HONOLULU — The Republican wave that swept the country didn’t quite make it to Hawaii.
Despite the best effort of the GOP — and its deep pockets — Republicans’ much vaunted efforts fell flat in an overwhelmingly blue state. In fact, Hawaii was the only staunchly Democratic state that didn’t see Republicans make any inroads.
The wave of red stopped at Waikiki Beach, said Pat Saiki, the chairwoman of the Hawaii Republican Party.
The GOP lost races for governor, U.S. senator and both of the state’s congressional seats. Republicans did add one seat in the state House, bringing their total in the 51-seat chamber to eight.
At least what happened nationally, with Republicans gaining a majority in the Senate, “kind of soothes the pain,” Saiki said.
Rebecca Ward, president of Honolulu polling firm Ward Research, said 60 percent of voters the company surveys generally say they usually vote Democrat.
On the other hand, only 22 percent say they usually vote Republican. Eighteen percent say it doesn’t matter what party candidates represent, they vote for the person.
This, Ward said, illustrates why Republicans didn’t do better on the islands.
She attributed the Democratic Party’s strength to its history of connecting with the middle class and empowering the disenfranchised since Hawaii became a state in 1959.
Republicans, meanwhile, are still associated with the big land and plantation owners who dominated the state during territorial days, Ward said. The remnants of that image remain, even though people no longer talk about the “Big Five” land holding companies.
“There are a lot of moderate Democrats in this state that might be Republican in other states, but you put an ‘R’ behind your name and there’s still a stigma here,” Ward said.
Saiki had hoped voters would see the value of sending a Republican to Congress so Hawaii’s delegation wouldn’t be entirely of people from the minority party. The message didn’t get through as well as she would have liked, she said.
Sam Slom, the GOP’s sole state senator, said the power and clout of unions hurt the party, as did the Republicans’ own failure to field candidates for many seats in the Legislature.
Republicans also need to aggressively define themselves, instead of allowing others to define them.
He said it was a “tactical error of major proportions” for the Republican candidate for governor, James “Duke” Aiona, to not respond to attacks regarding his stance on abortion and his role in cost-cutting measures that closed public schools on “Furlough Fridays” during former Gov. Linda Lingle’s administration.
Saiki said the Republican Party can offer fresh, innovative ideas to old problems such as the high cost of food, housing and gasoline and high taxes. Democrats can’t resolve these problems because of their connections with big business, unions and other special interests, Saiki said.
Stephanie Ohigashi, chairwoman of the Democratic Party of Hawaii, said the Republicans have to share some of the responsibility for the high costs, as they held the governor’s office for eight years under Lingle.
“While the offer for fresh ideas and innovative concepts is admirable, nobody is electing their team. And they elected mine,” she said.
Saiki, who took over leadership of the party in March, said the party needs to groom young leaders to prepare them to run for office and be elected.
“We have to do some self-examination, but we can do that,” she said. “It’s for the sake of the people that we care about — it is an obligation for us to provide competition for the political world here in Hawaii.”
