To understand why it’s so hard to change things for the better in Hawaii, just look at the list of nominees the Maui Democratic Party sent Gov. Josh Green to fill the state Senate seat vacated by Gil Keith-Agaran.
The party’s three choices were:
>> State Rep. Troy Hashimoto, former chairman of the Maui Democratic Party and executive assistant to former Maui Council Chairman Mike White.
>> Jason Economou, a lobbyist for Maui Realtors.
>> Justin Hughey, former House candidate, special education teacher and former high official of the Hawaii State Teachers Association.
Collectively, they reflect a compendium of special interests that control the Democratic Party and elected offices here: entrenched lawmakers and their top aides, party functionaries, lobbyists, development interests and public worker unions.
There’s little opportunity to upset the status quo with fresh thinking in a process that favors connected Democrats over Democratic voters.
In choosing Hashimoto, Green gave him a second turn as legislator-by-appointment; he got his House seat in 2018 when Gov. David Ige appointed him to fill Rep. Joe Souki’s vacated seat.
Now the process repeats to fill Hashimoto’s House seat.
Governors once could appoint anybody they pleased to vacant House or Senate seats, as long as the appointee was from the same political party as the outgoing lawmaker.
But when Linda Lingle was elected Hawaii’s first Republican governor in 40 years, one of many measures undertaken by Democratic legislators to handcuff her was to require that governors fill legislative vacancies from a list of three candidates provided by the relevant political party.
Among the first beneficiaries was Keith-Agaran, a partner in a politically influential law firm and a double appointee like Hashimoto.
He was appointed by Lingle to a House seat from the Democratic Party’s list in 2009, and then appointed by Gov. Neil Abercrombie to fill a Senate vacancy in 2013.
Without ever facing a stern test at the ballot box, he rose to such powerful positions as chairman of the Judiciary Committee and vice chairman of Ways and Means in charge of the state’s public works budget.
When Keith-Agaran resigned from the Senate to avoid conflict-of-interest accusations after his law firm moved to cash in on Lahaina wildfire litigation, he made a point that he was originally appointed to the Legislature, not elected, and his law firm was always his top priority.
“My professional responsibilities are to my clients so I would pick my clients,” he told Honolulu Civil Beat. “I was appointed to this position. I didn’t run for it initially so I’m not wedded to staying in the Legislature.”
Exactly the opposite of the dedicated public service we need if Hawaii is ever to truly invest in our youth and honestly tackle the social, economic and environmental challenges that force so many of our people to move away as much of the state becomes an enclave for the wealthy.
The play-along/get-along lawmakers our system produces expose the Legislature — and the selfish special interests that wield so much control over who is elected or appointed — as leading impediments to the change we desperately need.
Reach David Shapiro at volcanicash@gmail.com.
