Pat Saiki

Patricia Hatsue Saiki (née Fukuda; born May 28, 1930) is an American politician and former educator from Hilo, Hawaii. A member of the Republican Party, she served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1987 to 1991 and then as Administrator of the Small Business Administration under President of the United States George H. W. Bush.

Early life

Saiki was born in Hilo, Hawaii, on May 28, 1930. Saiki graduated from Hilo High School in 1948 and received her bachelor's degree from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa in 1952. Upon graduating from college, Saiki became a teacher at Punahou, Kaimuki Intermediate, and Kalani High schools. She also taught in Toledo, Ohio, when she and her husband, Stanley Saiki, moved there for his medical school residency.

Saiki ran for office after establishing the teacher's chapter of the Hawaii Government Employees Association. Her fellow teachers encouraged her to run for office, which she did in 1968.

Political career

In 1968, Saiki joined the Hawai`i Republican Party and ran successfully for a seat in the Hawaii State House of Representatives. In 1974, she moved to the Hawaii State Senate where she served her district until 1982. A vacancy was created by U.S. Rep. Cecil Heftel's untimely resignation from Congress, and on September 20, 1986, a special election was held. Saiki lost the special election (to Democrat Neil Abercrombie) but won a separate election (over Democrat Mufi Hannemann) sending her to Congress where she served two consecutive terms. With her election in 1986, she became the first Republican elected to represent Hawaii in the House of Representatives since its statehood. In 1988, she beat challenger Mary Bitterman, a Democrat and former head of Voice of America.

Until the swearing-in of Charles Djou on May 25, 2010, Saiki was the only Republican to ever hold a House seat from the state of Hawaii and one of only two Republican Members of Congress (the other being Senator Hiram Fong) to represent the state since it gained statehood. She is also the second woman to be elected to Congress from the state of Hawaii (the first being Patsy Mink, with whom Saiki served for two years).

While in office, Saiki focused on education-related issues. She was a commissioner for the Western Interstate Commission on Higher Education, and was a member of the Fund for the Improvement of Higher Education. Though fiscally conservative, she also pushed for the redress of Japanese Americans for their internment during World War II.

Saiki voted for the Abandoned Shipwrecks Act. The Act asserts United States title to certain abandoned shipwrecks located on or embedded in submerged lands under state jurisdiction, and transfers title to the respective state, thereby empowering states to manage these cultural and historical resources more efficiently, with the goal of preventing treasure hunters and salvagers from damaging them. President Ronald Reagan signed it into law on April 28, 1988.

In 1990, she lost a United States Senate race to Daniel Akaka, but was then appointed Administrator of the Small Business Administration under President George H. W. Bush. In 1994, she lost a race for Governor of Hawaii against Democratic challenger Ben Cayetano. Saiki subsequently chaired the Hawaii Presidential campaign of former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani in 2008 and the 2010 and 2012 congressional campaigns of Charles Djou. She served from 2014 to 2015 as chair of the Republican Party of Hawaii.

Electoral history

See also

• Women in the United States House of Representatives
• List of Asian Americans and Pacific Islands Americans in the United States Congress

Sources

• at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress

External links

• on C-SPAN