Dave Shapiro’s Volcanic Ash column in today’s Star-Advertiser raises an overlooked issue.

He points out that the leading candidates for House and Senate are old enough that they would never accumulate the kind of seniority that gave Hawaii’s Dan Inouye so much legislative clout.

He points out that Hirono, if she wins, would be 65 when sworn in, the same age as Akaka was when he joined the Senate.

Akaka, who is retiring this year, was sworn in on May 16, 1990, at 65. He’s amassed only enough seniority to chair a third-tier committee, Indian Affairs, and for a decade hasn’t gotten the courtesy of a floor vote on his “Akaka Bill” for Native Hawaiian recognition.

Ed Case and Linda Lingle are 59 and 58 respectively. Younger, but not young enough to ever build up that much seniority.

Compare this to Inouye, who joined the Senate at age 38.

Shapiro, as usual, doesn’t mince words.

And as Hawaii moves toward replacing our 87-year-old Sens. Daniel Akaka and Daniel Ino­uye without taking age into account, we could be setting ourselves up for a generation of impotence in the upper chamber of Congress.

I think Dave has put his finger on a very real issue. But where do we go from here? Any options?