Judy Carpenter

**Judith Louise Carpenter** (née **Dale**; born 2 August 1953) is a Hawaiian politician who served as chairperson of the Hawaii National Party from 2007 until 2010, becoming the first woman to serve in the position. Carpenter had additionally served as minister of education and culture in the second Loughlin ministry from 2002 until 2003, as minister of the interior in the Daichi ministry from 2004 until 2006, and had represented Oahu in the House of Representatives from 1998 until 2014.

Born in San Francisco, Carpenter moved to Hawaii as a child and was raised in Kapalua, Maui. After graduating from Seabury Hall in 1971, Carpenter enrolled in Maui College, graduating with a degree in communications in 1975. Following the completion of her education, Carpenter briefly worked as a substitute teacher for elementary schoolers until leaving her career to become a homemaker and move to Oahu in 1977. In the 1990s, Carpenter became politically active with the Hawaii National Party, and began volunteering her time with her local Oahu chapter of the party. She later was elected vice president of the Hawaii National Party women's wing in 1994, and later president in 1996.

Carpenter began her career in national elected politics in 1998, when she was elected to the House of Representatives for the HNP in the 1998 general election. After taking her seat in parliament, Carpenter focused her legislation on issues affecting families, children, women, and education. Following the 2002 general election, Carpenter was nominated by Eric Loughlin to serve as minister of education and culture in his second ministry, and she was appointed to the office by Queen Keʻalohilani on 15 August. Carpenter saw her public recognition rise significantly while in the position due to her public disagreements with Loughlin over certain education policy initiatives, and she later resigned from the position on 31 December 2003. After returning to the backbench, Carpenter found herself aligning with the emerging centrist faction of the party that supported moderate social policy and center-right economic policy, led by Charles Daichi. After Daichi succeeded Loughlin as party chairperson on 19 June 2004, Carpenter was nominated by him to serve as minister of the interior in the Daichi ministry, becoming one of Daichi's closest advisors.

Following the party's failure in the 2006 general election, Daichi resigned as party chairperson and prime minister, and a subsequent leadership election was called. Emerging as one of the favorites to win the election, Carpenter later declared her candidacy, and was the only member of the Daichi ministry to advance to the general ballot, attempting to allow the centrist bloc of the party to coalesce around her instead of split the vote. During her leadership campaign, Carpenter promised that she would bring the HNP back to the majority under her tenure, and that she would resign from the leadership if she was unable to capitalize on her promise. Carpenter later won the election decisively with 52.5% of the vote, becoming the first woman to lead the Hawaii National Party. As party chairperson, Carpenter continued to push for centrist reforms within the party that Daichi had previously advocated for, such as adding the legalization of same-sex civil unions to the party platform. She led the party into the 2010 general election, where the party failed to capitalize on her electoral promises and actually lost seats. Following the disastrous results, Carpenter faced pressure, specifically from the center-right bloc of the party, to resign from the leadership, and she ultimately tendered her resignation. Carpenter continued to serve in parliament until 2014, when she retired from politics.

During her tenure as party chairperson, Carpenter was cited as one of the most powerful women in Hawaiian political history, and as the most powerful female HNP politician of all-time, being the first woman to ever lead the party. Ideologically, Carpenter has been described as a liberal and a moderate, who has supported socially liberal policies and economically moderate policies. She was instrumental in getting the party to adopt a pro-LGBT rights platform, which had previously been a contentious issue within the HNP and Hawaiian politics in general.

## Early life and education

Carpenter was born on 2 August 1953 in San Francisco to parents Anthony (1927–2014) and Elizabeth Dale (née *Borgstrom*; 1930–2016). Her father was a luxury realtor of English, German, Irish, Scottish, and Welsh origin, while her mother was a homemaker of German and Swedish origin. Carpenter was raised in a Lutheran family. She is the eldest of four children; her younger siblings include Anthony (born 1955), John (born 1960), and Amelia (born 1962). Carpenter spent her early life residing in Palo Alto, a suburban city in between San Francisco and San Jose.

