Superficially, the local election scene registers several notches below the national presidential race on the excitement meter.
Below the surface, though, there are numerous hot spots that bear watching by Hawaii’s voters.
Nationally, of course, Democrat Hillary Clinton is historically positioned to become the first woman to win a major party’s presidential nomination. Business mogul and reality TV star Donald Trump leveraged his celebrity in unprecedented ways to become the presumptive GOP nominee.
There’s plenty of controversy to ignite public interest there, regardless of the voter’s partisan leanings.
Hawaii seems politically dull by comparison. Based on the candidate list inked on Tuesday, political engagement has settled into its now-characteristic low ebb, with many seats uncontested and very few changes predicted.
Even so, there’s a lot at stake. Rail, Honolulu’s biggest and most contentious public-works project, sits squarely at the center of the most hotly contested race: the battle among the top three contenders for the mayor’s seat.
Rising to the top of a crowded field of also-rans, former congressman and City Councilman Charles Djou has thrown his hat in the ring for the top job at Honolulu Hale, bumping up against the current Mayor Kirk Caldwell and his predecessor in the job, Peter Carlisle.
Djou has positioned himself as the most restrictive about spending on the rail project, a posture consistent with the general skepticism he voiced about rail while on the Council. But it also makes tactical sense, given that Caldwell and Carlisle will be competing for the more pro-rail voters.
Those watching from the sidelines can expect the debate to be an assessment of how Caldwell has done in connection with that enterprise, as well as with homelessness, street repairs and other key Oahu concerns.
To some extent this kind of unrest extends to the Honolulu City Council races as well. Windward Councilman Ikaika Anderson is unopposed, but there are challenges to incumbents in four Honolulu City Council districts, where development, as well as homelessness and the rail project, persist as major worries.
Kymberly Pine is defending her Council Ewa district seat against three challengers: longtime development critic Kioni Dudley, former Councilman Tom Berg and Marc Anthony. Council members Ann Kobayashi, Joey Manahan and Ron Menor also have rivals.
The Legislature is supposed to be a more accessible entry point into elected politics, but this year there are only scattered races of note. Republicans are making even fewer than usual knocks at the door, with the GOP waving off roughly half the legislative races. Party officials said they want to concentrate on defending the seven seats the minority holds in the House and the one in the Senate.
It’s unfortunate that the only significant opposition party to the Democrats believes that’s the best it can do, because hopes for true competition of ideas are dimmed as a result.
Three Democrats, including former Councilman Stanley Chang, seek to pick off the sole GOP state senator, Sam Slom.
Rod Tam — the former lawmaker whose years on the City Council culminated in a guilty plea to 26 misdemeanor and petty misdemeanor counts of theft and falsifying documents — is trying to make a comeback, this time as a Republican in Senate District 13. Surely the GOP can’t be counting him as a recruitment victory.
Karl Rhoads is leaving his House seat to vie for that same Senate post, vacated by longtime incumbent Suzanne Chun Oakland. Two other Democrats and a Libertarian are joining them on the ballot.
And Rhoads’ House opening has inspired a half-dozen political newcomers, five Democrats and a Republican, to take their shot.
The top races should yield few surprises. U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard and U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz seem to have easy paths to re-election, with numerous rivals but few with the campaign capacity and experience to unseat them.
Similarly, in the congressional seat vacated by U.S. Rep. Mark Takai, Colleen Hanabusa, the former congresswoman, leads the pack of competitors.
Greater uncertainty may lie in the City Charter amendments, still being hammered out, to go on the general election ballot. However, on the list is likely to be a question about the future management of the rail project.
For Oahu in particular, that issue, and the selection of the next mayor, will comprise the $8.1 billion question — or $6.9 billion, depending on which projected cost for rail turns out to be most accurate.
