Hawaii Republicans have three "victory centers" to help get out the vote Tuesday: party headquarters in Honolulu, Linda Lingle’s U.S. Senate campaign headquarters and the living room in Paul and RosaMaria Hurst’s two-story home in Laie.
In a state where President Barack Obama will dominate, the Hursts and many of their friends and neighbors in Laie, a predominantly Mormon enclave of 6,100 people on the northeastern shore of Oahu, will be voting for former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
The nation might celebrate diversity in race, ethnicity and faith, but when it comes to voting, identity politics remains a powerful instinct. Obama’s largest victories during the 2008 presidential election were in the District of Columbia, where half the population is African-American, and in Hawaii, where he was born and went to high school.
Romney, a former ward bishop and stake president in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, would be the first Mormon president.
At the state Republican caucuses in March, Romney took 1,027 of the 1,110 votes cast in the Laie region — all but 83 votes — on his way to victory statewide.
RosaMaria Hurst, a homemaker whose husband, Paul, is an associate professor of mathematics at Brigham Young University-Hawaii, has opened her living room for a telephone bank operation for Romney and other Republicans.
She said their Romney message is more about the economy than faith.
"We talk about how good he is as a businessman, how he has created jobs, how he has improved the economy in Massachusetts," said Hurst, a Mormon.
"We also talk about him as being an honest man, husband of one wife, and with a good family," she said. "But the people are not much interested in that. They are interested that he is capable to fix the economy. That is what has been big for the families here."
Lynne Hansen, a professor emeritus in linguistics at BYU-Hawaii, said she is worried about the size of the federal debt and believes Romney’s business experience would be helpful.
She said she also cares about social issues such as protecting traditional marriage and preventing the federal government from paying for abortion.
Hansen, disappointed with the choice between Obama and U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., in 2008, voted Libertarian in protest. But she said she wanted Obama to do well after he was elected.
"I’ve been worried over the past four years," Hansen said. "I had higher hopes, but it just seems like the promises weren’t kept."
Phillip Andrus, a BYU-Hawaii graduate who interns at Ke Alakai, the student newspaper, said the conversations around campus are different this election because of Romney’s affiliation with the church.
"I think a lot of the people around here have the same values," Andrus said.
Half of the 2,700 students at the university are foreign and unable to vote in the United States, while other students are from the mainland and vote absentee in their home states, so a BYU-Hawaii student voting bloc is limited.
A campus voter registration drive, however, produced about 600 new voters who are eligible to cast ballots in Hawaii.
The Laie area has also drawn attention from the Romney campaign, with Matt Romney, one of Romney’s five sons, paying a visit before the March caucuses. Laie was also the scene of a rally in September by former Gov. Lingle, who reminded the crowd she would vote for Romney. And last week U.S. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, was the guest at a private event at BYU-Hawaii.
A Romney surge in the Laie region could mean more than just a footnote in a presidential election where Obama is certain to capture Hawaii’s four electoral votes. Higher-than-average voter turnout for Romney in the two precincts closest to Laie — Kahuku and Hauula — could make a difference in state House and Senate campaigns.
Colleen Meyer, a conservative former House member challenging state Sen. Clayton Hee (D, Heeia-Laie-Waialua), is making sure Laie area voters know she shares their views on traditional marriage and abortion.
In the newly drawn House district that covers Waialua to Waiahole, Richard Fale, an Army veteran, former legislative aide and farmer, is hoping Laie voters will help carry him over Ululani Beirne, a former House lawmaker.
Fale, a Republican, and Beirne, a Democrat, are both Mormon. But Fale, who attended BYU-Hawaii and whose campaign has occasionally set up a tent across the street from campus, has the Romney connection.
Erin Kealoha Fale, Fale’s wife, was vice chairwoman of the Romney campaign in Hawaii during the caucuses. She announced Hawaii’s delegate count for Romney at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., in August.
Rather than downplay his ties to Romney or the party label, as many Republican candidates have done in other parts of the state, Richard Fale says he and Romney have similar conservative values.
Fale said it would be easier to "put a ‘D’ next to your name and run for office."
"If people want real meaningful change to happen to the state of Hawaii, it’s not going to happen through the Democrat party," he said. "That’s what I believe that I represent. And the young Republicans and conservatives here in the state of Hawaii understand that."
