2002 ELECTIONS

Rep. Patsy Mink died after a month in the hospital with viral pneumonia. AP file photo.

Late Hawai‘i Rep. Mink May Win Vote

Democrats expect Rep. Patsy Mink to win re-election in Hawai‘i next month — even though she died Sept. 28. Then comes another election for the seat. And then maybe another.

The Republican candidate, ex-Marine Bob McDermott, has been feuding with party leaders and has received virtually no support from a state GOP that had discounted his chances of beating Mink. But controversy over the scheduling of as many as three rapid-fire elections for her district is giving Republicans new hope for the longtime Democratic seat.

On Nov. 5, voters in the 2nd District — rural Oahu outside Honolulu plus the other Hawaiian islands — will go to the polls like people in all other states, picking a representative for the congressional term that begins in January. But that’s only the start.

Next comes a Nov. 30 election for the five weeks that would remain in Mink’s current term. Then, if Mink won the Nov. 5 election, would come another election on Jan. 4 to replace her for the two-year term beginning in January.

Republicans have accused Democrats of trying to manipulate the election system and of covering up the seriousness of Mink’s condition until after she won her primary election and it was too late to take her off the general election ballot. She died after a month in the hospital with viral pneumonia.

The scheduling of two special elections costing as much as $4 million — and the strength of Republican Linda Lingle’s candidacy in the race for governor — have suggested cracks in four decades of Democratic control in the Aloha State.

It is not yet clear who would have the advantage in the special congressional elections because both require only a plurality of the vote for victory, with no runoff. More than 35 candidates have signed up for the first one, and as many are expected for the second. They include members of both parties and independents.

The most prominent is state Rep. Ed Case, who narrowly lost to Lt. Gov. Mazie Hirono in the Democratic gubernatorial primary. Former Democratic Gov. John Waihee also has said he may enter the second special election, which could split the Democratic vote.

The fact that Lingle is running well ahead in gubernatorial polls bolsters the hopes of any Republican who might seek the 2nd District seat. And if Lingle, the former mayor of Maui, loses to Hirono, she could run for the House seat herself.

With the seat now seen as competitive, Republican state Senate Minority Leader Sam Slom says McDermott deserves the party’s support as the only one who was willing to take on Mink. He calls McDermott “the candidate that has been the risk-taker and has been out there from the beginning.”

But if McDermott loses the second election to a Democrat, the Republicans could look for a fresh candidate for the third election. Discord between McDermott and party leaders surfaced when he demanded copies of the local GOP’s donation list earlier this year and party leaders refused, saying the names were confidential.

McDermott, 39, is a conservative, opposed to domestic partnership benefits and in favor of making the Pledge of Allegiance mandatory in public schools.

Born in Lansdale, Pa., he joined the Marines out of high school and was stationed in Hawai‘i, where he completed his enlistment and went to college. Later he rejoined the Marines, leaving the service in 1992 and returning to Hawai‘i, where he worked in management at two coffee companies. He won a seat in the state House in 1996 in a campaign that focused on his opposition to same-sex marriages.

— By Bruce Dunford, The Associated Press

IMMIGRANT SMUGGLING

Border Agents Detain Group Suspected of Being Illegal Immigrants

Five Chinese citizens and an American face criminal charges after U.S. Border Patrol agents apprehended 15 people trying to enter the United States illegally in a rental boat over the weekend.

The group was taken into custody Saturday after the boat docked at a village along the St. Lawrence River, 75 miles north of Syracuse, N.Y., agent Clifford Koenig said Monday.

The illegal immigrants were all from Fujian Province in China, he said. The group consisted of five men, three women and seven children, ages 8 to 14. None were related, Koenig said.

The five men were to be charged by the U.S. Attorney’s Office with entering the United States without proper documents, Koenig said. The pilot of the boat will be charged with smuggling, he said.

The six men were taken to Syracuse to be arraigned in federal court. Koenig declined to identify those charged until they had been arraigned. U.S. District Court officials and federal prosecutors were not immediately available Monday to comment on the case.

After they are prosecuted criminally, the five Chinese citizens face deportation proceedings, Koenig said.

The women and children were released. They face a deportation hearing in Buffalo in December, he said.

— A.P.

GOING POSTAL

Korean American Opens Fire in Anti-North Korea Protest

A Korean American man protesting human rights conditions in North Korea fired seven bullets in front of U.N. headquarters, hitting several offices but injuring no one, before being arrested by U.S. Secret Service agents.

The gunman was identified as Steve Kim, a naturalized U.S. citizen, husband and father who works for the U.S. Postal Service and lives in Des Plaines, Ill.

FBI spokesman Jim Margolin said Kim, who was born in 1945 — most likely in Korea — would be arraigned in Manhattan federal court on Friday.

The shooting occurred at midday Oct. 3 as the Security Council was meeting on Iraq and Secretary-General Kofi Annan was holding talks on Cyprus in his 38th-floor office.

U.S. Secret Service agents protecting visiting Cyprus President Glafcos Clerides apprehended Kim in the U.N. compound just outside the towering Secretariat building.

Shots fired from a Smith & Wesson pistol narrowly missed U.N. employees working inside the building, U.N. security chief Michael McCann said. Several bullets hit a women’s restroom on the 18th floor and an American Express office on the 20th floor.

Kim evaded U.N. security by jumping over a poorly guarded fence surrounding U.N. headquarters, McCann said. He walked up to the building, fired seven shots in the air and then dropped the pistol on the ground, witnesses and security officials said.

He then tossed a stack of leaflets in the air and stood still, awaiting capture. Approaching agents ordered him to lie on the ground before handcuffing him and taking him away.

The leaflets were handwritten in poor English and addressed to “all people who love freedom and justice.”

“In a shinning and civilized 21st century, most people in the world enjoying peace and freedom. North Korea however is groaning under the weight of starvation and dictatorial suppression. They don’t have even the most basic of human rights since all things body and spirit plants and plows belong to one named greatest general Kim Jong Il,” it said.

It was signed: “A citizen of UN, Steve Kim, Oct. 2, 2002.”

Michael Kim said he had no idea his father had strong feelings about North Korea and told Chicago television stations that he and his father walked around the United Nations two weeks ago during a visit to New York.

“We were just taking a look at it as a monument, or like a tourist site,” he said.

Kim’s family believed he was vacationing in Seattle, according to broadcast reports.

— By Dafna Linzer, A.P.