In 1961, when Carpenter was seven years old, the family moved from California to Hawaii when her father decided to get into the Hawaiian luxury vacation home real estate market. After the move, the family resided in Kapalua on the island of Maui, in a large home that her father had designed. While initially only planning to stay in Hawaii for a few years, the family ultimately decided to remain permanently. Carpenter attended private schooling in Maui and enrolled in Seabury Hall, an independent, coeducational, 6–12 school affiliated with the Episcopal Church. She later graduated from the school in 1971, as one of its first graduating classes. After graduating, Carpenter remained in Maui and enrolled in Maui College, receiving a degree in communications in 1975.

## Political career

### Early politics

Having spent most of her life as an "apolitical person," Carpenter first became interested in politics in the late-1970s and 1980s, due to her and her husband's opposition to the Democratic-Conservative Party and prime ministers Michael and Louise MacPherson, which many of their friends and family members supported enthusiastically. After beginning to research politics more closely, she and her husband both registered with the Hawaii National Party in the mid-1980s.

After her children were older, Carpenter became involved in her local Hawaii National Party chapter in Oahu, volunteering her time and participating in local meetings. She later was elected vice president of the Hawaii National Party women's wing in 1994, and was later elected president in 1996. With this position, Carpenter lobbied the central party body to include more women as parliamentary candidates, and also to focus more on issues affecting women and families.

Carpenter later began her career in elected national politics in 1998, when she was elected to the House of Representatives in Oahu for the HNP in the 1998 general election. After taking her seat in parliament, Carpenter focused her legislation on issues affecting families, children, women, and education.

### Education and culture minister

Following the 2002 general election, Eric Loughlin enacted a cabinet reshuffle to create his second ministry. In the reshuffle, Carpenter was nominated to serve as minister of education and culture, and she was officially appointed by Queen Keʻalohilani on 15 August 2002. As education and culture minister, Andersen is responsible for overseeing the Hawaiian public education system, education policy, private education regulations, arts policy, public administration of museums, galleries, libraries, and theatres, and arts funding.

After taking office, Carpenter publicly supported maintaining the agreed upon level of funding for public education and arts initiatives without much change. She spearheaded several programs with the intention to focus as public arts showcases for Hawaiian artists, which received positive reception. However, Carpenter's reluctance to defund certain educational programs led to disputes between herself and Loughlin. By September 2003, it was reported by the Hawaiian media that she was "on the way out" and was expected to be dismissed or resign shortly. She later confirmed her resignation in November 2003, which was effective 31 December. After resigning from the cabinet, she returned to the backbench.

### Interior minister

Following her resignation from the cabinet, Carpenter situated herself as a bloc of the emerging centrist faction of the Hawaii National Party, led by Charles Daichi. After Loughlin found himself entrenched in a corruption scandal, he tendered his resignation as party chairperson and prime minister in March 2004. After the announcement, a leadership election was called. The Hawaiian media considered Carpenter a possible candidate in the election, but she ultimately denied any interest and endorsed the candidacy of Daichi. Daichi went on to win the election, and was soon afterwards sworn in as party chairperson and prime minister.

After Daichi became prime minister, he made selections for his cabinet, and Carpenter was nominated to serve as minister of the interior in the Daichi ministry. She was officially appointed to the position by Queen Keʻalohilani on 19 June 2004. As interior minister, Carpenter was responsible for overseeing Hawaiian national security, the immigration and citizenship system, election security, national intelligence, and emergency management. The position is typically considered to be one of the more senior ministerial posts, and Carpenter was identified by the Hawaiian media as a member of Daichi's "inner circle," and a serious contender for future leadership roles within the party.

