Aiona campaign aims to win religious voters

Former Lt. Gov. James "Duke" Aiona pulled out a worn, pocket edition of Gideon’s New Testament and read a verse that reminds him of his "spiritual rock."

The Republican candidate for governor, speaking at a revival-style "We Believe" rally on Friday night at the Blaisdell Center, was not talking about God. He was talking about his wife, Vivian.

"Wives, likewise, be submissive to your own husbands," Aiona read from Peter, playfully apologizing to his wife. "That even if some do not obey the word, they, without a word, may be won by the conduct of their wives." He read that passage again for emphasis. "When they observe your chaste conduct accompanied by fear.

"Do not let your adornment be merely outward — arranging the hair, wearing gold, or putting on fine apparel — rather let it be the hidden person of the heart."

"That’s my wife," Aiona said. "Her heart."

Aiona and Elwin Ahu, his lieutenant governor running mate and a pastor, describe religious conservatives as one of several coalitions — like Filipinos or small business owners — they want to attract to their campaign. But they could be a vital coalition for Republicans in November.

Aiona believes faith-based voters feel they have not been heard or respected by state government, especially on issues such as gay marriage, and could be the most eager for change. "This is what democracy is all about," he told reporters after the rally. "They’re stepping up. And they’re understanding that elections have consequences. And as a result of that, they’re going to make their vote count."

Hawaii Republicans have long wanted to cultivate religious conservatives as a reliable voting bloc, much like Democrats have with labor unions, but have had some difficulty. A concerted GOP outreach campaign to the faith-based community four years ago on behalf of Aiona failed to make him more politically competitive and may have hurt him, since Aiona had to disavow links to the more extreme voices of the religious right.

The recipe looked more promising this year.

The special session on marriage equality energized religious conservatives, including many who were not politically active or even registered to vote. The explicit nature of the pilot Pono Choices sex education curriculum in public middle schools also outraged many evangelicals.

More than a dozen Republican state House and Senate candidates said they were motivated to run for the first time by their disappointment over the special session, so religious conservatives have plenty of candidates statewide who reflect their values.

Hawaii Republicans and several pastors vowed to help increase voter registration, but initial figures indicate there has not been a meaningful surge in new voters. There has also not been an influx of money for super PACs or other interest groups that could help drive voter turnout in the faith-based community through statewide advertising and direct mail.

While the ingredients still exist to turn a backlash over gay marriage into a Republican advantage, the gains may be smaller in scale than many Republicans had hoped after the special session and the cry to "Remember in November," and may depend on grassroots organizing through churches or an awakening by infrequent voters inspired to cast ballots this year.

Depending on the split with state Sen. David Ige, the Democrat, former Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann, the independent, and Jeff Davis, the Libertarian, Aiona may only need to marginally expand on the 40 percent of the vote he received in his loss to Gov. Neil Abercrombie in 2010 to win.

Subtle shifts in dozens or hundreds of votes may also be enough to influence a few state House and Senate campaigns.

Political analysts, sensing what appears to be a lack of voter enthusiasm in the governor’s race, are questioning whether voter turnout will reach the 55.8 percent mark from four years ago.

"I think if they can mobilize their people they can still have an impact, because so few people vote," said Dylan Nonaka, a Republican strategist and former executive director of the Hawaii Republican Party.

Nonaka thinks a recent television ad by a super PAC tied to the Democratic Governors Association that is critical of Aiona for opposing abortion may fire up religious conservatives more than moderate swing voters or liberal Democrats. Abortion has not been a recent political issue in Hawaii, and voters who care passionately about abortion rights were never likely going to vote for Aiona. But the ad does feed into a perception among religious conservatives that they are being mocked for their beliefs.

The Ige campaign has made it clear it had nothing to do with the abortion ad, which, as an independent expenditure from a super PAC, cannot legally be coordinated with a candidate’s campaign. Ige, a Buddhist, has also not sought to make Aiona’s faith or marriage equality an issue in the election.

Political analysts — and many Democrats — scoffed when Abercrombie blamed the special session on marriage equality for his dramatic primary loss to Ige, since the extent of the governor’s defeat suggested a broad voter revolt. Yet most candidates are treating the issue of marriage equality gingerly because they are not sure exactly how voters will react in November.

"I think the special session is still in play here in Hawaii," said Garret Hashimoto, the state chairman of the Hawaii Christian Coalition. "That’s why a lot of these candidates are running, because of the process of the special session. They thought, or they felt that they saw, the legislators taking away the vote or authority that the people of Hawaii have."

Final voter registration figures are expected this week, but the initial count after last Monday’s deadline showed that registration was about the same as 2012 and not dramatically higher than 2010.

Mike Lwin, the senior pastor at New Hope Leeward, who moderated a candidates’ forum last Sunday afternoon at the church’s Kapolei campus, said he feels a responsibility to help mobilize voters in the faith-based community. A voter registration table was set up in the church’s lobby.

Lwin said he hoped the forum — which featured Aiona, Hannemann and Davis; Ige declined — "would inspire people of faith to not just sit back and grumble, but actually to take action."

While the forum was not intended to benefit a specific candidate — "From my perspective, God isn’t partisan," Lwin says — Aiona and Ahu received the friendliest reception from the audience.

Publicly courting religious conservatives at events such as the "We Believe" rally or the New Hope Leeward forum leaves Aiona and Ahu open to questions about what role their faith would have in governing the state. Democrats will also likely try to capitalize on such events to weld the pair to zealots in the religious right.

"When you have the majority and you’ve been in the position that they’ve been in all these years, when there’s a threat, they’re going to attack," Aiona said of the Democrats. "They’re going to attack the strength that you have."

Both Aiona and Ahu say their experiences as judges demonstrate they can be fair and impartial, but they also speak candidly about the need for people of faith to take a stand.

Ahu, a senior pastor at New Hope Metro, told the rally on Friday that he chose to run for lieutenant governor after surviving leukemia. He said it "wasn’t time to take it easy, because I began to see how our government leaders weren’t respecting you, weren’t respecting us. As much as we want to get our voices heard, nobody was listening."

Aiona, a Catholic, is more cautious than Ahu when he talks publicly about his faith. But he has a deep connection with evangelicals that he often expresses by describing his relationship with his wife, his four children and his two grandchildren.

Aiona told the rally that a friend, New Hope Waimea Pastor Oliver "Sonny" Shimaoka, once explained there are actually four people in the Holy Trinity: the father, the son, the Holy Spirit, and your wife.

After his loss to Abercrombie four years ago, Aiona said, he did not plan to run for governor again and was content being a grandfather. But he said his wife repeatedly urged him to run and challenged him to focus and pray on his decision.

"So here we are," he said to applause. "It’s a combination of that, and as Elwin said, for our children, for our grandchildren, for the future of Hawaii."