Hawai`i Reporter Lists Fatal Mistakes -
Political observers noted several fatal mistakes Hawaii’s top elected officials made in their campaign to get the Akaka Bill through.
- They disregarded the public’s lack of support for the measure and concerned themselves only with recruiting endorsements from Hawaii’s top political leaders.
- They authored legislation that would divide rather than unite, the state’s non-Hawaiian and native Hawaiian communities.
- They seriously misjudged the influence that Gov. Linda Lingle has in swaying Republican Senators and President George W. Bush in favor of the Akaka Bill.
- Gov. Lingle, Senators say, confided that the Akaka Bill would help Republicans politically in Hawaii -- including her own campaign for governor or U.S. Senate in the future. They, for the most part, did not believe her because the legislation was introduced by a Democrat and does not sit well with the Republican or conservative agendas.
- They underestimated their opponents and personally attacked them rather than addressed their statements with convincing arguments and facts.
- They overestimated the power of government over the power of the people.
- They underestimated the negative reaction mainlanders would have once sunshine was put on the true implications of the bill through more than 50 nationally published opeds and stories.
- Rather than grassroots support, they believed the money they spent lobbying for the bill, buying support from conservatives, advertising dollars spent by the millions to buy off media, and public relations campaigns they ran to promote the bill, would manipulate Hawai`i residents into believing that the Akaka Bill is the best legislation for Hawai`i.
- They believed secrecy in the negotiations of the final language of the bill was more effective than open negotiations. It wasn’t, as the closed-door negotiations only raised suspicions of opponents.
