Lingle, 53, was born in St. Louis, Missouri
and moved to California with her family at the age of 12. She
graduated from California State University, Northridge in 1975
where she got her Bachelor’s degree in Journalism.
She followed her father to Hawai‘i where she became the
P.I.O. for the Hotel Workers Union. She then moved to Molokai
where she started the Molokai Free Press, a community newspaper.
Lingle became the mayor of Maui County and after failing in her
first bid as governor in 1998, she won as the Republican candidate
for governor in 2002.
Lingle is not like most of Hawai‘i’s governors. She
is Hawai‘i’s first female governor, the first governor
in Hawai‘i of the Jewish faith and Hawai‘i’s
first Republican governor in 40 years.
Her main focus in this year’s upcoming election is public
education and Hawai‘i’s homeless issue. “I
want to have more local control over the schools so we can bring
money to the classroom,” Lingle says. “Too much money
is spent on bureaucracy. I want to get 90 cents of every dollar
to go to children in the classroom.”
At the deadline, Lingle is seen as a heavy favorite to be reelected.
Randy Iwase, 58, was the first Democrat to enter the 2006 Hawai‘i
governor’s race.
Iwase believes Lingle has addressed the homeless and education
issues but has done little to solve them. “I believe that
a governor must act to help our people. I believe that it is
not enough just to take a stand. The governor must act to make
things work,” Iwase said in a statement.
He will focus on issues of public education, the environment,
affordable housing and crime prevention during the fall campaign.
Iwase went to the University of San Francisco Law School and
worked at legal aid in San Francisco before returning to the
islands to join the state attorney general’s office in
1974. Iwase served 10 years in the State Senate and four years
on Honolulu’s City Council.
Lieutenant Governor race
Malama Solomon, 55, won the Democratic Party primary race for
lieutenant governor. The former Big Island state senator was
an ally of Iwase when they served together in the Senate, and
she co-chairs Iwase’s governor campaign.
“
I am concerned as is my good friend and colleague Randy Iwase
that the Lingle administration has been short on results and
long on publicity,” Solomon said in a statement before
the primary.
Solomon is of Hawaiian decent and was an affiliate professor
of Hawaiian Studies at University of Hawai‘i-Hilo.
Republican James R. “Duke” Aiona, Jr., Republican,
is the incumbent lieutenant governor.
Aiona was born in Honolulu and graduated from Saint Louis School.
He earned a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from
University of the Pacific in California in 1977.
Aiona took office in December 2002 as Hawai‘i’s 11th
elected lieutenant governor. He and Lingle say their main goals
are providing much-needed tax relief for residents and businesses,
increasing the affordable housing supply, addressing the homeless
problem, supporting public education, and strengthening and diversifying
the economy.
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