The overall mood of the Hawaii Republican Party in 2022 likely will be revealed through the Aug. 13 primary election when voters have a choice of a diverse slate of candidates who appeal to distinctly different tastes.
Ten candidates are running to move on to the Nov. 8 general election race for Hawaii’s next governor against the Democratic Party nominee. But it’s the three Republican candidates with the highest name recognition who are perhaps the most diverse and offer distinct choices for party members:
>> BJ Penn, a member of the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) Hall of Fame following a successful career in mixed martial arts, appeals to frustrated Republicans with a populist message that includes former President Donald Trump’s 2020 urging that voters ignore their mail-in ballots and vote in person on Election Day to reduce voter fraud. As Hawaii shifted in the last election to mail-in ballots with a few open polling stations on Election Day, every voting site across the state was overwhelmed and forced to stay open late, delaying election returns for more than four hours.
Penn, 43, has a criminal record that includes assaults, drunken driving and a no-contest plea in 2005 to assaulting a police officer, for which he served a year of probation. Penn’s criminal history is hardly a liability, according to Colin Moore, director of the University of Hawaii’s Public Policy Center.
“People who are going to vote for BJ Penn don’t care about that stuff,” Moore said.
He and his campaign have not responded to multiple requests for comments about his candidacy.
>> Honolulu City Council member Heidi Tsuneyoshi gave up likely reelection to her nonpartisan Council seat to instead run for governor. Her vast Council District 2 runs from Mililani Mauka to Mokuleia on one side of the North Shore to Kahaluu on the other.
Tsuneyoshi, 47, carries a more traditional, fiscal-conservative Republican message.
>> James “Duke” Aiona, 67, a former Circuit Court judge and lieutenant governor, regularly cites his Christian faith as he makes his third run for the state’s highest office after winning back-to-back Republican primaries but losing consecutively to Neil Abercrombie and then to Gov. David Ige.
The Republican Party — both locally and across the nation — has changed dramatically after Aiona and former Gov. Linda Lingle left office in 2010 after two terms. How much it’s changed in Hawaii will be determined by the votes cast for Penn, Tsuneyoshi and Aiona, Moore said.
Tsuneyoshi agrees.
“That’s a pretty accurate description of what’s happening with our candidacies,” she said.
Moore maintained he would not be surprised to see Aiona and Tsuneyoshi split the more traditional Republican vote, leaving Penn as his party’s de facto leader heading into the general election.
“People who are underestimating him are making a mistake,” Moore said. “He has a lot of support from Republican voters, and there are two mainstream Republicans — Heidi Tsuneyoshi and Aiona — who will split the vote. BJ Penn offers that angry, populist alternative.”
More traditional Republicans “say there’s no way they’re going to vote for him,” Moore said.
But Penn is channeling some “people’s anger at the state from COVID to mask mandates in schools,” Moore said. “His appeal includes calling out (Schools Superintendent) Keith Hayashi at a Board of Education meeting.”
In a video posted on the “BJ Penn For Governor” YouTube page, Penn attended a BOE meeting in May where he told Hayashi and the board that if he is elected governor, “all you guys are gone.”
With Penn, Aiona and Tsuneyoshi running, this year’s Republican Party primary election represents one of the most competitive in decades, Moore said.
The other Republican candidates for governor are Gary Cordery, George (Big Al) Hawat, Keline Kahau, Lynn Barry Mariano, Paul Morgan, Moses (Momo) Paskowitz and Walter Woods.
Tsuneyoshi could doom her political future after giving up her nonpartisan Council seat and identifying herself as a Republican in a state dominated by the Democratic Party, Moore said.
But Tsuneyoshi told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that she chose to run to help struggling families while remaining “transparent and fiscally conservative.”
“A reelection would have been easier, but I’m not interested in building a political career,” she said. “We cannot afford another four years” of Democratic control.
Tsuneyoshi was born to a Native Hawaiian mother from Wahiawa and her Georgia-born father, who was a chief petty officer working in Navy intelligence, stationed at Whitmore Village in a building with no windows.
“It was a very traditional Republican family,” she said.
Tsuneyoshi is the oldest of two brothers and a sister. Their father’s job took them to Washington, D.C., when Tsuneyoshi was 3, and then Okinawa and to Washington state.
“Home is here, still in Wahiawa,” she said.
Although her values align with traditional Republicans, Tsuneyoshi said she grew up “an independent thinker most of my life” and has not always voted along party lines.
“It should not be about party,” Tsuneyoshi said. “It should be about helping people.”
Still, the decision to run as a Republican was not easy and resulted from “a lot of thinking, a lot of soul- searching, a lot of deciding.”
Despite record funding for some programs passed by the Democratic-dominated Legislature last session, Tsuneyoshi said she wants to help struggling families “be empowered and live in their homes and thrive, not just survive. Just saying, ‘Here’s some money’ is a pacifier.”
Tsuneyoshi insisted that she is focused on winning the campaign to help people — and not on a political future if she should lose.
“Here and nationally, the concern is how politics divide people rather than bring them together,” she said. “People are so frustrated. I understand how government plays a huge role. My main focus is to bring government back to the people.”
If she loses, Tsuneyoshi said she will work to help people “wherever that can be.”
She has a background in mental health treatment as a counselor, and “we’ll see how things are.”
Aiona told the Star-Advertiser that he respects all of the Republican candidates seeking to become Hawaii’s next governor “because they all stepped up. Like me, they’re frustrated.”
Aiona also acknowledged that the Republican Party has changed dramatically since he last held elected office.
But unlike first-time candidates for governor, Aiona said his message to Republican voters is: “I’m proven. You guys know me. You know my heart. You’ve trusted me in the past. Now let’s move forward Republicans.”
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