by Terrie Henderson
Tribune-Herald Staff Writer

State Senate candidate Ted Hong is not happy that one of his campaign banners was removed from private property by the state's Department of Transportation. On Monday, Hong, who is running for the state Senate seat that includes parts of Hilo, Hamakua and Waimea, sent the department a "cease and desist" letter, requesting a written apology and assurance he will be notified directly if future campaign banners are taken down. He also requested disclosure of any complaint that led to taking the banner down.

Hong, a Republican, is running against state Rep. Dwight Takamine, D-Hilo, Hamakua, North Kohala, for the Senate seat currently held by Sen. Lorraine Inouye, a Democrat. Inouye is passing on re-election for that seat and is running for mayor of Hawaii County.

Hong said employees from a DOT road crew removed a campaign banner on Sunday between 1 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. from a roadside fruit stand in Onomea, about eight miles up the Hamakua Coast from Hilo. The stand is on the makai side of the highway and is owned by Hong supporter Monika Mallick.

Hong said that in 2006, the Lingle-Aiona campaign placed two banners on the same structure and no one from the DOT attempted to take those signs down.

Hong requested the department return the banner to his office no later than Thursday and asked the department to reimburse his campaign manager $500.

"This is to compensate her for her time waiting for the police to respond to her call that someone had stolen our banner, the time she took to make out a police report, the time she took to locate another banner and replace the one taken down," Hong wrote. "This also reimburses her the cost of gas for having to go back and forth to Onomea on at least two round trips and for canceling her appointments on Sunday afternoon to take care of this situation. I am not billing you for my time arising from this incident."

Hong said he wouldn't be surprised if his signs had been removed intentionally.

"The state Highways Division doesn't have permission or consent to go on private property and take down anybody's signs," Hong said. "This is typical of the 'old boy' politics that goes on here. Do I think it's personal? Yeah ... this is part of the games that go on at this period of time. I am not going to put up with these types of games. We don't have to put up with it."


Mallick said she was upset someone took the banner from her property. She considers it theft.

"We replaced the sign with a new sign," Mallick said. "Sign stealing is not OK. When it is done by a government agency it is really not OK. Why this sign? I think that is what we have to look at."

Scott Ishikawa, spokesman for the department, said road crews made an unintentional mistake by removing the sign.

"It was a mistake, and we want to apologize to Ted Hong's campaign," he said Monday afternoon. "Apparently, one of our crews got a little overzealous in checking the signs. We usually check the property maps first."

Ishikawa said the department will return the sign to Hong's campaign and someone will contact Hong directly to apologize for the incident. Ishikawa said a memo is being sent to highway staff regarding the incident.

Ishikawa said even if a campaign banner or sign is placed on state land, the department generally tries to contact the campaign and ask them to take it down themselves, instead of just removing it.