State Sen. Josh Green has emerged as the leading Democrat in the primary campaign for lieutenant governor, riding a well-funded campaign that is getting an extra boost from a super PAC financed by the Hawaii Regional Council of Carpenters.
The carpenters in 2012 backed a controversial political action committee that helped sink former Gov. Ben Cayetano’s bid to become Honolulu mayor. This year its new super PAC, called Be Change Now, fielded advertising in support of Green.
The Star-Advertiser’s Hawaii Poll found Green, 48, leading a crowded lieutenant governor’s Democratic primary race that includes Kauai Mayor Bernard Carvalho, state Sen. Jill Tokuda, state Sen. Will Espero and former state Board of Education member Kim Coco Iwamoto.
Republicans running for lieutenant governor are Marissa Kerns, Steven Lipscomb and Jeremy Lowe.
Green, a physician who served in the state House from 2004 to 2008 and in the state Senate for the past decade, says he plans to “take ownership of the homeless crisis” if he is elected lieutenant governor. He said he plans to address the mental health and substance abuse issues that contribute to homelessness, with a special focus on opioid addiction.
Carvalho has stressed his cultural roots, his aloha and his administrative experience from nearly a decade as the chief executive of Kauai.
“It’s important for us to understand that natural resource management, honoring our culture, honoring our land, making our decisions based upon the water that flows and how we connect with the aina, and how we make decisions of the future based on the past so everything can flow in a pono way is very important,” he said.
Iwamoto, who describes herself as a Democratic socialist, is a lawyer and a therapeutic foster parent, and said the state is underfunding education. She argued the state’s corporate income tax is too low and that property taxes on owners who live outside the state should be increased to raise money to cope with homelessness and poverty in Hawaii.
Espero served in the state House and Senate for 19 years until he resigned in May to run for lieutenant governor. He has stressed his work as chairman of the Senate Housing Committee advocating for more affordable housing, and said he wants to be the “point man” on housing for the next state administration.
Tokuda, who has represented Kailua and Kaneohe in the state Senate since 2006, has emphasized her support for education when she was chairwoman of the Senate’s Education Committee and Ways and Means Committee. She calls education “the great equalizer” — recalling for audiences that she is the first of her family to attend college.
She suggested that the governor ought to make the lieutenant governor the chairman of the state Board of Education, “and let’s start to define this (job) as not a ceremonial role.”
Primary Election Candidates by Honolulu Star-Advertiser on Scribd
Primary Election Polling Places by Honolulu Star-Advertiser on Scribd
