GOP convention upbeat; Lingle looks to fall vote
GOP convention upbeat; Lingle looks to fall vote
- - Maui News
By BRUCE DUNFORD, The Associated Press
HONOLULU - Don't be surprised if Republican Gov. Linda Lingle shows up at your door in the next five months, looking for votes for GOP candidates for the Legislature, where she hopes to change the political environment in her favor.
"Absolutely, I've done it before,'' Lingle said Saturday when asked it she'd be going door-to-door in the effort to replace majority Democrats in the House and Senate with Republicans so she can take big steps instead of "baby steps'' in addressing the state's problems.
Getting more Republicans in the House, where they are outnumbered 36-15, and the Senate, 20-5, was the focus of the three-day state Republican Party convention at the Sheraton-Waikiki Hotel.
Maui Rep. Kika Bukoski said he was taken by surprise by the quality of candidates that lined up to challenge incumbent Democrats in the Nov. 2 General Election "because I'm on the recruiting committee."
"This morning we had a parade of candidates and Governor Lingle said a few words that made the atmosphere here very, very upbeat, very positive," the two-term Upcountry representative said.
"I was really pleasantly surprised at the number of candidates that have filed or committed to run today. They are very, very viable candidates, solid candidates."
The highlight might have been the announcement by a former Vietnam prisoner of war, Navy Capt. Gerald Coffee, on Friday that he would seek the state House 33rd District seat held by Democrat Blake Oshiro. The Aiea-Halawa district includes the Pearl Harbor and Fort Shafter military communities.
Other well-established Republicans have also committed to legislative races, including former Kauai Mayor Maryanne Kusaka, who will challenge Kauai Sen. Gary Hooser for the 7th Senate District seat.
The enthusiasm at Saturday's meeting was dulled briefly when convention Co-Chairman Sam Aiona announced the death of former President Ronald Reagan, calling for a moment of silence by the delegates and guests.
Lingle delivered a nearly hour-long address to the convention, starting off with a defense of President Bush's international and domestic records against last week's attack during the Democratic Party's convention at the same hotel.
"As each of you go out to support our president's re-election, I want to help distinguish the Democrat rhetoric from the reality,'' said Lingle, who heads the Bush re-election campaign in Hawaii.
Bush is fighting the war on terror, in the process liberating 50 million people in Iraq and Afghanistan, and she declared, "He has liberated women who are treated no better than pack animals in those countries.''
As for criticism of Bush's decision to invade Iraq on claims of evidence that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, Lingle said, "If he had waited for 100 percent proof, by definition, it would have been too late. Our nation would have been at risk.''
She defended Bush's No Child Left Behind education program, which she said has led to dramatic improvements in student achievement scores nationwide.
"In Hawaii, the school system can no longer write off the children in Kalihi, or Waianae, or Puna, or Lihue, or Kahului,'' Lingle said. "They can no longer make excuses that we can't expect any more of these children in these neighborhoods because their parents are poor, because they speak English as a second language, or because they come from certain ethnic groups. Excuses are no longer allowed under No Child Left Behind.''
The governor said the Bush administration's tax policies have seen a strong economy getting stronger, generating 248,000 new jobs in May with unemployment dropping.
"I need to enlist you in this campaign to win our state for the president. I need you to be the ambassadors of truth throughout every neighborhood in the state,'' she said. "You would be armed with the facts, you would focus on the reality and not the rhetoric.''
Lingle outlined her 18-month-old administration's successes and criticized what she said was the failure of the Legislature to reform education and workers' compensation, encourage private investments, and help law enforcement go after drug dealers with wiretaps and walk-and-talk investigations of potential suspects.
"We had a chance to make great strides, but they only wanted to take baby steps,'' she said. "They didn't give us the walk-and-talk law that we wanted, the wiretap law that we wanted, but they gave ice (crystal methamphetamine) users a get-out-of-jail-free card.
"If someone burglarizes your home, as long as they have an ice pipe in their pocket, they will not face the consequences of that burglary,'' Lingle said. "That is simply wrong, and it's out of step with the people in our state.''
Bukoski said the convention delegates were warned that Hawaii Democrats will seek to taint Republicans in local races with Bush's slipping ratings, but Lingle said she would welcome the attempt.
"She provided solid, concrete examples of why he's been doing a great job," he said. "Although I don't support all of his initiatives, I honestly have to say he's been doing a great job, under the circumstances.
"It's easy to sit back in the passenger seat and criticize somebody who's driving, and challenge the decisions that have to made at the time they have to be made."
Beyond the speeches, the convention also included workshops on developing the grassroots campaign that will be needed to win more seats in the Legislature as well as winning the state for Bush.
"I think it's something that's doable," Bukoski said.
"It's pretty upbeat, and people are getting the message that it's a do-or-die year for Hawaii. I think one of the interesting things that was raised is that 50 years ago was when the Democrats turned around the political control of Hawaii, and we're talking 50 years later and the pendulum is swinging."
Saturday's convention agenda concluded with a banquet with the keynote address by Rich Galen, a prominent GOP strategist and the Bush administration's point man for the media in Iraq over the past six months.
