Oddly enough, the defining issue of this campaign season is something we don’t do: tax pensions.

The federal government taxes pensions, 40 states tax pensions, and while Hawaii’s general excise tax gets a piece of the action every time money changes hands, we do not tax pensions.

Still the threat of fulfilling the politically worst idea ever to come from Gov. Neil Abercrombie, the taxing of local citizens’ pensions, reverberates through this campaign for governor.

Abercrombie has already been knocked out of the fight, he’s on the canvas and isn’t getting up, but the remaining combatants are still fighting about how much they won’t tax your pension.

While former GOP Lt. Gov. James "Duke" Aiona has been critical of Abercrombie and the pension tax, it is the mainland Republican operatives, trying to elect Aiona governor who have opened a new offensive.

In what comes close to charging state Sen. David Ige, the Democratic nominee for governor, with thought crimes, the Republican Governors Association launched a new ad attacking Ige for saying the words "pensions" and "tax" in the same sentence.

Just thinking about taxing pensions has become radioactive in this political year.

The latest RGA anti-Ige ad says:

"David Ige admits trying to cut into our kupuna pensions."

It cuts to a sound bite of Ige during a debate saying, "So yes, I did look at the pension tax as an option."

And the GOP announcer intones, "David Ige’s option included a tax increase on pensions."

The rest of Ige’s sound bite saying he rejected the idea is not included in the GOP commercial.

Back in the primary election, when Ige was running against Abercrombie, the "you’re a pension taxer" charge was first tossed by Ige.

It was an easy case to make: All Ige had to do was remember back to 2011 when as chairman of the Senate’s Ways and Means Committee, he killed Abercrombie’s bill.

Back then the state was facing a more than $1 billion deficit and so desperate for money that Ige and the Senate did consider raising the excise tax. The big no-no in the Senate was taxing pensions, much to Abercrombie’s displeasure.

This year, when Ige moved to campaigning, he stepped up his criticism of Abercrombie’s pension tax.

"Governor Abercrombie, our senior citizens deserve better than this. They have not forgotten your fight during the 2011 legislative session to tax retiree pensions, which the Senate rejected," Ige said back in March.

The Pearl City Democrat then went on to expand on his dislike for pension taxing by saying he wanted it forbidden in the state Constitution.

"Over the last several years, we’ve seen how pensions have become the target of tax increases and means of increasing revenue," Ige said. "This measure would assure that future legislatures do not consider taxing pensions."

Aiona can argue that he is unfairly tarred by Democrats because of the teacher furloughs that closed schools. The Democrats say it was the administration of former Republican Gov. Linda Lingle that approved the furloughs — while neglecting to say that the unions and the school board also had to approve the furloughs, and Aiona’s fault was not speaking up.

Ige did speak up, and voters will decide whether saying "No" equals the governorship.

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