ELECTION ANALYSIS

Heavy Republican Turnout Defeated Hirono

Republican Linda Lingle benefited from a strong voter turnout in traditional Republican districts and lower turnout in some Democratic strongholds, according to an analysis of Tuesday’s Hawaiian gubernatorial election results.

The results also show that Lingle made some inroads into traditionally Democratic areas and profited from the new growth areas of Mililani and Kapolei in her victory over Democrat Mazie Hirono.

Lingle also won the absentee balloting by nearly 1,000 votes. Absentee voters were key to Hirono’s narrow victory over Ed Case in the Democratic primary. There, Case won the election day vote, but Hirono prevailed in absentee balloting.

The election results show that the highest voter turnouts were in the largely Republican districts of East Honolulu. Lingle also gained 14 of the 16 districts that supported Case in the primary.

Hirono campaign manager Bob Toyofuku said his analysis shows that in areas in which Lingle showed strength in her 1998 run against Governor Cayetano, she was very strong this year.

“There are certain areas that even though you are going to win, you have to win big — by larger amounts than we did,” Toyofuku said.

Gov. Ben Cayetano easily beat Lingle in the House district in Manoa four years ago. But Hirono lost to Lingle by only 13 votes this year, showing that Hirono was not able to win big in areas that she needed for a statewide victory.

Lingle received nearly 2,000 votes less statewide than she got in 1998 when she lost to Cayetano. But Hirono received about 25,000 fewer votes this year than Cayetano did four years ago, suggesting that voters who have typically backed Democrats stayed away from the polls.

“Mazie’s people stayed home,” said Hawaii Pacific University political science associate professor Gregory Gaydos. “They couldn't bring themselves to vote for a Republican, but they weren’t going to vote for her, either.”

The results show that more than a dozen districts which elected Democratic candidates to the state House also chose Lingle.

— The Associated Press

MEDICAL MALADY

Heart Doctors’ Practices May Be Shut Down

The California Medical Board is seeking temporary restraining orders against two Redding, Calif., doctors under FBI investigation for allegedly performing unnecessary heart surgeries.

Chae Moon and Fidel Realyvasquez Jr., have not been charged with any crime. But the FBI and the Internal Revenue Service, as well as Medicare investigators, seized records from their offices last week, looking for evidence of fraud.

If the order is approved by a Shasta County Superior Court judge, the two doctors would be forced to stop practicing medicine immediately, pending the outcome of a medical board investigation.

“We have reason to believe at this point that the large number of catheterizations and heart bypass operations actually were in excess of the number of patients who absolutely had need of those,” said Ronald Joseph, executive director of the medical board. “We are talking about ... healthy patients being directed into very serious and in some cases risky operations.”

Realyvasquez’s attorney, Malcolm Segal, said he would fight any such order. “It would be a tragedy if patients were deprived of ... medical attention from such a skilled surgeon based only on these allegations which are unsubstantiated.”

John Reese, Moon’s attorney, did not return repeated calls.

On Nov. 5, the California Medical Association, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System and the state Department of Health Services announced their own investigations into the charges.

If the restraining order is granted, state law requires the Medical Board to file a formal accusation against the doctors within 30 days. The doctors would then have 15 days to request a hearing, which would be held by the board within 30 days of that request.

— A.P.

HEALTHY EATING

Garlic May Prevent Cancer

Men in China have the lowest rate of prostate cancer in the world, and a diet rich in garlic, shallots and onions may be one of the reasons.

Researchers at the National Cancer Institute report in a new study that a diet with lots of vegetables from the allium food group — which includes garlic, shallots and onions — reduces the risk of prostate cancer by about half. And the average Chinese diet includes hearty servings of these vegetables.

The study, appearing this week in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, is based on interviews with 238 men with prostate cancer and 471 men who were free of the disease.

Men in the study, all residents of Shanghai, China, were asked how frequently they ate 122 food items. The results showed that those who ate more than a third of an ounce a day from the allium food group were about 50 percent less likely to have prostate cancer than those who ate less of the foods.

“We checked on many food items and the allium food group stood out (as protective against prostate cancer),” said Ann W. Hsing, an NCI epidemiologist and the first author of the study. “But the conclusions need to be replicated in another study.”

She said the study was conducted in Shanghai because China has the lowest rate of prostate cancer in the world. Scallions seemed to be the most protective. According to the study, men who ate about a tenth of an ounce or more a day of scallions reduced their prostate cancer risk by about 70 percent. For garlic consumption of the same amount, the prostate cancer risk was reduced by about 53 percent.

Hsing said that the typical Chinese diet is much more heavily seasoned with garlic, scallions and onions than is the traditional American diet. But even so, the amount of allium vegetables consumed is measured only in fractional ounces. For instance, the study suggests that an effective level of prostate cancer protection can be achieved with about one clove of garlic a day.

“The reduced risk of prostate cancer associated with allium vegetables was independent of body size, intake of other foods and total calorie intake,” the study authors reported.

Hsing said the study reinforces earlier studies that have linked high vegetable consumption to a reduced risk of prostate cancer. For instance, earlier studies have found that that eating tomatoes and tomato products can lower risk of prostate cancer. Italy, where tomato sauce and garlic are favorites, has one of the lowest rates of prostate cancer in Europe, said Hsing.

Janet Stanford, a cancer epidemiologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, said the study by Hsing and her co-authors continues to support the general finding that “eating vegetables is a good thing.”

Stanford said her group, in an earlier study, linked broccoli, cauliflower and related vegetables to a reduced prostate cancer risk, while a high fat diet increased the risk.

“This shows that your mother was right,” said Stanford. “Eat more vegetables.”

— Paul Recer, A.P.

Compiled by Neela Banerjee.