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For nearly thirty years, Linda Lingle has dedicated herself to making life and government better in Hawaii - as a newspaper publisher, a county government leader, an active community volunteer, and now as our governor.
Governor Lingle was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1953. When she was 12, her family moved to Southern California, where she attended Birmingham High, a public school in Van Nuys. In 1975, she graduated cum laude from California State University at Northridge, where she was editor of the Journalism Department Newspaper and the Alumni Newsletter. She was also selected to join the journalism honor society Kappa Tau Alpha.
Soon after graduation, she moved to Hawaii, following her father who was a building a business in the islands. She served as the public information officer for the Hawaii Teamsters and Hotel Workers Union in Honolulu, where she edited a monthly newspaper for the union's members.
She then founded the Moloka'i Free Press, a community newspaper serving the 6,000 residents of the Island of Moloka'i. As the paper's publisher, editor, reporter, photographer and typesetter, she reported on community events and covered local government. It was during this time that she realized she could help make a difference in government.
In 1980, waging a grassroots campaign against a well-funded challenger, Linda Lingle was elected to the Maui County Council. She served five two-year terms on the council - three terms representing Moloka'i and two terms as an at-large member. Her major accomplishment was creating a Moloka'i Planning Commission so that the people of Moloka'i had a means to discuss and decide zoning and planning issues that affected them.
Councilwoman Lingle was elected Mayor of Maui County in 1990 and re-elected in 1994. She served the maximum two consecutive four-year terms by defeating the most prominent democrats in the county, a former mayor and a 40-year veteran of the County Council. She was the youngest, the first woman and the only non-Maui born person ever elected to the office. She is proudest of being able to gather support to implement performance-based budgeting that measures the effectiveness of government programs.
Thanks to her leadership, Maui County received the Government Finance Officers Association Distinguished Budget Presentation Award for four consecutive years, and she was invited to advise the governments of Guam and Pohnpei on how to implement performance-based budgeting. Throughout her term, job growth was faster on Maui than anywhere else in the state. Because of her innovative and collaborative approach in developing tourism, Maui was voted Best Island in the World in the annual Cond'e Nast Traveler Readers' Choice Awards Poll for five consecutive years.
In 1998, Mayor Lingle campaigned for governor, losing by just one percent of the vote, and was later named the most respected woman in Hawaii in an independent poll commissioned by one of the state's leading magazines.
Determined to continue working for change in Hawaii, Mayor Lingle focused on building the state Republican Party, starting with grassroots meetings of her supporters. As Chair of the Hawaii Republican Party from 1999 to early 2002, she helped more Republicans get elected to the state legislature than at any other time since 1962.
In 2002, Mayor Lingle campaigned again for governor, this time winning the state's highest office. She is the first woman and the first mayor to serve as Governor of Hawaii, and the first Republican to lead the state since 1962. | 