By all accounts, Toraki Matsumoto served his beloved Central Oahu community with distinction during his 17 years on the Honolulu City Council.
But history will remember the Wahiawa businessman more famously as one of the three Council members ousted from office in 1985 as a result of Oahu’s first recall election.
Matsumoto, 86, died May 2 at Kuakini Medical Center.
George Akahane, Toraki Matsumoto and Rudy Pacarro became household names on Oahu when the three Democrats, in the middle of their Council terms, chose to switch to the Republican Party with the backing of the late Mayor Frank Fasi, who had also switched to an "R" from a "D."
According to a New York Times story, enraged Democratic leaders led by former Council Chairwoman Patsy Mink, U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye and Gov. George Ariyoshi launched a recall campaign against all three men. Despite heavy lobbying from Republicans, which included taped radio and television commercials by the most famous of all Democrat-turned-Republican politicians, President Ronald Reagan, the three men were turned out of office.
Matsumoto lost 8,854-7,896. An attempt to regain the seat in the following year’s election, as a Republican, was also unsuccessful.
D.G. "Andy" Anderson, the longtime Republican politician, was Fasi’s managing director in the mid-1980s when Fasi hatched the most famous three-person party switch in Hawaii political history during a golf tournament at the Leilehua Golf Course.
Anderson said he was part of a foursome with Fasi, Akahane and Pacarro. "It was about the time that Reagan had switched a bunch of Democrats to Republicans, and the mayor came up with the idea. And by the time the golf tournament was over — and two beers — they went to Toraki’s house and converted him," Anderson said. "It was a George Akahane-Frank Fasi scheme."
Dale Matsumoto-Oi, Matsumoto’s daughter, said that when her father first told the family of his intention to switch parties in midterm, she personally didn’t agree with the switch. But she said she understood he believed it was right.
"They felt they could (get) more things done this way," she said. "And most of his longtime campaign workers stuck with him. Not everyone did, but his true friends still backed him."
Anderson said that while he didn’t agree with the concept of switching parties in midterm, he didn’t feel it right that the three men were recalled.
"I don’t think it was fair; I think you have the right to change parties," he said. "But they got enough votes on the petition and recalled all three of those poor guys."
Today, Council members and the mayor are elected in nonpartisan elections.
After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Hawaii, Matsumoto helped run the family-run Whitmore Supermarket for a number of years, his daughter said. For a time he also worked at National Mortgage. It wasn’t until the late 1960s that he was approached by Gov. John A. Burns to be involved with the Democratic Party.
After a year working as an aide to state Sen. Nadao Yoshinaga, Matsumoto was himself elected to serve in the 1968 Constitutional Convention. Later that same year, he made a successful bid for one of the at-large Council seats that were elected by and served all Oahu residents.
Matsumoto did not like the at-large Council arrangement because he felt it gave too much power to urban Honolulu residents, his daughter said. "It didn’t represent the rural communities," and, as a result, he was instrumental in converting the Council to single-member districts in the early 1970s so the areas outside Honolulu got fair representation.
Matsumoto was so dedicated to his constituency that he left his home phone number listed in the telephone book, his daughter said, recalling that the family would get calls at all hours of the day from folks who wanted a street lamp fixed or a repair made at a park. "And he always took the phone calls and took care of his constituents."
In addition to his daughter, Matsumoto is also survived by wife Yaeko Ikehara; sons Greg and Reid; brothers Hisashi, Takeo and Harold; and three grandchildren.
A service is set for 6:30 p.m. June 4, at Mililani Memorial Mortuary, Mauka Chapel. Visitation begins at 5 p.m.
