Hawaii’s Democratic governors have for decades drawn a connection back to the beginning of the state’s modern Democratic Party — largely through the work of country lawyer and political guru Bob Oshiro.

He was dubbed the “Wizard of Wahiawa” as gubernatorial winners John A. Burns, George Ariyoshi and John Waihee saw their victories as the result of the experience, political savvy and political networking of Democrat Oshiro.

As Oshiro was quoted in a recent Hawaii Public Radio remembrance, “It’s so easy to rely on media, and media is something everybody sees, and all that. But, in the Waihee campaign, we were out-blitzed media-wise. But at the very beginning, I told our people, ‘The media blitz is coming. We’ve got to sell our candidate to the grassroot people, to the point where anticipating the media coming, they cannot be dislodged.’

“Meantime, we’re telling our people, ‘Eh, we’re poor, we’re broke. We’re the underdog.’ You know what it does. It traumatizes our troops into, ‘Eh, we gotta work harder.’”

That hard work is still what wins political campaigns, though the campaign passion is not ignited by a concept but by the steadfast belief that one person should be elected.

There is a difference between the fervor of the old-time Democrats wanting to beat the Republicans to install reforms to land use, social equality and business, and the personal selection of a new leader.

Lt. Gov. Josh Green heads up the Democrat’s ballot for this week’s general election.

Green has never been seen as a major political leader in the Legislature, although he used his status as a physician to push himself as a spokesperson for medical issues.

If Green never showed an interest in building local political coalitions or leading specific issues such as Native Hawaiian reparations, he has shown skill as a political fundraiser and tactical election strategist. He now faces Republican former Lt. Gov. Duke Aiona in Tuesday’s election.

Asked to judge Green’s LG performance, former Lt. Gov. Shan Tsutsui said in an interview that Green “did a tremendous job.”

“He was able to forge an effective relationship and I’m glad he was able to find a way,” said Tsutsui, who is now back on Maui where he is the chief operating officer of Maui farming company Mahi Pono.

Green’s great skill is his ability to focus on specific tasks and drive projects through to completion. That ability to shun distraction helped with his mission to Samoa in 2019 that was quickly organized and resulted in the vaccination of 37,000 in a matter of several days, according to Green.

As an emergency room doctor, Green was the natural fit to assume a leadership position in the COVID-19 crisis, but his input was first ignored by Gov. David Ige. As Green said at the time: “I do my best to share what I think will save lives, and if they don’t accept that, I share it with the entire planet and then they catch up later. … I refuse to not be heard.”

Although he is completing two terms as governor, Ige is seen as something of a technocrat instead of an inspiring commander. Ige’s leadership is rarely praised and was even raised as a quality he lacked in his last campaign.

For Green, should he win, the focus would be on his Cabinet choices and how he will fulfill his campaign promise to dedicate his administration to addressing Hawaii’s housing crisis.

Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays. Reach him at 808onpolitics@gmail.com.