Hawaii is the country for old men; old women, too.
Hawaii is increasingly home to an elderly population. This shows up in the candidates running for office and also in the ages of the incumbents.
Hawaii’s two U.S. senators, Dan Inouye and Dan Akaka, are both 87. Gov. Neil Abercrombie will be 74 on June 26 and former Gov. Ben Cayetano, now running for Honolulu mayor, is 72. Also 72 is former Hawaii island Mayor Harry Kim, who is now running for his old job.
If you look at politics as a job, says Neal Milner, University of Hawaii political science professor, Inouye and the others could easily retire. In fact, Akaka is completing his last term, but for others, the decision is to stay.
"We envy them for the sheer pleasure they get from doing what they have always done, but worry that they will never know when to stop," says Milner.
"You can understand older people staying in or jumping back into politics, if you keep in mind that holding political office and running for that office are pleasurable, enough so to keep people doing it and drawing people back," Milner said.
So good for them, but what about us? Where is the new blood, the new ideas or the new energy to find answers to the problems that an older generation never solved?
"Our community is sorely in need of leaders who are able to step up," said Randy Perreira, executive director of the Hawaii Government Employees Association, the state’s largest union.
Perreira is also president of the Hawaii AFL-CIO and meets regularly with other community leaders such as Tim Johns, senior vice president of HMSA, and Mike McCartney, executive director of the Hawaii Tourism Authority.
"The three of us are of the same age (early 50s); our generation felt left aside politically. Today, look who is running for office — and this is not a knock; I don’t want to sound like I am discriminating against seniors — but look who is running today.
"It is people who served 15 or 20 years ago," Perreira said.
Indeed, in legislative races this year, five Senate candidates are former legislators and 11 House races include out-of-office lawmakers.
For many different reasons, Perreira said, "the elected folks today have not done enough to get their generation and the generation behind them into politics."
Perreira acknowledged that he and his buddies are all part of Honolulu’s insiders network: "We are not exactly outsiders, you know."
So if the politicians won’t do it, someone else has to bring about a new group.
"Irrespective of party, there isn’t a strong bench for future leaders because I don’t think the leaders who remain in power today have nurtured the younger leaders or given them the opportunity to step up," Perreira said in an interview.
"Those of us in the community are going to have to step up to provide a different level of guidance and leadership because generally speaking, it is not coming from the elected people," he said.
Barbara Kim Stanton, Hawaii AARP executive director, sees the issue, but notes that because "we are moving to a more senior population," some of that white hair is normal.
"This doesn’t surprise me," she said in response to my questions.
First, she said, the older politicians have been around long enough to know how to play the game and win.
"The people who are seniors now remember what it was like to build the state. Those who were left out, knew the only way to break into the system was politics. It was their way in, and they know how to do it," said Stanton.
Seniors know that voting is important, Stanton said, adding that all the programs to make voting easier don’t compare to the simple will to go vote.
"Seniors take extraordinary effort to vote," she said. "The generation that cared so much about it, understands that for things that matter, you make the time to do it."
So far, the Obama generation has been absent in this election. If the old gang that runs things is to be upended, the missing younger generation has to show up and show that it can win.
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Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Reach him at rborreca@staradvertiser.com.
