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Linda Lingle
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Linda Lingle (born Linda Cutter on June 4, 1953) has been Governor of Hawaii since December 2 2002. She was sworn in for a second term on December 4, 2006.
Lingle holds a number of distinctions: first Republican elected governor of Hawaii since the departure of William F. Quinn in 1962, first county mayor elected governor of Hawaii, first female governor of Hawaii, first Jewish governor of Hawaii; and the first governor of Hawaii not to have any children.
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Encyclopedia
Linda Lingle (born Linda Cutter on June 4, 1953) has been Governor of Hawaii since December 2 2002. She was sworn in for a second term on December 4, 2006.
Lingle holds a number of distinctions: first Republican elected governor of Hawaii since the departure of William F. Quinn in 1962, first county mayor elected governor of Hawaii, first female governor of Hawaii, first Jewish governor of Hawaii; and the first governor of Hawaii not to have any children. During the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York City, Lingle served as chairman of the convention during the absence of permanent chairman Dennis Hastert from the convention floor.
Prior to her gubernatorial administration, Lingle served as Maui County mayor, councilmember, and chaired the Hawaii Republican Party. On November 20, 2006, her approval rating stood at 71% with only 24% disapproval.
Early years
Born Linda Cutter in St. Louis, Missouri 1953, Lingle moved with her family to Southern California when she was 12. She graduated from Birmingham High School in Lake Balboa, California (at that time, part of Van Nuys), then received her bachelor's degree in journalism cum laude from California State University, Northridge, in 1975.
Soon after that, she followed her father to Hawaii, working first in Honolulu as a public information officer for the Teamsters and Hotel Workers Union. Later, she moved to Molokai, where she started the Molokai Free Press, a community newspaper which became a big success.
County politics
In 1980, Lingle was elected to the Maui County Council, where she served five 2-year terms. Lingle served three of those terms representing Molokai and two terms as an at-large member. Upon the 1990 retirement of Hannibal Tavares as mayor of Maui County, Lingle decided to challenge former Maui mayor and Hawai'i State Speaker of the House of Representatives Elmer Cravalho for the seat. Despite polls showing Lingle trailing far behind her Democratic opponent, Lingle proved victorious. The Honolulu Advertiser and Honolulu Star-Bulletin newspapers declared the election one of the biggest upsets in Hawai'i political history. She became the youngest person elected to the office of Maui County Mayor, at the age of 37, as well as the first woman. In 1994, Lingle easily won re-election.
Maui County, under the leadership of Mayor Lingle, implemented performance-based budgeting. Its successful passage and execution earned for Lingle the Distinguished Budget Presentation Award from the Government Finance Officers Association for four years. Mayor Lingle was also credited for attracting tourism and job growth to Maui County during a period when the state tourism industry was struggling.
1998 gubernatorial campaign
Lingle would once again attempt an upset victory, this time in pursuit of the governor's office in 1998. Barred from seeking a third term as mayor of Maui, Lingle was nominated by the Hawaii Republican Party to run against incumbent Governor Benjamin J. Cayetano. Republican party members believed that Lingle was the best shot at the office and that 1998 would probably be the only chance the party would have of ever winning. Lingle capitalized on the anger of Hawaii residents over the stagnant economy and their dissatisfaction with the strategies employed by the Democrats in attempt to solve the problem. Cayetano trailed in the media polls heading into the November election but on the evening of the election, Cayetano and Lingle were separated by a single percentage point forcing a recount. Lingle was defeated in the closest election in Hawaii history.
The state Democratic Party was accused, although there was no evidence, of launching a whisper campaign alleging that Lingle was a lesbian, and that because she was Jewish, she would abolish Christmas as a state holiday.
Republican leadership
After being defeated, Lingle was elected chair of the Hawaii Republican Party. She served from 1999 to 2002. During her tenure as party chair, Lingle overhauled party policies and gave the party a facelift she believed was needed to make the party competitive in a historically Democratic Party dominated state. Internal reforms proved successful and Lingle succeeded in electing more Republicans to seats in both houses of the Hawaii State Legislature. At the peak of Republican success, the party held 19 of the 51 seats in the state House of Representatives. Party membership grew as younger people joined. Republicans gained a more youthful appearance and had reinvented itself informally as the new GOP Hawaii. Governor Lingle is a member of The Wish List which is America's largest fundraising and campaign political action committee for Pro-choice Republican Women and The Republican Majority For Choice.
2002 gubernatorial campaign
Barred from seeking a third term, Cayetano announced his retirement from political service in 2002. Having become even more popular among Hawaii residents, Lingle was nominated as the Republican candidate for the office of Governor of Hawaii. As Hawaii Democrats nominated incumbent Lieutenant Governor Mazie K. Hirono, it was one of the few gubernatorial races in which both major candidates were women.
Lingle ran on her "Agenda for New Beginnings," a campaign platform developed to promote Republican leadership and highlight the perceived failures of the previous forty years of Democratic administration of the state. It also cited differences between Lingle's message and the previous, more conservative platforms which Hawaii Republicans had advocated.
