It's all relative: serving with a family member presents both challenges and opportunities.

• Author: McClure, Megan
• Position: LEGISLATORS

A willingness to collaborate, keep an open mind, put aside differences and listen to other viewpoints are qualities that come to mind when thinking of what it takes to be a successful legislator, especially in today's tense partisan environment. When speaking to lawmakers who share family ties, the cultivation of these qualities appears to come naturally.

About 25 sets of cousins, children, spouses, parents, uncles or grandchildren are serving as legislators. This is the first in a series of articles that will profile some of these special duos around the country.

Aisle-Land Hopping

For many Americans, politics is at the top of their list of topics to avoid at family gatherings. For legislators serving with family members, however, that is the topic of discussion. And, usually, it's conflict free, as most belong to the same party and share similar political persuasions.

In Hawaii, however, a rare pair of lawmakers with family ties come to issues from different chambers and different sides of the aisle. Representative Cynthia Thielen is a Republican; her daughter Senator Laura Thielen is a Democrat. The fact that a Republican representative mother can get along so well with her Democratic senator daughter has "surprised some," the representative says. But, she adds with a smile, "Hawaii is different from the mainland, obviously."

The Thielens credit their success as state legislators to the support and encouragement they have received from their family. Many have urged and encouraged both women on their political journeys. The representative describes the support her late husband--"a solid Eisenhower-type Republican"--gave his daughter, even though she was running as a Democrat. "My husband, Mickey, was a good influence in our lives. And he was extremely proud of his daughter Laura. One of the last things he did ... was to pull the nomination papers for Laura to run again for the state Senate."

Senator Thielen says that choosing to join the Democratic Party wasn't difficult, even though her parents were Republicans.

"My parents are what I call old-school Republicans. My mother is a strong environmentalist and refers to herself as a Teddy Roosevelt Republican. My father was a small-business man, who always put his employees first. So to me it seemed the best party to honor those values at the time I came of voting age was the Democratic Party."

It was her concern and passion for the environment and Hawaii's natural resources that spurred Senator Thielen to run for office. "I was angry with the Legislature for passing an extremely reckless land use law," she says, "and then nearly passing an even more damaging bill. I ran because I felt these decisions did not represent the community I lived in."

Bipartisanship Comes Naturally

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