Never mind the buzz about the 2018 campaigns for Hawaii governor and congressional seats.
The jockeying has begun at Honolulu Hale over who will take over the third-floor corner office at City Hall after incumbent Mayor Kirk Caldwell leaves when his term runs out in 2020 — if not sooner.
City Council members Ikaika Anderson and Kymberly Pine both acknowledged to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser last week that they have established exploratory committees to look into full-fledged campaigns for mayor.
Anderson and Pine have been close political allies on the nine-member Council, and were key members of the leadership team that unseated longtime Council Chairman Ernie Martin from his post last year and replaced him with Ron Menor.
Both Anderson and Pine insisted to the Star-Advertiser that they will be able to continue to work well together despite their mutual interest in the mayor’s race.
Those assurances, however, didn’t stop the two from issuing separate press statements last week announcing that their individual efforts persuaded developers of the ProsPac Tower on Keeaumoku Street to do away with a controversial plan for separate entrances for residents in the market-priced and affordable units.
Anderson is chairman of the Council Planning Committee; Pine leads the Zoning and Housing Committee.
The latest electioneering reports filed with the state Campaign Spending Commission show that Anderson’s campaign war chest had $373,049 as of June 30. Friends of J. Ikaika Anderson has held three fundraisers in 2017, the latest in October in Los Angeles.
As of June 30, Friends of Kymberly Pine had a war chest of $156,147. The committee has had five fundraisers in 2017, including events in Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles in June and November, respectively.
Anderson, 39, said many people both on Oahu and outside of it have encouraged him to run for mayor.
“I plan to do just that, but I won’t make any formal announcements at this time,” he said. “I want to go and do my due diligence and talk story out in the community.”
When he unsuccessfully ran for the U.S. House of Representatives seat in 2014, people told him then that the mayor’s seat would be a better fit for him, he said. Anderson won a special election to represent Council District 2 (Windward Oahu) on the Council in 2009 following the death of Barbara Marshall, for whom Anderson was an aide. He was elected to additional four-year terms in 2012 and 2016.
Pine, 47, said she was thinking about leaving politics behind her when her term representing Council District 9 (West Oahu) runs out in 2020, but began reconsidering the future when several different political polls, none paid for by her, showed her doing well in a mayoral competition.
Before fully jumping into the mayor’s race, however, candidates have to be sure they can raise the money for a campaign, gain enough supporters and be able to show they’ve gathered enough experience to do the job, Pine said. People in the community have asked her to consider a congressional or statewide race, “but my main focus is the city right now,” she said. “I just love what I’m doing, and I’m just seeing there’s just so much more left to do.”
Honolulu Hale watchers contend Menor and former Mayor Mufi Hannemann should be in the conversation of possible 2020 mayoral candidates.
Like Anderson and Pine, the 61-year-old Menor was re-elected in 2016 and therefore will “term out” in 2020 and be ineligible to seek re-election. His District 9 Council seat runs from Mililani to Ewa Beach.
A former state senator and representative, as well as a onetime congressional candidate, Menor told the Star-Advertiser in a text message Friday that he’s focused on continuing to lead the Council. “The race for mayor is three years away and is not something I give much attention to,” he said.
Hannemann, 63, who resigned midway into his second term as mayor in 2010 to run for governor in a race eventually won by Neil Abercrombie, is also mum.
“It’s too early to speculate on what might be happening in 2020,” said Hannemann, currently president and CEO of the Hawaii Lodging and Tourism Association. Hannemann ran unsuccessfully for U.S. House in 2012 and governor in 2014 but sat out the 2016 elections.
