Candidates tell stories of their hardscrabble past

Remember former Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann’s colossal political blunder during his race against Gov. Neil Abercrombie in 2010?

Hannemann put out a brochure comparing himself to the former Democratic congressman. Instead of keeping it on the issues, Hannemann let his brochure become a personal attack, pointing out the last names of their wives, noting that Hannemann went to Harvard, while Abercrombie was a University of Hawaii grad.

It will go down in local campaign history as one of the great misreadings of local spirit and ethos, which is much more nuanced than just ticking off your awards and honors.

For Hannemann, the damage was done and within a week he was forced to use the opening statement in a televised debate to announce he was pulling the brochure and going on the "let me clarify my remarks" trail.

Abercrombie, who in three decades of politics had learned how to drive an opening, immediately became the victim, forced to defend his wife, his alma mater and his long record of public service.

Now former Rep. Ed Case, in his uphill Democratic senate primary campaign against Rep. Mazie Hirono, reports what he considers a similar attack by Hirono.

"Folks recognized Compare and Decide from the ’10 Governor campaign as an attempt to fan the fires of division and prejudice to divert voters from what really counted. Are you trying to do the same?" Case asks in a open letter to Hirono.

Case is upset because Hirono sent an email to supporters that included a quote from an unnamed supporter:

"As one supporter recently said, ‘Mazie is the only candidate in this race that has overcome real challenges, the only candidate who knows how important a strong ohana is for success.’"

Hirono’s mistake was to say "only," and Case pounded hard to make a point.

"Your ohana comment is just plain offensive. Are you saying your ohana is somehow better than mine, or that you appreciate them more than I do mine?" asks Case.

He continues to hammer away, saying, "Sure, where we came from and who we are is one part of the decision facing voters. But it looks like that’s all your candidacy is about."

Hirono’s statement may have been politically tone deaf, but not fatal. A Hirono spokeswoman described Case’s reaction as a misinterpretation of "the kind words one of our supporters expressed about Mazie’s inspirational personal story."

Case came from a fairly well-off kamaaina family. Hirono’s story is America’s great saga of an impoverished immigrant, struggling for a better life in America.

Hirono’s story is also not unknown; she has made it a central part of her campaigns for more than a decade.

"MAZIE’S UNIQUE STORY: Mazie would be a people’s senator — a leader who comes from humble beginnings, and has overcome difficult obstacles," declares the opening of her campaign web site.

Tough early years are not exclusive to Democrats. One of the Republican candidates, former Gov. Linda Lingle, also had a tough time of it. When asked about Case’s objections to Hirono’s statement, Lingle said she had been thinking the same thing.

"My reaction is similar to Ed’s, but our backgrounds are different. Because of her comments, my own situation struck me right away," Lingle said in an interview.

"I haven’t made an issue of it, but I know I am different because of it," Lingle says of living with her mother, who suffered from severe mental illness.

"I have a special feeling for mental illness and its effects … after seeing your mother taken from your home in a straitjacket, because people didn’t know or understand what to do back then and then to say you are the only one who knows what it is like to have a hard time …," Lingle said.

Lingle lived in five different homes while she was a teenager. Her parents divorced, she lived with her mother until she couldn’t care for her, then with her father, then her father and his new wife, then her grandparents, then finally an uncle and aunt who saw her through to high school graduation.

"All of it made me who I am. My high school years were not stellar, but I got into a good state university," says Lingle, who graduated cum laude from California State University-Northridge in 1975.

Now Hawaii voters will decide how to separate a candidate’s backstory from the voters own needs for hope in the future.

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Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Reach him at rborreca@staradvertiser.com.