Bush Schedules Hawaii Visit

Every Sunday, “Back in the Day” looks at an article that ran on this date in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. The items are verbatim, so don’t blame us today for yesteryear’s bad grammar.

Republican presidential hopeful George Bush will be the featured guest at a $25-per-person fund-raising event Dec. 28 to be held on the cruise boat “Hawaii State.”

Bush, 54, will be here for two days next week with one of his five sons, 26-year-old Jeb, to see how many GOP convention votes he can round up from the state’s Republican Party.

Hawaii Republicans will send 14 delegates to next summer’s national presidential nominating convention in Detroit.

Although local party rules require that the delegates remain uncommitted until the July convention, many of them most likely will push their own preferences, Hawaii’s National Committeewoman Carla Coray said yesterday.

Several local GOP politicians already have thrown their support to various Republican presidential candidates.

House Minority Leader Kinau Kamalii, R-11th Dist. (Ala Moana-Waikiki), and Senate Minority Leader Wadsworth Yee, R-6th Dist. (Manoa-Waikiki), are spearheading the campaign here of former California Gov. Ronald Reagan, who is believed to be the GOP frontrunner in Hawaii.

Sen. Patricia Saiki, R-7th Dist. (Kaimuki-Hawaii Kai), and former Big Island Sen. Richard Henderson are heading the local campaign of former Texas Gov. John Connally.

Former GOP Gov. William F. Quinn and Rep. Donna Ikeda, R-7th Dist. (Aina Haina-Hawaii Kai), will head Bush’s local campaign organization.

Quinn, who came out of political retirement in 1976 to run unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate, said he is endorsing Bush because he is impressed by his age and experience.

Citing Bush’s services as a Texas congressman, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, chairman of the National Republican Committee, chief of the United Nations Liaison Office in China and director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Quinn said Bush has “broader governmental experience than any other candidate.”

Fred M. Zeder, president of Paradise Cruise, is Bush’s Hawaii campaign manager. 

He told reporters that about $13,000 from 6 local donors has been raised for Bush in the Islands.