The three Democratic Party candidates for governor agree on some key challenges facing Hawaii and provide differing levels of specifics in an election that will ultimately come down to favorability over details, according to longtime political observers.

“In Hawaii, because the state is so dominated by the Democratic Party, we don’t have a lot of ideological fights like you see in states on the mainland,” said Colin Moore, director of the University of Hawaii’s Public Policy Center. “And so there aren’t a lot of elections that are decided on policy decisions. … They’re really about who you trust, which means that it’s really about likeability and name recognition, and less about ideology.”

John Hart, a Hawaii Pacific University communications professor, said Lt. Gov. Josh Green, former Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell and Vicky Cayetano, a business entrepreneur and former first lady, are prioritizing “the normal suspects” of issues.

But the details of how to approach the problems are likely to be less important than the candidates’ popularity among voters, Hart said.

“The public wants to hear specifics, but when the candidates give specifics then the other candidates attack the specifics,” he said. “It’s the exact same conundrum we find with negative campaigning. The public says, ‘We don’t like negative campaigning,’ but all of the research says it works.”

Green — the front-runner in terms of fundraising, endorsements and voter approval — lists six primary issues among his concerns: affordable housing; cost of living; homelessness; “building a stronger, fairer economy”; “investing in the people of Hawaii”; and “nurturing children.”

He is writing an upcoming op-ed piece for the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that will get into more specifics, Green said.

Four months ahead of the Aug. 13 primary election, Green said his initial messaging was aimed at “value statements.”

“People should know if they have the same values as their leaders and whether they’re up to the task,” he said. “In subsequent weeks and months, because the election is still several months away, we will roll out more details.”

But Cayetano told the Star-Advertiser that it’s important for her to explain in detail how she plans to help working families and local businesses.

“As the head of an orga­nization (Hawaii’s largest commercial laundry), it’s required to have a level of leadership that is collaborative, communicative and decisive,” she said. “One has to show that they can do the job. … I am a businessperson. I want to be able to create sustainable business models.”

On March 30, Cayetano announced a platform that includes creating a rent-to-own program to help buyers who can afford “a reasonable monthly payment but do not have the resources for a major down payment qualify to move in to state- developed communities.” Under the proposal, when total rent payments over time reach the value of the home, the tenants would take ownership.

Cayetano also proposes developing workforce housing for “key professions including teachers, nurses and health care workers, and first responders, to stem the outflow of these skilled workers critical to a healthy community,” and identifying underused state lands on all islands to accelerate development on Hawaiian home lands.

Other ideas include a one-year suspension of the 4.5% tax on food, medicine and diapers for families making under $100,000 a year, and creating a “community reinvestment program” that would designate a percentage of all sales generated by Hawaii businesses grossing over a certain dollar amount to be reinvested into schools, more green space, road improvements and nonprofit organizations.

Cayetano also wants to create an Executive Office for Small Business that she said would have helped when she first started out in business by serving “as a one-stop-shop to those seeking assistance on how to navigate the state government requirements of operating a business.” The office would also be “a conduit to gain feedback on how the state government can better support small to midsized retailers and service providers.”

“What I bring to the table is my results-driven leadership of 34 years,” Cayetano said in the statement announcing her plans. “My entire focus is on improving the lives of our families, our businesses, and our natural resources so that our children can live here. We have no time to waste.”

In his latest campaign ad in the Star-Advertiser, Caldwell focused on homelessness, an issue he made progress on during his eight years and two terms as mayor.

The March 30 ad is headlined, “I would declare a state of emergency to address Hawai‘i’s homeless crisis.”

From 2015 to 2020, Oahu saw a 10% drop in overall homelessness, a 48% decrease in homeless families, a 45% decrease in homeless children and a 24% decrease in homeless veterans, according to the ad.

During Caldwell’s time in office, the city — working with the state and nonprofit and private entities — developed several housing models to address different needs, including Kahauiki Village near Keehi Lagoon, Hale Mauiliola at nearby Sand Island — the city’s first homeless facility to allow pets — “and other such communities from Waimanalo to Wai‘anae,” Caldwell wrote in the ad.

“We need to create more of these villages and communities, dozens of them, across Hawai‘i … and the state should do it,” Caldwell says. “Government can provide the land, infrastructure and construction to build them; nonprofits, churches, and community groups can be engaged to manage them with funding from federal, state and local sources. Working together, we’ve already created over a thousand homes.”

In separate campaign ads aimed at neighbor island voters, Caldwell said he wants to repair or replace aging bridges on Hana Highway; expand pedestrian and bicycle safety in residential areas; support neighbor island bus systems; and reinforce and realign highways across the state in response to climate change, among other proposals.

As “our state has grown, our infrastructure has failed to keep up, and we have created transportation ‘haves’ and ‘have nots,’” Caldwell says in the ads. “… This is simply unfair to countless working families, whether commuting from West O‘ahu to urban Honolulu, Hilo to Kona, Kahului to Ka‘anapali, Kapa‘a to Poipu, or to and from anywhere else in our state. Providing transportation equity means finishing rail in Honolulu and making far greater statewide investments in our highways, roads and bridges, and coastal routes being impacted by climate change and erosion.”

Details provided by Hawaii’s next governor will help lay out policy debates for the 2023 legislative session.

For now, though, they’re likely to be overlooked by most voters, who are expected to pick whichever candidate appeals to them more, according to Moore.

“There are very few voters that are carefully studying campaign websites and making up their minds on the issues,” he said. “This isn’t necessarily a good thing. We have some real problems, but we don’t have a lot of serious discussions about policy.”