It’s like standing in front of the menu board of a plate lunch place that has nothing going for it except that it’s still open, knowing that you have to choose between two specials that don’t look very special and realizing that though one is pork and one is chicken, they’re both gonna taste the same anyway.
That’s what the Democratic primary for governor is like.
Every time Colleen Hanabusa and David Ige meet to debate, we get another reminder of how salty yet bland they both are; how neither offers any excitement for a bright new beginning; how they’re Democratic Party leftovers who rose up through attrition rather than by stellar feats of leadership.
Here’s a big difference between David Ige and Colleen Hanabusa: Ige learned from his mistake.
After the fake-missile fiasco, which revealed with stunning clarity how Ige is the loathsome opposite of a quick-thinking, fleet-footed, don’t-worry-I-got-this action hero who could lead us all out of danger, fate gave Ige two more huge do-overs.
After the April storm that swept through the north shore of Kauai and caused massive flooding in East Honolulu, Ige positioned himself as, if not the action hero, at least the guy who was there to help the people who were there to help. He got disaster declarations declared, sent in National Guard troops, visited the damage dressed in jeans that didn’t look like they were recently purchased for flood-visiting. He was not going to get caught looking like a dopey deer in the headlights again.
And then, when Kilauea started erupting in May, Ige stood by Harry Kim, sending troops, giving interviews and pledging funding. Not the most heroic thing, but he was there, moving like lava — slow, determined, though definitely not fiery — away from the political crater left by his missile debacle.
Hanabusa has not figured out how to leverage a natural disaster to her political benefit.
After Tropical Storm Iselle in August 2014, when two primary election polling places couldn’t open because of damage in Puna, Hanabusa had the chance to make up the 1,200-vote difference between herself and Brian Schatz in the race for U.S. Senate by campaigning to the 7,000 or so voters who had not yet had a chance to cast their ballots. Hanabusa put on a T-shirt bearing her campaign logo and served chili to storm victims. Maybe the chili was bland or maybe voters were turned off by the fact that Hanabusa went to court to try to delay the election or maybe Schatz was just better at looking like he was there helping to help, not helping to campaign. In any case, Hanabusa didn’t make use of the opportunity of that crisis and didn’t seem to learn from that experience.
Yes, it’s totally cynical to talk about destructive flooding on two islands, the massive impact of an ongoing eruption and the devastation of a tropical storm in terms of what political gain can be made of it, right? Yet that is often one sure impact of a natural disaster: Somebody is going to come out looking like the hero, and somebody is going to be the goat. Wearing campaign logo shirts while glad-handing around local recovery efforts can certainly backfire, but staying away from the action may be an even bigger risk.
Reach Lee Cataluna at 529-4315 or lcataluna@staradvertiser.com.
