Saiki, Patricia Fukuda (1930—)

U.S. Republican congressional representative (January 3, 1987–January 3, 1991). Name variations: Patricia Fukuda; Mrs. Stanley Mitsuo Saiki. Born Patricia Fukuda in Hilo, Hawaii, on May 28, 1930; daughter of Kazuo Fukuda and Shizue (Inoue) Fukuda; attended public schools in Hilo; University of Hawaii at Manoa, B.S., 1952; married Stanley Mitsuo Saiki, on June 19, 1954; children: Stanley Mitsuo Saiki; Sandra S. Saiki; Margaret C. Saiki; Stuart K. Saiki; Laura H. Saiki.

Patricia Fukuda Saiki was born in Hilo, Hawaii, in 1930, of Japanese ancestry. After attending public school in Hilo, she went to the University of Hawaii at Manoa, graduating with a B.S. in 1952. She then taught junior and senior high in the public schools before entering politics as a Republican. Serving first as a delegate to the Hawaii State Constitutional Convention in 1968, she was elected to the Hawaii House of Representatives later that year. She remained in the Hawaiian House until 1974, when she was elected to the state senate, where she served from 1974 to 1983. In 1982, Saiki became the Republican nominee for lieutenant governor, and from

1983 to 1985 she served as chair of the Republican Party of Hawaii.

By 1986, Saiki was living in Honolulu, which enabled her to run in a special election to fill the vacancy left when Cecil Heftel resigned as representative from Hawaii's First Congressional District in order to run for governor. Although she lost the special election to Neil Abercrombie, she won the Republican primary for the general election which was held on the same day. Saiki then won the general election held in November, defeating Democratic candidate Mufi Hannemann to become the first Republican to represent Hawaii in the U.S. House of Representatives since the islands achieved statehood in 1959. During her two terms in the House, Saiki served on the Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs, the Select Committee on Aging, and the Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries. She was instrumental in helping to secure authorization for additional land for the Kiluea National Wildlife Refuge, and co-sponsored the bill to provide compensation for Japanese-Americans interned during World War II. Saiki left the House after receiving the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate in 1990, although she lost that election to Democrat Daniel K. Akaka of Honolulu.

Saiki returned to Honolulu upon leaving Congress, but soon became the director of the Small Business Administration under President George Bush. She ran for governor again in 1994, also unsuccessfully, and two years later chaired the special advisory council on small business for Senator Bob Dole's presidential campaign.

sources:

Office of the Historian. Women In Congress, 1917–1990. Commission on the Bicentenary of the U.S. House of Representatives, 1991.

Lolly Ockerstrom , freelance writer, Washington, D.C.