By PETER SUR By PETER SUR ADVERTISING Tribune-Herald staff writer Former Gov. Linda Lingle mingled among her East Hawaii supporters at the opening of her Hilo headquarters. Tuesday evening, on a day that her opponents for the U.S. Senate spent
By PETER SUR
Tribune-Herald staff writer
Former Gov. Linda Lingle mingled among her East Hawaii supporters at the opening of her Hilo headquarters.
Tuesday evening, on a day that her opponents for the U.S. Senate spent tangling at a candidate forum in Honolulu, Lingle untied a maile lei, posed for pictures with friends and blew out the candles on a large cake.
At the former Island Chevrolet car lot, a crowd roughly estimated at 150 or more listened to Lingle, a Republican, tell her supporters how she would represent one of the bluest states in the country. Dinner for the first of five “birthday bash” fundraisers” was a $25 plate lunch with rice, corn, cole slaw and teriyaki chicken.
Lingle is trying to be a rare creature in the Senate — a moderate Republican in the mold of Maine Sen. Susan Collins — who would not be beholden to Senate Republican leaders or a president of either party.
If there’s legislation that hurts Hawaii, “I’m not supporting President Obama and I’m not going to support Mitt Romney,” she said.
Lingle’s comments came on a day when her Democratic Party rivals Ed Case and Mazie Hirono, plus Republican John Carroll, addressed the Hawaii Lodging and Tourism Association.
The former governor, for her part, said her top priority as a U.S. senator would be jobs and the economy.
“There’s just too much red tape in government. It’s making it so difficult for businesses to operate and hire people,” Lingle said, calling for tax and tort reform.
“In order to get our economy moving, I feel we need to take greater advantage of parts of the world where people are just dying to come here and visit, but they’re having a hard time.”
Lingle pushed her proposal for a Senate subcommittee on tourism to address visa delays for visitors from China and other countries. She also wants to create advisory councils similar to the neighbor island councils that were created when Lingle was governor.
“One of the candidates on the other side says you should vote for them because they’ll do whatever President Obama wants,” Lingle said, prompting laughs and scattered boos. “And my response to that is, I do not what’s good for Barack Obama or Mitt Romney. I do what’s good for the people of Hawaii. That’s who I work for. That’s who I represent.”
“If President Obama has an idea and I think it’s good for the people of Hawaii, I’ll be supporting it. But if he has an idea that I don’t think is for us, I’ll explain why I’m not going to support it, if he is there after this election,” Lingle said.
The other argument against electing Lingle to the Senate, she said, was one raised by Case. According to him, if the Republicans take a majority in the Senate, then Inouye loses his chairmanship of the powerful Appropriations Committee.
That’s true, Lingle said, but she added that if the Republican Party controls the Senate and if Lingle loses, then Hawaii will have lost its stake in the Senate majority.
Hawaii’s congressional delegation should have a Republican and a Democrat, she said.
“We need a foot in both camps at all times. It just makes sense,” she said, describing her willingness to break with the party leadership over her support of the Akaka bill granting federal recognition to native Hawaiians.
She closed her remarks with comments on the federal deficit, and cited her record as governor in closing a $3 billion deficit in 18 months.
“I had to make some very difficult decisions, including furloughing of government employees. We had to lay people off. … We got through that very difficult period without further burdening people with taxes, while maintaining the good credit of the state of Hawaii.
Lingle’s next birthday bash will be this evening in Kailua-Kona.
Email Peter Sur at psur@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
