Soon after David Ige clinched victory Tuesday night and addressed Democrats at the party’s celebration at the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii, the governor-elect slipped away from the VIPs, the glad-handers, the reporters and the television cameras for a more intimate gathering at his campaign headquarters at the Varsity Building in Moiliili.
His volunteers, the ones who had served the stew-and-rice at campaign events, the ones who had believed in the former state senator when he was a long shot in the primary against Gov. Neil Abercrombie, were waiting for their moment with the winner.
While Ige owed his volunteers that night, and stayed late to talk story, he will take office in December with surprisingly few political obligations.
Other than a handful of state senators in his old "Chess Club" faction and a few state House allies, Ige does not have a large political entourage. During the first six months of the year, when he desperately needed money to take on Abercrombie, the two biggest single donors to his campaign were attorney Keith Hiraoka — his campaign manager — and the Hawaii State Teachers Association.
The bulk of the $2.2 million Ige raised and most of the endorsements from labor and environmental groups came after the primary, when Ige was safely the Democratic nominee and the favorite to take the governorship.
The first test for Ige and his chief of staff, Mike McCartney, the president and chief executive officer of the Hawaii Tourism Authority, could be how they handle the powerful interests that will likely try to penetrate the new governor’s inner circle and compete for his ear.
"He’s got to be very careful about not getting the wrong kind of advice," said former Gov. George Ariyoshi, who gave Ige his start in politics with a state House appointment in 1985. "And I think that he’s also very mindful of the fact that people, once he gets there, are going to want to get things from him."
Ige’s faction in the Senate included Sen. Rosalyn Baker (D, West Maui-South Maui), Sen. Suzanne Chun Oakland (D, Downtown-Nuuanu-Liliha), Sen. Les Ihara Jr. (D, Moiliili-Kaimuki-Palolo) and former senator and now Honolulu City Councilwoman Carol Fukunaga. Rep. Gregg Takayama (D, Pearl City-Waimalu-Pacific Palisades), whose wife, Linda Chu Takayama, was a loyalist to the late U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye, became a close ally during the campaign.
Hiraoka, Ige’s campaign manager, will lead his transition team. His choice of McCartney, a former state senator, party chairman and executive director of the Hawaii State Teachers Association, as chief of staff potentially strengthens a bond with the teachers union that has already given some critics pause.
Ige made a political issue of Abercrombie’s fundraising from Kakaako real estate developers and billionaires like Oracle Corp.’s Larry Ellison, and while some development interests donated to Ige’s campaign after the primary, the money was not critical to his election, so he is not beholden.
Like Abercrombie when he first came into office four years ago, Ige has a legislative, not executive, background. As the former chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, however, he has a strong grasp of the state budget and is unlikely to have a sharp learning curve in administering the state’s finances.
Former Gov. John Waihee, who endorsed Abercrombie in the primary, said perhaps Ige’s most important appointment will be his state budget director. He also advised Ige to speak with Abercrombie about the transition as soon as possible.
Waihee, who was lieutenant governor under Ariyoshi, agrees with others who have observed that former legislators often think they know the demands of a chief executive, but do not until they actually sit behind the desk on the fifth floor of the state Capitol.
"His branch of government is the only one that really consists of one person," he said. "So you may have department heads, you may have agencies, you have all of these things, but it all comes down to one person."
Waihee said that responsibility is often "a tough adjustment for people who have been in the Legislature." He said he once observed that "the governor is a very powerful position when everybody agrees with you. And I think that’s true. You’ve got to kind of bring consensus together and all of this stuff, on one hand.
"On the other hand, when people need somebody to blame, they’re not going to go to the bureaucrat that may have made a mistake. They’re going to talk about the governor. So really it’s yours, and you need to own it. You need to make it look like the David Ige administration."
Former Gov. Ben Cayetano, who endorsed Ige after breaking with Abercrombie, his longtime friend, said forming the best Cabinet is Ige’s most immediate challenge.
"A governor is only as good as his Cabinet," Cayetano said in an email. "He needs good advisors, not yes men. David should not rush, vet the applicants for Cabinet positions carefully and thoroughly."
