Gov. Ben Cayetano
By Craig T. Kojima, Star-Bulletin

Gov. Ben Cayetano's job-approval rating has plummeted to its lowest level since he took office 26 months ago.

According to the latest Honolulu Star-Bulletin Poll, 23 percent of the state's registered voters now believe Cayetano is doing a poor job as governor.

That nearly matches the negative rating of Cayetano's predecessor, John Waihee, when Waihee's job-performance rating began its nose-dive.

But Waihee's fall from favor came more than six years into his eight-year tenure. Twenty-six percent gave Waihee a poor job-performance rating in February 1993, nearly two years before he left office. Four months later, Waihee's popularity dipped further -- to 30 percent -- and it remained there in January 1994.

Cayetano's poor rating climbed 7 percentage points to 14 percent in three previous Star-Bulletin surveys before reaching today's 23-percent level. Only 2 percent think he's doing an excellent job, compared with 6 percent soon after he took office.

The survey reveals there is wide public disenchantment with Cayetano on several key issues:

Registered voters overwhelmingly -- 54 percent to 33 percent -- don't think he has a strong vision in leading the state.

By nearly 3-to-1, 66 percent to 24 percent, they disapprove of Cayetano's proposal to borrow $1 billion for an accelerated construction program to boost Hawaii's construction industry.

Voters also oppose his $53 million tax relief program, much of which is dead in the Legislature.

But voters were about evenly divided over Cayetano's handling of state budget problems.

Cayetano declined to comment on the survey. But his spokeswoman, Kathleen Racuya-Markrich, said the poll results were likely colored by events in recent months: the administration's negotiations with UH professors and public schoolteachers unions, "which were very difficult."

She added: "They used negative media campaigns that targeted the governor. Emotions ran high."

Moreover, Racuya-Markrich maintained, Cayetano's poor ratings are more reflective of the public's dissatisfaction with the state's weak economy than with the governor. Once the economy improves, so will the public's perception of Cayetano, she insisted.

Chief of Staff Charles Toguchi added: "Over the last two years, Gov. Cayetano has had to make some very tough and unpopular decisions. These are decisions that go to structural changes needed to move the economy along."

More people between the ages of 25 and 34, the early working years, and those 45 to 54, prime earning years, graded Cayetano's job performance most harshly.

By income, those toughest on Cayetano were those at the extreme ends of the economic scale -- those earning less than $25,000 annually and those making more than $70,000.

More of Cayetano's fellow Democrats than Republicans felt he didn't have a strong vision to lead, 56 percent to 47 percent.

But more Republicans than Democrats -- 47 percent to 35 percent -- approved of Cayetano's handling of the state budget woes.

One poll respondent, Mililani mechanic Dennis Hironaka, 48, said Cayetano is doing a poor job because he has not fulfilled his promise to stress education.

If Cayetano took his campaign vow of improving the isles' educational system seriously, he should not have been hesitant to increase the salaries of public schoolteachers even more than the salaries for other government workers, Hironaka said. A teacher's job is one of society's most important, Hironaka maintained.

Last week, a strike was averted when Cayetano and the Hawaii State Teachers Association agreed to a $100 million, four-year pact retroactive to 1995-96.

Hironaka and Jan Malasek, a 51-year-old construction worker and seller from Pahoa on the Big Island, also said they weren't impressed with the job Cayetano is doing to spur the economy.

The problem with Cayetano's $1 billion initiative to speed up state construction projects, a number of which are school-related, is that Cayetano cannot guarantee that all of that money will stay in Hawaii, Hironaka said. It is inevitable that some will be siphoned off by mainland firms, said Hironaka, who favors breaks for local firms.

Malasek said he hasn't seen anything the state do anything significant to spur the Big Isle economy, which has been in the doldrums since the decline of agriculture.

"I think the Democrats have been in power way too long," complained Malasek, who is having difficulty selling the homes he builds.

Hironaka, who voted for Cayetano in 1994, said Cayetano doesn't have a lock on his vote in 1998. "It all depends on who is running and what happens between now and election day," Hironaka said.