Voters in Kailua and a portion of Kaneohe will pick someone new to represent them in the state House of Representatives on Nov. 5, choosing between a Democrat and a Republican who disagree whether Kailua has become more progressive
or more conservative after decades of reelecting moderate Republican Rep. Cynthia Thielen.
Democrat Mike Lee, 42, called House District 50 “
a moderate district that’s changing a little bit, skewing a little more Democratic and left, so that we’re not as
Republican now.”
Retired Army Brig. Gen. Tim Connelly, 56, calls himself a more traditional “fiscal conservative, social moderate” Republican who believes that even “family values” Democrats in Kailua support conservative ideals.
He wants
to help state
government be transparent and
accountable.
Connelly’s making his first run for political office after arriving at Schofield Barracks in the 1990s “as a young lieutenant” and returning to Fort Shafter as a colonel commanding Army Reserve soldiers across
Hawaii, Alaska, American
Samoa, Guam, Saipan, Japan and Korea.
He later deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, retired as
a brigadier general and returned to Hawaii, settling into a Kailua rental home. He’s now in the market
to buy a house somewhere in the district.
Connelly works as a consultant for the Department of
Defense as a senior project manager overseeing “other DOD professionals.”
Divorced, Connelly said he speaks to his two daughters on the mainland “every day.”
Lee, 42, grew up in Nuuanu while bodysurfing at
Kalama Beach and graduated from Punahou School. He met his future wife while they were both homesick while attending Pacific University in Oregon. Lee called his wife, Cherylin Lee, “an obnoxiously proud product of Aikahi Elementary, KIS (Kailua Intermediate School) and Kalaheo High School — a true Kailua girl. I was lucky that she found out later that I went to Punahou,” Lee said. “She said, ‘Good thing I didn’t know you wen’ private school.’”
They now have two boys — Angel, 14, and Phoenix,
12 — who both attend
Punahou.
Lee earned a bachelor’s degree in peace and conflict studies at Pacific University and a master’s in conflict
resolution from Portland State University. He initially hoped to serve as a U.S.
ambassador somewhere around the world until he and Cherylin agreed to move back home, where they now own a house in Kalaheo Hillside.
Lee serves on the Kailua Neighborhood Board, coordinates the Windward Neighborhood Security Watch
and works as director of
education and stewardship programs at the Moanalua Garden Foundation.
Lee has coached wrestling at schools and clubs around Oahu and at the Boys &Girls Club.
He’s making his second consecutive run for the House after beating freshman incumbent Natalia Hussey- Burdick in the Aug. 10 Democratic Party primary.
After losing to Hussey-Burdick in 2022, Lee was
encouraged to join Pacific Resource Partnership’s Partners For Democracy leadership training program.
PRP serves as the political arm of the powerful and influential Hawaii Carpenters Union, but the leadership program welcomes both Democrats and Republicans interested in running for office or serving on political campaigns or as officials’ staff members.
Lee said he knew nothing about PRP and was the oldest and “slowest member of the cohort” of PRP’s second class.
Since 2022 nine PRP participants have gone on
to be elected to the state House and Senate, Office of Hawaiian Affairs and Kauai and Maui County Councils.
Whether he wins or loses in November, Lee said he felt compelled to make a second run to represent Kailua and Kaneohe Bay in the House.
“I tell my sons that I’m trying to be the person that I ask my students and athletes to be,” he said.
He was particularly touched when a former wrestler he coached — now since grown — told him, “Coach, you changed my life in middle school, and you can do it again.”
“Grandma told me never to be afraid to work hard,” Lee said. “I am just your
average person. But I’m one of those middle-aged guys that answered a call. When there’s a call for you to serve and people ask you
to help, you’ve got to do it.”
Going door to door while campaigning, Lee hears common concerns about Hawaii’s high cost of living, the need for more affordable housing, keeping children from moving to the mainland in search of a lower cost of living, public safety, health care and
education.
“I’m just an average guy
going through the same problems as anybody else,” he said.
Connelly touts his background as a military officer and leader as an example of how he’ll serve voters in his district.
Connelly, president of
the Kailua Masters Swim Club, continues to train
for the upcoming Ironman Triathlon Championships
in Kailua-Kona. He chose Kailua as a perfect place
to train and believes Kailua represents a cross-section of Hawaii residents in a community “that’s very walkable.”
Connelly was born into a Catholic family with a brother who later came out as a gay. As a company commander
in the Middle East during the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” era, Connelly’s driver only later came out as a lesbian and later married her partner.
“As a social moderate,” he said, “my belief is live and let live. We all have a constitutional right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I think that’s a commonly held perspective.”
He has a bachelor’s degree in economics from La Salle University in Philadelphia and a master’s degree in business administration from Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
An economist by training, Connelly said that “the law of supply and demand is in play all the time.”
Property owners should
be allowed to use their properties however they wish, he said.
But when the use of their properties negatively affects their neighbors — such as with short-term vacation rentals — everyone has to abide by laws designed to clamp down on them, Connelly said.
Connelly wants to make sure government officials also have the necessary resources to enforce laws they pass, “whether I agree with a law that’s in place or not. If it’s in place, we are a society based on the law. We’re compelled to comply.”
He also wants to reduce taxes and cut business regulations while trying to lower
the cost of living and improve education, roads and other
infrastructure.
Asked why he’s making his first run for political office, Connelly said, “You’ve got to step up to the plate and be willing to take the shots that come with the job. That’s part of what makes us the greatest country on the planet and
Hawaii such a beautiful state.”
Out of 51 House members, only six are currently Republicans ahead of the Nov. 5 election.
Even if more Republicans like Connelly win in November, he would still be an outnumbered member of the minority GOP caucus. Asked how he would work with Democrats, Connelly said, “A lot of people shun the word ‘debate.’ But you must be willing to engage in political discourse. That’s how compromise is achieved.”
Elected officials have to
be willing to exercise “intense intellectual energy,” he said. “It’s not a job for the lazy.”
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