Tamayo’s political standing
awaits legal clarification
Active duty could keep the isle
soldier from serving in the House
Hawaii state and military officials said they are not planning to request that Rep. Tulsi Gabbard Tamayo be removed either from office or as a candidate for re-election despite a Defense Department directive that indicates she cannot serve both in the Legislature and on active duty.
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Although the 23-year-old freshman Democrat had volunteered for active duty, once she was activated and given military orders, she was no longer under the command of the state's National Guard, she was in the U.S. Army, according to Guard spokesman Maj. Charles Anthony.
"The Guard does not have any interest in this. On Monday, Rep. Tamayo became Spc. Tamayo, and she is no longer a soldier in the Hawaii National Guard," Anthony said.
Asked if the Guard would attempt to restrict Tamayo from either serving as a legislator or being a candidate for re-election, Anthony said, "No."
"The Hawaii National Guard is not going to restrict anything," he said.
At the same time, Republican Gov. Linda Lingle acknowledged yesterday that she has not investigated the matter and told reporters that she did not plan to request Tamayo to leave office.
Lingle added that her administration did not plan to investigate the legality of Tamayo remaining in office or running for re-election in the face of an apparently contradictory Defense Department directive.
"I would expect only if the Office of Elections or the state House made a request of the attorney general, then I am certain he would deal with it," Lingle said. "We won't be making any request to them."
At issue is whether Tamayo can both remain in the Army and the Legislature and also campaign for re-election while serving in Iraq.
A new Defense Department directive, which Anthony said is a clarification of long-standing policy, prohibits members of the armed services from serving in partisan public offices if their military duty is for more than 270 days. Anthony said the directive "would seem to indicate that you cannot be a full-time soldier and a legislator."
"However, there seem to be some caveats in it, so it also seems that a person could remain on the ballot as long as they do not campaign or perform the duties of elected officials if it interferes with her military mission," Anthony said.
Tamayo had said she interpreted the directive to mean she could continue to serve in the Legislature and that if elected could serve in the 2005-2006 Legislature.
Anthony said Tamayo or someone else could ask for a legal opinion, but it was not clear if the request would be handled by a state, federal or military court.
House Speaker Calvin Say has asked attorneys to research the matter and also asked for help from military legal experts.
www.dod.state.hi.us/hiarng/
