For David Ige to recover from his doomed appointment of Castle & Cooke lobbyist Carleton Ching to head the Department of Land and Natural Resources, he needs only to recommit to memory his central campaign promise: "Do the right thing the right way."
This appointment was wrongheaded, and the governor handled it in the wrong way at every turn.
Ching is a good and accomplished man, but it’s simply inappropriate in terms of public trust to give oversight of Hawaii’s precious lands and waters to a developer’s lobbyist who sought to weaken environmental protections.
It’s akin to appointing a tobacco lobbyist as health director or a utility lobbyist to head the Public Utilities Commission.
If Ige still doubts he messed up, he should consider that the appointment couldn’t pass the nose test of very friendly state senators who gave him every possible benefit of the doubt as a popular former colleague.
In his campaign action plan, Ige promised his administration would be "honest, transparent, accountable and responsive to you," adding, "I will serve the public interest and not special interests."
He accused former Gov. Neil Abercrombie of not doing things the right way and said, "Hawaii needs leadership that brings us together instead of divides us."
The Ching fiasco failed all of these tests.
It tilted toward special interests over the public interest and so divided the community that it evoked memories of the worst days of Abercrombie and the Public Lands Development Corp.
Ige wasn’t honest, transparent, accountable or responsive when he relied on arm-twisting over clearly explaining his goals for DLNR and why he thought Ching was so uniquely qualified to achieve them that it was worth overlooking the obvious conflict of interest.
Despite having six weeks to bring Ching up to speed for the Senate confirmation hearing, the nominee showed up unprepared to answer even basic questions about DLNR’s mission or the administration’s goals, leading to a 5-2 vote against him.
To this day, we still don’t know the Ige agenda for DLNR.
Ige even channeled Abercrombie’s bellicosity when, after declaring his respect for the legislative process, he disrupted the confirmation hearing by interrupting a senator who was questioning Ching.
It’s bewildering why Ige, who got his job because Abercrombie wasted political capital on endless drama and pointless controversies, started off by repeating the mistake instead of learning from it.
Legislators and most critics of the Ching appointment are still eager to work with him, leaving him at a defining moment for his administration.
Ige can compound his misjudgment by following the Abercrombie path of doubling down on the contention, or he can recover by remembering his campaign pledges and being the governor he promised: effective, low-drama, communicative, inclusive and honest, with himself especially.
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Reach David Shapiro at volcanicash@gmail.com or blog.volcanicash.net.
