How good a friend do you have to be before you can tell your buddy "no"?

When the full state Senate votes on the nomination of Carleton Ching as chairman of the Board of Land and Natural Resources, it will also be weighing its very real friendship with Gov. David Ige.

The 25-member body is mostly made up of comfortable Ige allies. They worked for his election, backed him against former Gov. Neil Abercrombie after having relied on him as their steady Ways and Means Committee chairman.

Now as governor, Ige is asking his friends to first disregard a strong rejection of Ching by the Senate Water and Land Committee, and then to ignore the full-court press of the potent environmental lobby.

Ching last week did not fare well before the Senate committee.

"If this was a job interview and we had a few selections, I would not select you," said Sen. Les Ihara, who oddly said he was going to vote against Ching in committee but planned to support the Ige nomination on the Senate floor.

Even his supporters, like GOP Sen. Sam Slom, said Ching, a lobbyist for land developers, bears watching.

"If this person is confirmed, we are not going to let him get away with things," Slom said.

Sen. Laura Thielen, Water and Land Committee chairwoman, and a former Land Board chairwoman herself, said she was disturbed that Ching had been head of the pro-development Land Use Research Foundation but during testimony could not recall LURF positions opposing public beach access and Native Hawaiian cultural and traditional practices.

Perhaps the most shocking rejection of a governor’s pick happened in 1999, when the Democratic Senate voted down then-Gov. Ben Cayetano’s renominations of both Attorney General Margery Bronster and Earl Anzai, state budget director.

Cayetano, warming to the chances of a full street fight with his former Senate buddies, then picked Anzai for AG, daring the Senate to reject him twice.

"I don’t ask the Senate for permission to make appointments," Cayetano said. "I’ll make an appointment, and it’s the best person for the job, I believe."

While a senator, Cayetano was part of the group of senators that rejected former Gov. George Ariyoshi’s nomination of Mike Lilly as AG. At that time, the Senate Judiciary Committee disposed of Lilly’s nomination by rejecting it and then refusing to send it to the floor for a vote.

GOP Gov. Linda Lingle lost two Cabinet nominations in 2007 when Iwalani White was turned down as director of Public Safety and Peter Young was not reconfirmed to his Land Board post.

As much as the Senate wants to keep up its good relations with Ige, it is clear that the new governor feels the Ching nomination is too important to lose. That was clear when Ige actually jumped up during last week’s hearing to object to the questions asked of Ching.

But, being Ige’s BFF is not the only consideration.

David Frankel, chairman of the Hawaii chapter of the Sierra Club, noted that the local environment movement is united against the Ching nomination and it has become an important part of local politics.

"Any senator who has aspirations for higher office has to realize that this vote for Carleton Ching will haunt him. And others facing competitive races will also be haunted by their vote," Frankel said.

The vote by the full Senate could come as early as this week, and senators will be weighing more than just the future employment prospects of Carleton Ching.

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