Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 00, Number 1, 1 June 1982 — THE 1982 ELECTIONS: A NEW REVOLUTION [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THE 1982 ELECTIONS: A NEW REVOLUTION

The talk around town is that the upcoming elections this fall will cause revolutionary changes in Hawaii's political structure. In 1954 Hawaii was dominated by the Republican party and the plantations. The story of the radical changes that occurred in Hawaii's political and eeonomie structure is well known amongst loeal people. Many say the most important factor was the returning home of World War II veterans from thier mainland education under th G.I. Bill. They eame back as trained lawyers, accountants and educators eager and hungry to work for a plaee for themselves. Many of them and their families had been either left out or not involved in island politics before, but they banded together to re-build the Democratic party. In that election they took control of the legislature and by the mid 60's were able to elect their ehoiee for governor. Many who have looked back at those days and those who have wrote about what happened eall it a "revolution." We ean look back at our own recent history to theelection of 1900 when Hawaiians, still the largest voting population, organized to vote for the Home Rule party led by Robert Wilcox. He was a Hawaiian who was later elected as Hawaii's first delegate to Congress. This was especially significant since his election followed the aftermath of the overthrow of Queen Liliuokalani and the annexation of Hawaii. Today we are at a similar moment in history. Although the monarchy will not be restored, the dignity and confidence of the Ha waiian people is in the process of being restored through the Hawaiian renaissance and the democratic election of the OH A trustees. All of this is occuring at a time when Hawaii's political circle is experiencing a radical upheavel because of the recent reapportionment. Reapportionment occurred because the population in Hawaii not only grew but people have move all around the state. A State commission was appointed and they proposed a new plan, but it was challenged in court. A Federal three judge panel threw it out for being unconstitutional and they appointed a group of "masters" to go back to the drawing board maps. The masters proposed three plans and recommended their second plan. What they proposed has never been done here in Hawaii, and it took most legislators and politicians by surprize. We have been so use to the idea of what is known as a "multi-county" state legislature, that is we have had 27 House districts with 2 members per district and 8 Sen-

atorial districts with 4 members per district. Now, these members could have been a combination of Democrats and Republicans or whatever. What the masters' plan does is to create "single member" districts with 51 legislators from individual districts and 25 members in the Senate. Furthermore, since the masters could not get the numbers of people to match nicely on eaeh island, they have proposed that one House district include parts of a neighboring island. This also happens in the Senate. House district 49 will have parts of Kauai (Kapaa to Haena) and parts of Oahu (Waianae to Kaena). The Senate district 3 will have parts of Maui (East Maui) and parts of Hawaii (Hamakua and North Kohala). This all menas that we, for the first time, are going to be electing legislators who will be representing smaller areas, closer to our homes. It also means that they are going to have to be more responsible to those who elect them too! The new plans also eall for the creation of some new districts. This has meant for some current legislators that they might have to oppose one another in the upcoming election. Some have announced that they would rather seek higher office, move addresses, or retire than fight. For example, there is a new House district in Waimanalo whieh has left Representative Sakamoto of the old district now living in the area where Representative Anderson also lives. This has opened the way for new faces to be seen in the political arena. And hopefully the elections will be less expensive in smaller areas. Another interesting development to those akamai with loeal politics is the free-for-all growing in the gubernatorial race. It has started out with all the shape of a classical loeal race. There are presently three strong candidates with the possibility of another coming in. There is one running as an independent. This race strongly reminds some oldtimers of the Wilson-Fasi-Blaisdell race for the mayor of Honolulu sometime ago. The governor's race should attract alot of voters who hardly get involved during the election time. All in all the primary and general elections point to the possibilities that there maybe some deep changes - revolution? - during election time this year. Since the registration drive and the 1980 special eleetion of trustees for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, there are approximately some 54,000 Hawaiian voters in the State. The upcoming elections are of even more interest to these voters. In the regular elections, primary and general,

such a huge number of voters, sometimes called block voting, cannot be ignored by candidates. They will no doubt be promising alot and that opens the opportunity for Hawaiians and Hawaiian organizations to shop around for candidates to support. The past experiences of the last legislative session have demonstrated to this Office the need to have sympathic politicans at all levels of government in the coming years if we want to effectively carry out any policies and programs for the betterment of the community. lt was most unfortunate that the monies requested of the legislature for the development and implementation of programs were denied after OHA had done its homework by establishing an office and planning programs. Hawaiian voters will have to consider at least seven trustee positions open at the special election in November. Some present trustees may be running again, others may be seeking public office, and others may retire. It may be that we will see new faces seeking the trusteeship along with some familiar ones, and perhaps a field of candidates as large as two years ago. Who knows? What we do know is the need for Hawaiians to be involved in the political process. It may be going out to hold signs, registering people to vote, going door-to-door, holding a neighborhood coffee or brown bag hour for a candidate, but the easiest thing to do is to register and vote! The "revolutions" of '54 and 1900 occurred because there were people who participated, perhaps not by running into the streets, but by just going out to vote. lt is even easier for Hawaiians to register to vote for the upcoming elections by registering for OH A whieh will automatically get you on the other election lists. However, it doesn't work the other way around.