30 years later, it’s the last session for Rep. Cynthia Thielen

At the age of 86, state Rep. Cynthia Thielen has just begun her 30th — and final — consecutive year representing Kailua and Kaneohe as one of the few Republicans in the state Legislature.

After she was elected to her first, two-year House term in 1990, Thielen earned a reputation as a moderate who sometimes clashed with her caucus — fellow Republicans unsuccessfully tried to get her kicked off the House Judiciary Committee during a special session in 2013 before a vote on a marriage equality bill that eventually passed.

“I like to say I’m a progressive Republican,” Thielen told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser in her fourth-floor office in the state Capitol. “… Sometimes this place isn’t liberal enough. … I think people will miss hearing a liberal Republican’s voice.”

Thielen considers herself an “Eisenhower Republican,” which she defines as a Republican “who takes care of fiscal issues and leaves personal issues to the individuals.”

In the current Legislature, Thielen is one of only five Republicans in the 51-member House, with only one Republican in the 25-member Senate.

Rep. Gene Ward (R, Kalama Valley-Queen’s Gate-Hawaii Kai), called Thielen “the rock star of Kailua,” adding, “She has been a faithful servant of her community and faithful to her party and is deserving of a standing ovation by any and all. … She never had close races. She was always loved by her community. We were comrades in arms together and she and I would take on the whole House of Representatives. She’s leaving as the hemp lady.”

Thielen particularly prides herself on her ability to work with Democrats and to continue to work to protect the environment; address climate change and sea-level rise; look to expand wave energy sources; and, especially, to push for hemp production in former sugar lands.

“Cynthia embodies some of the best attributes of a legislator: advocate, independent, and resilient,” Democratic House Speaker Scott Saiki said in a statement to the Star-Advertiser. “Cynthia has influenced policy decisions because she is not afraid to speak out, take a position, and remind us of the need to take action. Her ability to put aside partisan differences also puts colleagues at rest.”

Thielen has a long history of getting along with Democrats.

Her freshman roommate at Stanford University’s Roble Hall in 1951 was Dianne Feinstein, a California liberal icon who continues to be a force in the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate. They remain friends and a picture sits behind Thielen’s desk of her and U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono posing with Feinstein in Feinstein’s office in Washington, D.C.

One of Thielen’s sons, who owns a Colorado construction company, “can be described as more of an independent businessman who is fiscally responsible on business issues,” Thielen said.

Her three other children are all Democrats, among them the most well-known is daughter Laura Thielen, a state Senate Democrat, who represents Hawaii Kai, Kailua and Waimanalo. Laura Thielen previously served as head of the state Department of Land and Natural Resources under former Republican Gov. Linda Lingle.

Laura Thielen also is stepping down after the current session, but declined to be interviewed with her mother about her own future.

Cynthia Thielen said she and her daughter only briefly discussed their upcoming political retirements and never had any deep conversations about their reasons.

“I don’t know what Laura will do,” Thielen said.

Thielen said, “health-wise, I feel great.” She practices yoga and tai chi separately once a week, along with taking a weekly, hour-long walk with a friend.

Thielen prides herself on attending as many community meetings as possible, including night meetings, and as a campaigner she went door to door talking to voters in her district.

But the prospect of continuing that kind of schedule and commitment seemed more of a challenge ahead of the upcoming November elections, and Thielen last year announced her plan to retire.

“Mentally, I’m totally up for it,” Thielen said about continuing to serve. “But physically it’s more of a challenge. If I’m feeling that, then maybe it’s time for the next generation.”

She particularly misses the support from her late husband, Mickey, who died three years ago. He was a campaign rock for Thielen and would pound in campaign signs, then circle back to readjust them if necessary.

Even though the current session will end in a few months, Thielen said she will continue to represent Kailua and Kaneohe right up until the November elections, which will bring in new faces to the Windward side at every level of government, from City Council to Hawaii’s second congressional district — including the two legislative seats held by mother and daughter.

Since announcing her upcoming retirement, Thielen has been meeting with potential candidates to replace her.

In order of preference, Thielen said she is looking for someone who will focus on the environment, followed by a female candidate — and then a Republican.

“I value my independence,” Thielen said. “That’s the voice that the Windward side wants, someone who will step forward and challenge bad policy, bad environmental concepts.”

Thielen dropped out of Stanford after she got married and began raising her four children.

She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Hawaii and later graduated from UH’s William S. Richardson School of Law.

In the early 1970s — nearly 20 years before she was elected to her first term in the House — Thielen was already shaking things up at the state Capitol. The then-UH student staged a one-person, five-hour sit-in in then-Gov. George Ari­yoshi’s office to protest his failure to appoint a single woman to any state board or commission.

“At that time, men didn’t think about women being outside of the household,” Thielen said. “I said, ‘I feel I’m qualified.’ So he appointed me to a state highway safety commission.”

A picture of Thielen and Ariyoshi at the time hangs in her office, along with separate photos of Thielen with former Govs. John Waihee and Ben Cayetano.

The photo with Waihee was taken “after he signed one of my bills into law,” she said. “I can’t remember which one.”

But she particularly recalls a bill of hers that Waihee vetoed that would have protected Kailua’s Mount Olomana by designating it as conservation land.

Waihee told Thielen that the state Board of Land and Natural Resources could do the same thing.

“So I walked over and told the Land Board, ‘Put this onto your agenda,’ and they did.”

Proposals to build tiers of housing on Mount Olomana never materialized.

As a newly minted UH law school graduate, Thielen helped lead the legal fight for Protect Kaho‘olawe ‘Ohana to gain access to the “target island,” which paved the way for the Navy to stop using the island for bombing practice and eventually return it to state control for the first time since World War II.

She also joined the fight to protect Kailua’s Kawainui Marsh from development and later, as a legislator, sponsored and co-sponsored hundreds of bills.

This session, Thielen is supporting a House Concurrent Resolution urging the Navy and the U.S. Department of Energy to renew funding for the Kaneohe Wave Energy Test Site that established a “wave generator” off Marine Corps Base Hawaii in 2015.

Thielen said wave energy has the potential to generate all of the neighbor islands’ energy needs — and 80% of Oahu’s needs.

“It’s the first ‘wet center’ test site in the United States,” Thielen said. “With our limited land mass and the push back against wind turbines, we need this.”

Asked what she intends to do when she finally retires, Thielen — a poet — said she plans to write a memoir about her time in the Legislature.

“It’ll include all of the different speakers, some of whom went to jail,” she said, chuckling.

Asked about any insider details about her time in Hawaii’s Capitol, Thielen again laughed while playing the teaser.

“You’re going to have to buy my book,” she said.