State Attorney General Douglas Chin is laying the groundwork for his first political campaign, which will be a run for the U.S. House seat being vacated by U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa, sources said.
Chin has sought expert legal advice to prepare for his fundraising efforts and is working with a public relations company to help with the election, and also prepared a video to be released in the weeks ahead to help publicize the launch of his campaign, according to a source familiar with those preparations.
Chin is a veteran Honolulu prosecutor who established a national profile as Hawaii attorney general when he filed a series of legal challenges to the policies of President Donald Trump, including Trump’s efforts to restrict immigration. Chin is the son of Chinese immigrants.
In what may be his best-known case, filings by Chin’s office convinced federal District Judge Derrick K. Watson to issue a nationwide restraining order March 15 that barred the federal government from enforcing portions of a Trump executive order on immigration.
That order, which had been scheduled to take effect the following day, would have restricted immigration from Iran, Syria, Somalia, Sudan, Libya and Yemen, and also temporarily suspended refugee admissions.
Watson issued another nationwide restraining order Oct. 17 at Chin’s request blocking enforcement of another version of Trump’s travel restrictions. Chin argued that executive order by Trump “discriminates against people based on their nation of origin or religion.”
Colin Moore, director of the Public Policy Center at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, said Chin’s attacks on Trump’s policies have been quite popular among Hawaii’s heavily Democratic voters. It has been conventional wisdom in political circles for many months that Chin would run, he said.
“He made himself into a bit of a local folk hero, and that’s going to be a really compelling campaign message,” Moore said.
He also predicted Chin will benefit from the fact that he has been involved in government for years, but is not seen as part of the “political establishment” in Hawaii.
“He’s not running as an elected official, he’s running as the attorney general, and I think that gives him a bit more credibility with the public that is pretty skeptical of a lot of mainstream Democratic leaders now,” Moore said.
He said Chin also will likely be able to use contacts he made as attorney general and as Honolulu managing director to help raise money for his campaign.
Political observers said Chin has been so effective at using the attorney general’s post to raise his profile that he is reluctant to give the job up to campaign full time.
His office has issued a stream of news releases, including one Tuesday in which Chin announced he had joined a coalition of 17 attorneys general who wrote to Trump objecting to his appointment of Mick Mulvaney as acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Chin served for 12 years in the Honolulu prosecuting attorney’s office, where he tried about 50 jury cases to verdicts. He later served as city managing director from 2010 to 2013 under former Honolulu Mayor Peter Carlisle, who is a former city prosecutor.
Chin went on to work as managing partner at the Carlsmith Ball law firm before he was appointed attorney general by Democratic Gov. David Ige in January 2015.
Chin holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Stanford University, and graduated from the University of Hawaii’s William S. Richardson School of Law. He did not respond to several requests for comment this month on his political plans.
Hanabusa, a Democrat, has announced she is leaving Hawaii’s 1st Congressional District seat representing urban Honolulu to challenge Ige for governor in 2018.
Also running for the urban Honolulu House seat in the Democratic primary are state Sen. Donna Mercado Kim (D, Kalihi Valley-Moanalua-Halawa), Honolulu city Councilman Ernie Martin and state Rep. Kaniela Ing (D, South Maui).