Focusing less on her mayoral accomplishments and more on the message of reform, Lingle won the election alongside former state judge James Aiona, who became Lingle's lieutenant governor.
She took the oath of office upon a Tanakh.
First term as governor
Lingle enjoyed high approval ratings, usually around the 70% range. Lingle spent much of 2004 campaigning for state legislative candidates (the legislature has a Democratic supermajority and she wanted to have enough members to block them from overriding her vetoes) and for President George W. Bush on the "mainland" (the states outside of Hawaii and Alaska). When some polling late in the election showed Bush tied or narrowly leading Democrat John Kerry, Lingle jumped at the chance to help the Republicans carry her state for the first time since 1984. Vice President Dick Cheney even campaigned in the state. Ultimately, not only did Kerry win the state, but Republicans lost five seats in the state legislature, reducing their presence to near single-digits and causing the Democrats to consider Lingle more vulnerable than they initially expected. In spite of their new confidence, Lingle was re-elected after her 2006 re-election campaign.
In May 2004 Lingle led a delegation to Israel, paid for by the Israeli Government.
As governor, Lingle has created a record surplus of $730 million, coming from the budget's previous deficit of $250 million.. Many also credit her for leaving Hawaii with a very low unemployment rate. Like all governors, Lingle has signed a number of bills into law, including the Three Strikes Law and Sex Offender Registry Website Law.
In education, she has attempted to divide the State Board of Education into seven local school boards, but failed. One of the more controversial issues Lingle has championed is the practice of sending prisoners to the mainland, as opposed to building a new prison in Hawaii.
2006 gubernatorial election
In 2006, Governor Lingle announced her candidacy for re-election as Governor of Hawaii. In the Democratic Party, many people were speculated to run, but many of them declined, including State Senator Colleen Hanabusa, then Senate President Bobby Bunda, former Congressman Ed Case (who ran for U.S. Senate), U.S. Congressman Neil Abercrombie, and Big Island Mayor Harry Kim. Despite the difficulty of finding an opponent for Lingle, former State Senator Randy Iwase decided to run for Governor. In the primary election he easily defeated Waianae Harbormaster William Aila Jr., and ended up with former Big Island State Senator Malama Solomon as his running mate. Over the course of the campaign, Iwase was considered an underdog who had only spent $340,000, compared to Lingle's $6 million dollars; in his ads, he constantly attacked Lingle over her relationship with President Bush and yet offered no substantive proposals relating to the state government. Governor Lingle won by the largest margin in state history, 63 percent to 35 percent.
2007 Hawaii Superferry incident
In August 2007 the Hawaii Supreme Court invalidated a Lingle Appointee's exemption of the Hawaii Superferry from having to undertake an environmental assessment before operating in Hawaii waters. The Superferry is an 80 million dollar high speed ferry. Despite the Court's ruling, the ferry sailed to Kauai without an environmental assessment. It was met by protesters on surfboards who turned the ferry back to Oahu. Lingle summoned a massive police and Coast Guard response. She told Kauai protesters (in person) that they would be charged under Hawaii's anti-terrorism laws if they continued to interfere with the Superferry's operation and she was both shouted down and laughed at. Lingle sought (some argue coerced the legislature into providing) a legislative exemption from environmental law on behalf of the Superferry (known as Act Two). Several Maui groups, including the Sierra Club, Maui Tomorrow and the Kahului Harbor Coalition have challenged this law as unconstitutional, citing a violation of separation of powers, and blatant favoritism towards a single company.
2008 Drug Testing Teachers
In 2007 because of the arrests of four teachers for substance abuse, Lingle pushed a drug-testing clause into the teacher's contract just days before the union was set to vote. The clause caused quite a stir among teachers, mostly because many were torn between their civil right to privacy and a pay raise. The drug testing was approved by a margin of 62% to 38%; still the issue met more obstacles. The ACLU started preparing a class action lawsuit against Lingle, while the BOE was involved in a fight over the funding of drug testing. Apparently, after Lingle pushed through the clause, she also expected the Board of Education to pay for it. The BOE voted it down 7–0, stating, "It's just not a priority." Lingle has since threatened to withdraw the pay raises many teachers in Hawaii are getting, while the ACLU has continually stated Lingle is using fear tactics.
Family life
Lingle was married and divorced twice. She married her first husband, Charles Lingle, while in college, in 1972. Upon leaving California for Hawaii, she divorced him in 1975 but kept the Lingle name. During her term as mayor of Maui County, Lingle divorced her second husband, Maui attorney William Crockett, to whom she was married from 1986 to 1997. Lingle is currently single and does not have any children.
Her uncle founded the Cutter Ford car dealerships in Hawaii.
Electoral history
See also
External links
- official state website
- Follow the Money - Linda Lingle
- Maui No Ka 'Oi Magazine Vol.7 No.1 (April 2003).
- Article about ten most important people in 2008 Maui politics. (Lingle is featured on page 6) Maui No Ka 'Oi Magazine Vol. 12 No.3 (May 2008).
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