---

Tight reins and
butting heads
at the Capitol

Tax Director Kurt Kawafuchi hunkers down on a koa bench in the state Capitol and stares at his cell phone. "I'm expecting a call from the governor; she wants to know what's happening," Kawafuchi says.

Across the way another key assistant to Gov. Linda Lingle dashes out of a committee hearing and punches the buttons on his phone.

"She likes minute-by-minute updates," the aide says.

Cell phones are not the only way that the governor keeps in touch. On her Web page, www.hawaii.gov/gov, Lingle runs a clock counting down the days, hours, minutes and seconds left before the Legislature's May 5 adjournment. She keeps a list of bills she wants action on, and she easily commands attention from the news media on her issues.

It is her cabinet members and aides, however, who will make or break her legislative agenda. As one Democratic observer says, "It is about time they took off the 'Trainee' buttons."

By and large, that has happened. Legislators report that they are dealing with know-ledgeable cabinet heads, even if some of them don't agree with liberal Democratic lawmakers.

Veteran Maui Democrat Rep. Joe Souki notes that if previous Democratic administrations had an easier time because of a shared philosophy with the lawmakers, the GOP administration is working on it.

"They are trying to develop their own personal relationship," Souki said.

On one level there has been some success. Lingle saw two of her cabinet heads, Kathleen Watanabe, state personnel director, and Rick Bissen, public safety director, confirmed as state judges this year.

But on another level there is a divide as big as Waimea Canyon separating the legislative and executive branches.

Senate President Robert Bunda says, "We still have many problems with how information gets from the administration to the Legislature."

One Lingle special assistant who knows the process is former Rep. David Pendleton. The success or failure of an administration bill is not about personal relationships, the four-term veteran says.

"You know the bills and you know the process, but there is still a learning curve in figuring out what bills to focus on," Pendleton says.

Souki says there is a philosophical clash between liberal legislators, especially "some of the younger ones," and the Lingle appointees.

And, he adds, some cabinet officials, such as Attorney General Mark Bennett, "are personally very conservative."

The result is a tension that, depending on the operatives, is either partisan and political or a deep philosophical division. So far we have seen the first half of that divide, as the Legislature refuses to deal with or defers many Lingle proposals.

The second round comes later this month when Lingle responds with what is expected to be her own round of vetoes.