LAT didn't look very hard for Hawaii Republicans

If you started reading a newspaper story that began like this:

These are wearisome days to be a Republican in Hawaii. The state has voted consistently Democratic since statehood, but now that Hawaii is home state to the country's president, the Republican Party's meager presence seems to be drizzling down to nothing.

Saying you're a Republican in Hawaii "is like saying you're a leper," said Palcic, a heavyset man who owns an Apple computer repair shop in Honolulu....

"You don't even hear the word 'Republican' in Hawaii," said Helene Webster, a volunteer receptionist in the office.

Would you then be surprised to discover, in a throwaway line at the end of the 20th paragraph, this seemingly huge fact?:

The state's current governor is the only Republican elected to that office since 1962.

Wait: the state's highest elected politician — today, right now — is a Republican? They don't even use her name, in a story claiming that Republicans are invisible in Hawaii. For the record, Linda Lingle — a former Angeleno and a journalism alumnus of Cal State Northridge — has been the Republican governor of Hawaii for seven years. She's also the state's first Jewish governor.