Public TV chief is isles’ top Dem
Delegates end their convention facing the possibility of four more years of Lingle
As the final note of their three-day state convention, Democrats elected former state Sen. and PBS-Hawaii President and CEO Mike McCartney as party chairman.
McCartney, who has been absent from regular party politics for the last five years while he worked with public television, says he is coming back to a changed party.
"The people who were here today weren't about trying to get a governor elected or re-elected.
"These people here today really believe in the party, and there was no real push like in the old days when everybody got behind the incumbent governor and the room was filled with people supporting the governor," McCartney said.
McCartney was referring to the years of political patronage that had gone with the Democrats when they controlled state government. Now that a Republican runs the state, the patronage has switched to the Republicans.
The Democrats, who have controlled a majority of federal, state and county legislative seats since statehood in 1959, are facing the fall elections with the chance to lose the governorship for two elections in a row.
The two Democrats running for governor in the primary election are former state Sen. and city Councilman Randy Iwase and Waianae state Harbormaster William Aila.
Aila had the convention's attention yesterday as he told the delegates he had supported Republican Gov. Linda Lingle in 1998.
"I apologize," Aila said.
While the Democrats had 613 delegates at the end of their three-day convention at the Hilton Hawaiian Village, down the road at the Waikiki Sheraton, the Republicans were wrapping up their own three-day convention with more delegates, 653.
And while the Democrats had many of the party faithful, the large number of state executives seen during the years of Democratic governorship were absent.
The state executives this year were at the GOP convention.
Included in the Republican convention, which supporters said was dedicated to Gov. Linda Lingle's re-election, was much of her Cabinet, including the heads of the state departments of Budget, Accounting and General Services, Land and Natural Resources and Agriculture, and Attorney General Mark Bennett, plus several members of Lingle's corps of senior advisers.
Over at the Democratic convention, McCartney was saying that his party had "nowhere to go but up."
"This is a great opportunity. People have to adjust and so do the political parties. The world is changing and so are the parties," McCartney said.
Before the Democrats can get on with challenging the GOP this year, they have to get through several difficult primary elections. The biggest and most divisive is the race between incumbent U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka and U.S. Rep. Ed Case.
On Saturday the establishment wing of the party, led by U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye, put itself behind Akaka's re-election. Because of strong opposition to the war in Iraq, Akaka is also benefiting from support from the so-called progressive wing of the party.
Case, however, is attempting to carve out a position as a fiscal moderate and social liberal. But yesterday, Rep. Neil Abercrombie launched into a 27-minute speech that condemned the moderate Democrat, saying, "It really means, Why can't you just imitate the Republicans?"
McCartney recognized the looming fight and said it is to be expected.
"The Democratic Party has a tradition of debate and dialogue and discourse, but we all come together in the end," McCartney said.
"We have always had tough primaries, and then we let the people decide," McCartney said.
