Congresswoman Colleen Hanabusa officially launched her campaign for Hawaii governor Monday against
Gov. David Ige, saying Hawaii needs new leadership at the top to tackle critical issues like lack of affordable housing and limited job opportunities for future generations.
“I stand here today thinking about Hawaii’s future, about how we as a community envision our state not just in 2018, but in the years and decades ahead,” Hanabusa, 66, told a crowd of supporters on the lawn of the state Capitol.
“I’m thinking about these things because at the highest level of state government today, there is a deeply troubling lack of leadership and vision. There is a profound sense that we are adrift and rudderless. … Meanwhile, the challenges facing our state and communities go unanswered day after day. In fact, the problems grow worse through inattention, through indecision and through inaction.”
Hanabusa, who holds the U.S. House seat representing urban Honolulu, announced in September that she was exploring a run for governor. A longtime labor lawyer, she has served nearly 20 years in elected office, including 12 years in the state Senate, where she became Hawaii’s first female state Senate president. She was first elected to the U.S. House in 2010, when then-U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie stepped down to run for governor.
Hanabusa on Monday criticized Ige for a perceived lack of leadership in such areas as affordable housing, homelessness, job creation and infrastructure.
“I am running for governor because I believe the people of Hawaii deserve better. It is time to step up, take action and move ahead,” she said. “We need to take action to create more affordable housing for our families and our seniors — not only luxury penthouses for the super-rich. We need to attract and support businesses that create well-paying, long-term jobs for our people.”
On homelessness, she said, “Solving homelessness requires that the state be much more than a passive coordinator,” adding later that she supports the idea of so-called safe zones or sanctioned encampments.
Hanabusa also faulted Ige’s oversight of botched public works projects, saying there needs to be more accountability of taxpayer dollars.
“We must run state operations expecting excellence and accountability, whether we’re upgrading an IT system at the Tax Department or building a hangar at the airport,” she said.
Gov. Ige defended his record, citing his work to cool public school classrooms with air conditioning, protecting watershed forests and challenging policies of the Trump administration through legal actions.
“It is one thing to criticize, and it is another to get the people’s business done. I am proud of our record during the last three years,” Ige said in a statement released by his campaign.
“We have made hard decisions, sometimes unpopular decisions, because it was the right thing to do and in the best interests of the
people of this state,” he added. “I may not be the typical politician, but what we need today is less politics and more hard work. … That is the kind of leadership I believe Hawaii deserves.”
In the audience of Hanabusa supporters Monday were former Govs. Ben Cayetano and George Ariyoshi, Senate President Ron Kouchi and Senate Vice President
Michelle Kidani, House Speaker Scott Saiki and House Finance Chairwoman Sylvia Luke, and Honolulu City Council members Ann Kobayashi and Trevor Ozawa.
Cayetano said afterward that he considers both Ige and Hanabusa personal friends.
“But friendship is not the criteria to be governor,” Cayetano said. “I think Colleen, having worked with her, she has the stuff. She’s a leader.”
