hi_gov_LINGLE

MAUI MAYOR LINDA LINGLE

• Lingle grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, and moved to southern California when she was 12 years old. She attended California State University in Northridge and majored in journalism.

• After graduating from college in 1975, Lingle moved to Hawaii, where her father was then living. Lingle grew up in a family of Democrats, and her first job was working for a labor organization -- editing the monthly newsletter for the Teamsters and Hotel Workers unions.

• The following year Lingle decided to move to the island of Molokai. Once there, she founded and edited the Molokai Free Press, a bi-weekly newspaper.

• Lingle first ran for public office in 1980 for the seat representing Molokai on the Maui County Council. She ran as a Republican, and in an upset, she defeated the incumbent Democrat in an area dominated by old Hawaiian families that traditionally vote Democratic. She was then re-elected to four more terms.

• In 1990, the three-term incumbent mayor of Maui was forced to retire because of term limits. With 49% of the vote, Lingle defeated a former mayor and speaker of the state House of Representatives to become the first non-Maui native and the first female elected mayor of Maui County. In 1994, Lingle was re-elected in spite of a strong challenge by a Democratic former county council chair, who had held office for 40 years and was trying to make a comeback. Under Lingle's stewardship, Maui has gained jobs while the economy in the rst of the state has suffered an economic slump.

• If elected to Hawaii's top office this year, Lingle will be the first female governor of Hawaii and the first Republican to occupy the governor's office since William Quinn left office in 1962.