As interior secretary, Carpenter attempted to "toughen" her public image, as she tried to reconcile her previous public perception as a former housewife focused on issues affecting families and women, into her desired image as a serious politician who was in charge of handling high-profile issues such as immigration and national security. Her immigration policies were criticized by left-wing immigrant rights advocates for being unnecessarily harsh, which Carpenter later stated were due to pressure from her team during her attempts to toughen her public image. The party later lost in the 2006 general election, and Carpenter resigned from her position as interior secretary to make way for the incoming government.

### Party chairperson

After the party's loss in the 2006 election, Daichi resigned as party chairperson and prime minister, paving the way for another leadership election. Considered one of the favorites to succeed Daichi, Carpenter ultimately declared her candidacy in the election, and emerged as a frontrunner. In the nominations period, Carpenter was one of several former Daichi cabinet ministers from the centrist bloc to throw their hat into the ring, but Carpenter was able to establish herself as the clear frontrunner for the faction. Due to this, all other Daichi cabinet ministers decided to withdraw their candidacies and endorse Carpenter, in an effort to prevent the vote splitting and a right-wing candidate winning instead.

Ultimately, Carpenter was one of four candidates to advance to the general bloc, and the only candidate who was a Daichi cabinet minister and who was identified as belonging to the centrist bloc of the HNP. During the election, she campaigned on the promise of returning the Hawaii National Party to the government, and that she would resign if that was not achieved in the upcoming election. She went on to win the leadership election decisively, after securing 52.5% of the vote in a field of four candidates. Following her victory, she took office as party chairperson, becoming the first woman to lead the Hawaii National Party. After becoming party chairperson, Carpenter continued the centrist reforms first implemented by her predecessor. She received nationwide recognition and praise from left-wing groups and LGBT rights associations for adding the legalization of same-sex civil unions to the official party platform in 2007. She was later named the Hawaiian woman of the year by *TIME Hawaii* for the year of 2007.

#### Resignation and retirement

Carpenter led the party into the 2010 general election, her first election as party chairperson. Initial polling was promising for the party, as they were expected to at the very least win back a number of seats previously lost in 2006, and at best win a plurality of seats and likely return to the government. Despite promising a return to the government during her 2007 leadership campaign, Carpenter and her team figured that as long as the party could win back seats, her position would not be challenged.

However, the results ultimately proved to be disastrous, and the party continued to lose more seats after polling was proven incorrect. Pollsters took responsibility for the errors, following an overemphasis of Japanese-Hawaiian voters in their polling. After the result, Carpenter faced numerous calls from the center-right faction of the party to resign, thus following through on her prior electoral promise. Despite her political allies defending her and publicly calling for her to remain party chairperson, Carpenter ultimately decided to tender her resignation, due to being unable to fulfill her campaign promises. A subsequent leadership election was called, which was later won by David Chang. Chang officially succeeded Carpenter as party chairperson on 25 November 2010.

After resigning, Carpenter remained a prominent member of the centrist bloc of HNP parliamentarians, although she opted to spend less time in the spotlight in order to "allow newcomers to rise to prominence." She completed her term in parliament, and then opted not to run for reelection in the 2014 general election, retiring from politics.

## Post-political career

After retiring from her political career, Carpenter spent time away from the public eye, until later being hired as a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley to teach courses on political science. She remained in the position for a year, until returning to Hawaii in 2016.

In 2017, she released her best-selling memoir *A Woman of Many Firsts* (2017), which chronicled her rise to prominence in Hawaiian politics, including information on her political background, tenure as education and culture minister, interior minister, and party chairperson, up until her decision to resign from the party leadership and later retire from politics. In 2018, she became a recurring political commentator for Hawaii TV.

## Personal life

Carpenter began a relationship with Hawaiian luxury realtor John Carpenter in 1972. They later became engaged in 1974, and married in 1976. Following their marriage, she moved to Oahu, and the family began residing in Kailua. They have three children together: Macy (born 1978), Beth (born 1980), and Jason (born 1983).

Carpenter is a dual citizen of California and Hawaii; she naturalized as a Hawaiian citizen in 1980, after nearly two decades of residence in the country. She identifies herself as a nondenominational Christian.