Gov. Neil Abercrombie and state Sen. David Ige on Wednesday discussed in more detail what they would do if elected governor, while also throwing a few gibes at each other in what is becoming a tight Democratic primary.
Abercrombie held a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Kakaako to release "Charting Tomorrow: A Plan for a Brighter Future in Hawaii," a 54-page, color booklet that describes the governor’s accomplishments during his first term and offers an outline of his policy priorities if re-elected. The governor said it builds on his "A New Day in Hawaii" plan from four years ago.
Among Abercrombie’s priorities is early childhood education, reaching the goal of 40 percent renewable energy for electricity prior to the 2030 target, transit-oriented development near the city’s rail line, doubling local food production, and adding more money into the rental housing trust fund.
"We now have the solid financial foundation upon which to build for the future, and this chart — this guidebook for tomorrow — is precisely that," the governor said.
Ige, an engineer who is the chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, on Tuesday released "Engineering Hawaii’s Future," an 11-point action plan. The state senator has said that decentralizing public education would be his policy priority if elected governor.
His action plan also calls for speeding up the collection of back taxes, new incentives for technology development, expanding student loan forgiveness programs to lure more doctors to the islands, offering more low-interest loans to farmers and ranchers, and identifying vacant or underused state land for affordable housing.
"It’s easy to trot out a plan once every four years with a whole lot of details and then forget about it for three, and then have it reappear miraculously right before the election," Ige told KITV on Wednesday. "But it really is about, ‘Well, how committed are you to those ideas and goals?’ And I think the people of Hawaii can judge how effective the governor has been."
Ige told KHON that "if I had the opportunity to talk to every voter in the state of Hawaii, I am convinced I would win in a landslide."
Asked about Ige’s remark, Abercrombie said: "That’s very optimistic."
Abercrombie, responding to Ige’s contention that it was the state senator and the Legislature that cut the governor’s spending requests and helped produce budget surpluses, cracked that "it’s hard for me to understand why he doesn’t want to stay in the Legislature."
The governor also joked that he would be happy to think about finding "a position for him in our next administration."
Abercrombie, meanwhile, reported raising about $315,650 from July 1 through Friday, for about $5 million overall. The governor has spent $4.9 million so far on his re-election campaign, according to his latest state campaign-finance report.
Ige raised about $131,550 in July for about $521,780 in total, according to his latest report. He has so far spent about $447,480. Richard Ige, Ige’s brother, loaned the campaign $10,000 in early July.