HAWAII: Old Faces for Baby

About to become the bouncing baby of all the U.S. states, Hawaii seems determined to send to Washington as its first Senators two of the oldest political faces in the land of the luau. Indeed, last week Hawaiian Democrats pressured out of the June 27 Senate primary race the party’s youngest, brightest star: Territorial Senator Daniel K. Inouye, 34, a lawyer who lost his right arm and won a D.S.C. as a second lieutenant platoon leader in World War II’s famed “Go For Broke” Nisei 442nd Regimental Combat Team. Agreeing to try for Hawaii’s lone House of Representatives seat instead, Inouye made no bones about the reason for his decision: “It would give some elder statesmen in our party a clear field.”

With Democrats favored to win in the July 28 general election, Inouye’s step-down prevented a party-splitting, potentially ruinous primary battle that had been threatening since a self-declared “team” of septuagenarians set their misting sights on the Senate seats. The team: Oren E. (for Ethelbirt) Long, 70, onetime (1951-53) Governor of Hawaii; William H. Heen, 76, Chinese-American ex-president of the territorial senate (1954-58). Said Bill Heen in asserting his right to a place in the Senate: “I have given long service to the Democratic Party in Hawaii, and I have many friends in Washington.” As for Danny Inouye, he had enhanced his already strong position by acting in the interests of party loyalty—and he could afford to wait.