Instead, the 64-year-old Hilo Democrat wants the appointment to go to either former state Sen. Stanley Hara, state public schools union President June Motokawa or retired Hilo High School Principal Donna Saiki.
In his resignation letter delivered to Cayetano late yesterday afternoon, Matsuura asked that the three be considered.
Matsuura also wrote he was dropping his campaign to have David Matsuura, one of his four sons, named his successor. The younger Matsuura, a nursery owner, has never held public office, although he has worked on his father's campaigns.
In announcing the end of his 16-year political career, Matsuura said his resignation is effective a week from today. But Matsuura has been so weakened by cancer, which has spread from his pancreas to his liver, that he has been able to attend only the first two Senate sessions. The Legislature convened nine days ago.
Citing his failing health, Matsuura said he cannot devote the full attention to his legislative work that his South Hilo-Puna constituents deserve.
Last week, when the ailing senator was lobbying for his son, the younger Matsuura and Capitol insiders said Cayetano might also be considering state Insurance Commissioner Wayne Metcalf, 44, and state Reps. Jerry Chang, 49, and Eric Hamakawa, 32, for his father's Senate seat. All are Hilo Democrats.
Hara, 73, one of the three possible successors Matsuura named, traces his political lineage to the historic Democratic sweep of 1954. That election ended 54 years of Republican domination and landed Hara, a Hilo Democrat, in the Territorial House, where he began a 28-year legislative career that took him to the state Senate.
In 1980, Hara's Senate colleagues, fearing "a potential embarrassment," quashed his attempt to get the Legislature to appropriate $2 million to buy and develop a shoreline park in South Puna in which Hara had a small financial interest. Hara also was a part-owner of 225 acres of vacant land adjacent to the project.
Motokawa, active in national and state Democratic politics, has been head of the 12,000-member Hawaii State Teachers Association since July 1994.
A special education teacher at Waiakea Intermediate School on the Big Island, Motokawa has been U.S. Rep. Patsy Mink's official representative in the Hilo area.
Educator Saiki, 61, a native of Durrand, Wis., moved to the isles in 1960.
In 1990, Saiki was honored as one of the first recipients of the Hawaii Educator Awards, funded by the Milken Family Foundation of Los Angeles.