The Maui News contributed to this story.
- - Maui News
By BRUCE DUNFORD, The Associated Press
HONOLULU - Don't be surprised if Republican Gov. Linda Lingle shows up at your door in the next five months, looking for votes for GOP candidates for the Legislature, where she hopes to change the political environment in her favor.
"Absolutely, I've done it before,'' Lingle said Saturday when asked it she'd be going door-to-door in the effort to replace majority Democrats in the House and Senate with Republicans so she can take big steps instead of "baby steps'' in addressing the state's problems.
Getting more Republicans in the House, where they are outnumbered 36-15, and the Senate, 20-5, was the focus of the three-day state Republican Party convention at the Sheraton-Waikiki Hotel.
Maui Rep. Kika Bukoski said he was taken by surprise by the quality of candidates that lined up to challenge incumbent Democrats in the Nov. 2 General Election "because I'm on the recruiting committee."
"This morning we had a parade of candidates and Governor Lingle said a few words that made the atmosphere here very, very upbeat, very positive," the two-term Upcountry representative said.
"I was really pleasantly surprised at the number of candidates that have filed or committed to run today. They are very, very viable candidates, solid candidates."
The highlight might have been the announcement by a former Vietnam prisoner of war, Navy Capt. Gerald Coffee, on Friday that he would seek the state House 33rd District seat held by Democrat Blake Oshiro. The Aiea-Halawa district includes the Pearl Harbor and Fort Shafter military communities.
Other well-established Republicans have also committed to legislative races, including former Kauai Mayor Maryanne Kusaka, who will challenge Kauai Sen. Gary Hooser for the 7th Senate District seat.
The enthusiasm at Saturday's meeting was dulled briefly when convention Co-Chairman Sam Aiona announced the death of former President Ronald Reagan, calling for a moment of silence by the delegates and guests.
Lingle delivered a nearly hour-long address to the convention, starting off with a defense of President Bush's international and domestic records against last week's attack during the Democratic Party's convention at the same hotel.
"As each of you go out to support our president's re-election, I want to help distinguish the Democrat rhetoric from the reality,'' said Lingle, who heads the Bush re-election campaign in Hawaii.
Bush is fighting the war on terror, in the process liberating 50 million people in Iraq and Afghanistan, and she declared, "He has liberated women who are treated no better than pack animals in those countries.''
As for criticism of Bush's decision to invade Iraq on claims of evidence that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, Lingle said, "If he had waited for 100 percent proof, by definition, it would have been too late. Our nation would have been at risk.''
She defended Bush's No Child Left Behind education program, which she said has led to dramatic improvements in student achievement scores nationwide.
"In Hawaii, the school system can no longer write off the children in Kalihi, or Waianae, or Puna, or Lihue, or Kahului,'' Lingle said. "They can no longer make excuses that we can't expect any more of these children in these neighborhoods because their parents are poor, because they speak English as a second language, or because they come from certain ethnic groups. Excuses are no longer allowed under No Child Left Behind.''
The governor said the Bush administration's tax policies have seen a strong economy getting stronger, generating 248,000 new jobs in May with unemployment dropping.
"I need to enlist you in this campaign to win our state for the president. I need you to be the ambassadors of truth throughout every neighborhood in the state,'' she said. "You would be armed with the facts, you would focus on the reality and not the rhetoric.''
Lingle outlined her 18-month-old administration's successes and criticized what she said was the failure of the Legislature to reform education and workers' compensation, encourage private investments, and help law enforcement go after drug dealers with wiretaps and walk-and-talk investigations of potential suspects.
"We had a chance to make great strides, but they only wanted to take baby steps,'' she said. "They didn't give us the walk-and-talk law that we wanted, the wiretap law that we wanted, but they gave ice (crystal methamphetamine) users a get-out-of-jail-free card.
"If someone burglarizes your home, as long as they have an ice pipe in their pocket, they will not face the consequences of that burglary,'' Lingle said. "That is simply wrong, and it's out of step with the people in our state.''
Bukoski said the convention delegates were warned that Hawaii Democrats will seek to taint Republicans in local races with Bush's slipping ratings, but Lingle said she would welcome the attempt.
"She provided solid, concrete examples of why he's been doing a great job," he said. "Although I don't support all of his initiatives, I honestly have to say he's been doing a great job, under the circumstances.
"It's easy to sit back in the passenger seat and criticize somebody who's driving, and challenge the decisions that have to made at the time they have to be made."
Beyond the speeches, the convention also included workshops on developing the grassroots campaign that will be needed to win more seats in the Legislature as well as winning the state for Bush.
"I think it's something that's doable," Bukoski said.
"It's pretty upbeat, and people are getting the message that it's a do-or-die year for Hawaii. I think one of the interesting things that was raised is that 50 years ago was when the Democrats turned around the political control of Hawaii, and we're talking 50 years later and the pendulum is swinging."
Saturday's convention agenda concluded with a banquet with the keynote address by Rich Galen, a prominent GOP strategist and the Bush administration's point man for the media in Iraq over the past six months.
The Maui News contributed to this story.
posted by DP at 10:00 PM
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