If you think being lieutenant governor in Hawaii is one of those "it is what you make of it" jobs, you would be wrong.

The job is all about what the governor makes of it.

In his autobiography, Ben Cayetano describes a meeting back in 1986 when the new Gov. John Waihee met the new Lt. Gov. Cayetano.

"Ben, I was lieutenant governor for four long years. I know how frustrating it can be. I want to work with you. If you have projects in minds that you’d like to work on, let’s get together and talk about them," Cayetano quotes Waihee as saying.

Cayetano tells you what he wants and thinks, so Cayetano’s eight years as LG defined how far the second in command could go without the governor taking away his fifth-floor elevator key.

Lt. Gov. Cayetano’s A+ after-school program was a great success and served as one good reason to elect Cayetano governor in 1994.

So what has been heard of Lt. Gov. Shan Tsutsui? The 43-year-old Maui Democrat certainly has the chops for a leadership role in Gov. David Ige’s administration, but, if forthright activism marked Cayetano’s lieutenant governorship, invisibility has been the hallmark of Tsutsui’s service.

Tsutsui was Senate president when in December 2012, he became Gov. Neil Abercrombie’s LG, upon the succession of Lt. Gov. Brian Schatz to fill the seat left vacant by the death of U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye.

Tsutsui worked as well as can be expected with Abercrombie, who proved to be both a political liability and an election-year disaster.

In the general election, Tsutsui was paired with Democratic primary election winner David Ige, the chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee.

Ige is as mild-mannered as Abercrombie was pugnacious, but Tsutsui has been consistently low-profile.

In an interview last week, Tsutsui was honest about his frustration in not being used by the Ige administration.

Tsutsui explained that he has been meeting with Mike McCartney, Ige’s chief of staff, "in order to create new roles for me."

"It is up to them whether I can be more meaningful or not," Tsutsui said.

A lieutenant governor must have the support of the governor, Cayetano advises, but adds that "it remains for the LG to develop his or her own programs."

Tsutsui still has one job left over from his time with the Abercrombie administration. He is supposed to serve as both an ambassador for promoting sports in Hawaii and as the tip of the spear to prod on either the reconstruction or revamping of Aloha Stadium.

The pair have an oddly bureaucratic relationship. Instead of calling a news conference and offering a handshake, Ige told Tsutsui to draft a "memorandum of understanding" about what Tsutsui’s role would be.

The lieutenant governor complied, but noted that Ige has yet to sign off on the memorandum even though it has been on his desk for more than a month.

Tsutsui’s time as LG has caused him to doubt our system of running separately for lieutenant governor in the primary election and then as a team with the successful gubernatorial candidate of the same political party in the general.

It might be more efficient, Tsutsui said, to just have the gubernatorial candidate nominate a general election running mate, which is what happens in national races for president.

Meanwhile, Tsutsui said his role as LG will be to support the Ige administration as much as it wants and he has no thoughts about challenging Ige when he runs for reelection.

Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Reach him at rborreca@staradvertiser.com.