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Two veteran Hawaii newspaper editors join Randall Roth days after the 1994 elections. George Chaplin and Bud Smyser agree this was the nastiest campaign in recent memory, driven especially by Frank Fasi's television attack ads. Chaplin calls Fasi's longstanding "monopoly press" accusations the behavior of a local Spiro Agnew, and both guests argue that the papers would have been an actual monopoly had they not formed a joint operating agreement decades ago. On the central question of whether Cayetano would have won in a two-way race, Smyser notes that Cayetano's 135,000 votes were outnumbered by the combined opposition total of about 235,000; both guests think a unified Republican-Fasi ticket would likely have prevailed. Chaplin outlines what Cayetano needs to do: choose people of integrity regardless of party, crack down immediately on ethical violations, and communicate openly with the public. Smyser wants management rights reclaimed from education unions and government trimmed by attrition. A caller who identifies herself as a Republican voices frustration that Democratic factionalism makes it nearly impossible for minority-party candidates to break through. Both guests agree that the state faces the toughest four years since statehood and that strong leadership is now essential.
Transcript
Read or download the full transcript (.txt). Speaker labels were assigned automatically and may contain errors.
Companion newspaper commentaries
Commentaries by the guests, published in The Honolulu Advertiser around the broadcast.
