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eFeatureNovember
16 , 2002
The 2002 General Election And Filipino Candidates
November 5th may have been a historic General
Election day for the State of Hawaii with former Maui Mayor
Linda Lingle's victory in the Governor's race over Lieutenant
Governor Mazie Hirono. But this election also
demonstrated the power of the Filipino vote in the state and
the growth of Filipino candidates and politicians.
This growth can be seen in the number of
Filipino candidates vying for office. Of an estimated 37 Filipino
candidates including incumbent politicians who ran in the September
21st Primary Election, at least 16 officeseekers survived past
the General Election.
The Filipino Vote was one of the major,
though unheralded, stories of the General Election. Lingle's
courting of Hawaii's Filipino community appears to have paid
off for her on November 5th with her ascendance to the Governor's
office. The HAWAII FILIPINO CHRONICLE spoke to three Filipino
candidates-Melanie Aduja, Lynn Berbano Finnegan and Donovan
Dela Cruz-who successfully won election to the State Legislature
and Honolulu City Council to provide
a first hand look at the increase in Filipino candidates.
First let's examine the election results of Nov. 5 before moving
on.
TALE OF THE TAPE
Linda Lingle saw her goal of becoming
the first female Governor of Hawaii bloom into reality on Tuesday,
Nov. 5 when she earned 51.1 percent of the total statewide vote
or 193,609 ballots cast in her favor compared to Mazie Hirono's
46.6 percent or 176,483 votes. Lingle
and her running mate, former Judge James "Duke" Aiona
took
most of the counties in the state compared to Hirono and her
running mate, State Legislator Matt Matsunaga.
Lingle and Aiona garnered 52.4 percent (138, 684) of the Oahu
vote compared to Hirono and Matsunaga's 45.6 percent (120, 771).
Lingle also beat Hirono on the Big
Island 50.7 percent (25,305) to 46.9 percent (23,414) and her
political base on Maui remained firm as Lingle gained another
victory over Hirono 50 percent (20, 194) to 46.9 percent (18,946).
Kauai proved to be the only island and county where Lingle faltered.
Hirono won the Garden Island by a margin of 56.9 percent (13,
352) to Lingle's 40.2 percent (9,426).
However, this victory could not make up for the losses for Hirono
on all the other islands.
The final results for governor are
interesting in light of the differing campaign approaches taken
by the candidates up to election day.
Hirono concentrated on campaigning
on the neighbor islands while Lingle remained on Oahu, concentrating
her efforts there. Despite Hirono's last ditch for an outer
island swing, the neighbor island votes largely went Lingle's
way. It seems that Lingle's decision to canvas for votes on
Oahu may have worked in her favor.
Also worth noting were the three
proposed constitutional amendments, known as Constitutional
Questions, that made it onto this year ballots. All three proposals
passed.
Constitutional Question #1, which
would require potential candidates to live in the Legislative
District that they plan
to run in by the day they register, passed by big numbers. 83.9
percent (317, 726) of voters marked Yes on their ballots in
favor of the proposal compared to 9.1 percent (34, 537) who
voted No. Constitutional Question #2, which would allow private
schools to make use of special revenue bonds issued by the state
to pay for repair and
construction on facilities on campuses, succeeded with the aye's
grabbing 59.7 percent (226,079) to the nays 32.9 percent (124,
601).
Constitutional Amendment #3 would
allow City and State prosecutors to bypass the Grand Jury and
Preliminary hearing in favor of information charging (affidavits
and
other forms of evidence brought directly before a judge). This
proposal passed 57.3 percent (217,163) to 31.8 percent (120,613).
Incumbent Comgresswoman Patsy Mink who passed away before the
General Election won "re-election" in death by outpolling
Republican Bob McDermott 52 percent (99,127) to 37.1 percent
(70, 647) in the
Second Congressional District (which includes the outer islands).
Libertarian Jeff Mallan was third in the race with 2.5 percent
(4,670) of the vote and Natural Law party candidate Nicholas
Bedworth came in last with 1.1 percent (2,183) of the vote.
Two special elections will have to
be held at the end of November and in January to fill first
the remainder of Mink's current term and then to determine who
will serve the new two-year term.
If exhibit goers cannot seem to
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