Thielen is type of candidate Hawaii Democrats need

The Hawaii Democratic Party did itself and voters no favor in rejecting Laura Thielen’s request to become a member in good standing so she could run for office under its banner.

Though party leaders did not explain why they said no, it seems that Thielen’s past association with Hawaii’s uber-Republican, Linda Lingle, makes her an untouchable, even though she appears to share most of their ideals. Nor does she seem to be grabbing for the big D simply to slap it next to her name on a ballot in a state where Ds ease a candidate’s way to elective office.

Thielen was first told no by the Oahu band of the party, which cited a rule that a member must be in good standing for at least six months before filing as a D candidate.

Thielen, the former director of the state Department of Land and Natural Resources and the Office of Planning under Lingle, filled out a membership card in February, about a month short of qualifying for a June candidate filing.

The Oahu group could have given her an exemption, but didn’t, so Thielen appealed to the State Central Committee. It also turned her down.

Thielen has a full resume, at various times working for the Legal Aid Society and volunteering for the Hawaii Women Lawyers, focusing on domestic violence and children’s issues.

She says she favors same-sex marriage, not something a dyed-in-the-wool Republican would admit to. She also worked in environmental law, and as the director of the land department initiated legislation to increase fines and establish civil penalties for natural resource violations. She also helped put together a public-private partnership to build fences at Kaena Point to protect native wildlife.

But she was also Lingle’s point person in the former governor’s effort to dismantle the state Department of Education and replace the Board of Education with local school boards, a proposal that did not sit well with the status-quo leadership at the state Capitol.

If Thielen had been granted the exemption, she would have set up a primary challenge against an incumbent Democratic loyalist, who squeaked by two other candidates in the 2010 primary.

Democrats have an aversion to primary fights, more so if a strong Republican runs in the general election — and talk is that Fred Hemmings, who held the Senate seat for a decade before retiring, is considering a comeback.

By the way, Thielen’s mother, state Rep. Cynthia Thielen, is a Republican, and however much the elder shuns GOP ideological nonsense for common sense, that R could not have helped the younger in her quest.

If there’s more to the rebuff than letters in the political alphabet, it may be that Thielen’s D stands for “different.” She may be someone less likely to toe the line, more likely to shake the existing state of affairs, to seek to change it. Which is what the Hawaii Democratic Party really needs at this point.

Right now, the D that once stood for its diversity and dynamic spirit is now fixed in dormancy.

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Cynthia Oi can be reached at coi@staradvertiser.com.