The Hawaii Democratic Party is proving absolute power corrupts by denying former state Land Board Chairwoman Laura Thielen the right to run for the state Senate in the party’s primary.
Thielen wants to run against Sen. Pohai Ryan, a former party official, in the 25th District representing Waimanalo to Hawaii Kai.
She’s identified as a Democrat since she was old enough to vote, but didn’t officially sign a party card until February.
The Oahu Democratic Party, backed by a divided state central committee, invoked an obscure rule that wasn’t enforced in the last election requiring candidates to have the card six months before the filing deadline.
It happened in secrecy with no reason given, leaving suspicions that a rule intended for egregious cases is being used to put in the fix for incumbents who are reliable votes for party special interests, such as public worker unions.
Thielen said committee members questioned her service in the Cabinet of Republican Gov. Linda Lingle, her differences with the Hawaii State Teachers Association while serving on the Board of Education and her support for the 2006 U.S. Senate campaign of her mother, GOP state Rep. Cynthia Thielen.
Never mind that others have held administrative jobs under opposing parties without penalty, the current Democratic governor is in a battle royal with HSTA and Democratic U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye campaigned for Alaska GOP Sen. Ted Stevens without party reproach.
From the statement Thielen gave Democrats, there’s little question she fits well within the big tent the party boasts.
She’s considered herself a Democrat all her adult life and supports the platform. She refused Lingle’s request to join the GOP.
Thielen campaigned for Jesse Jackson for president and in 1998 went door to door against the constitutional amendment allowing the Legislature to deny marriage rights to gays. Few Democratic officials who now trade on gay support had the guts to do the same.
Bart Dame, a Democratic progressive leader who participated in the Thielen meeting, wrote in an online forum that the six-month rule was enacted to address extreme cases like state Sen. Mike Gabbard’s jump to the Democrats while working against party stands on civil unions and abortion.
Dame said the rule was intended to be waived more often than enforced, and derided the "screwy ‘legal’ logic which led to this STOOPID decision against Laura Thielen."
"The leadership has imposed an extremely unreasonable level of secrecy upon those of us at the meeting," Dame wrote. "This gag order is asinine and reflects a contempt for democratic norms."
Thielen said she’s "not inclined to accept this decision" and is weighing her options, but won’t run as a Republican.
"My core values are aligned with the Democrats," she said. "Some leaders in the party aren’t upholding the core values."
———
Reach David Shapiro at volcanicash@gmail.com or blog.volcanicash.net.
