, also of Office Pavilion.
Lingle raised and spent $5.5 million in her campaign last year, which defeated Lt. Gov. Mazie Hirono. Lingle took out a loan from City Bank for $173,000 to pay campaign debts, so the fund-raisers will go to pay off that loan, said Miriam Hellreich, who is working full time for Lingle's campaign.
Before this week's fund-raisers, Lingle held two $6,000-a-ticket fund-raisers at restaurants for 10 or so donors.
After paying off the loan, Lingle's campaign will keep the remainder of the money raised by her, according to Morioka, who said the local GOP has already taken in $600,000 this year.
The need to raise such large amounts of money worries citizen reformers such as Robin Loomis, president of the Hawaii Pro-Democracy Initiative, who said yesterday that it is almost impossible to be a political reformer and also raise major campaign funds.
"I think people have the best of intentions when they start out, but then they have to pay it back," Loomis said.
But Loomis praised Lingle, saying that as a Republican in a usually Democratic state, she is changing Hawaii. "She has done some good things, and I can't fault her so far," Loomis said.
