Well, I cast my primary election ballot, with two Honolulu county offices at the top of the ticket.

I don’t usually talk about my personal choices at election time, because these choices are just that. Personal. And this year, none of the top contenders struck me as unusually noxious, but neither did any generate real enthusiasm.  But I’ve been asked by several acquaintances, so here were my choices in the two top races.

In the end, I voted Colleen Hanabusa for Honolulu mayor.

Rick Blangiardi and Keith Amemiya both suffered, in my view, from a lack of public experience and, more importantly, thorough vetting. Their professional experiences have really been presented to us as part of their campaign public relations, and with the weakend state of our local news media, neither has really gotten the tough background checks they deserve.

Mufi has shown he can can do the job. That part of his pitch is true. He has also shown himself to capable of being a political and personal bully at one moment, then turn around and be warm and charming. Yes, he has experience. But I continue to blame Honolulu’s rail fiasco on the short timeline he insisted on during its planning and approval phases, which was necessary so that he could run for governor with the shiny new train as his campaign centerpiece. But when he left office for that unsuccessful campaign, he left us holding the bill. And we’re still paying it.

In addition, while the public seems to have realized that ten million visitors per year is more than our collective infrastructure, both physical and cultural, can reasonable absorb, Mufi has spent the last decade immersed in the hospitality industry. I just don’t see that he can turn on a dime and deal with his friends and patrons as we attempt to find a way to downsize the industry without crippling our economy.

In the end, I voted for Colleen. She’s been around, built a record in the legislature, stayed out of the danger zone when she went off to Washington. She’s tough, and she’s been in some political fights,  and not just because she’s from Waianae. She has broken new ground for women during her career, and as a lawyer has represented working people and their labor organizations.  I admire those things.

I have to trust that if she is successful this time around, she’ll serve out her term(s) as mayor without worrying about opportunities for higher office. She has said that this is it. I voted to give her the chance.

For Honolulu prosecutor, in the end I voted for Steve Alm. I finally was convinced he has the depth of experience–U.S. Attorney, judge, criminal justice consultant–to be dropped into the prosecutor’s office and the turmoil it has experienced over several years, and deal with the mess he’s going to find there. He won’t be pushed around. At the same time, he has an appreciation for the human side of our criminal justice system, and has put himself on the line in the past to promote better ways to treat those charged with criminal offenses. Even if those experiments didn’t always work as well as we hoped, I give him credit for doing his best to break out of the box. I think he’ll do a good job for us.

I did like Jacquie Esser’s campaign message, but I ended up feeling like she needs more experience to handle the bureaucratic and political snakepit that the prosecutor’s office appears to be. With a bit more experience, she has the potential to be a formidable candidate.

Voting is important. But equally important is what we do between elections. In the past, I’ve reported critically on some of the people I voted to put into office. That’s just how it works. I vote to give them the opportunity to serve, and then have to hold them accountable for how the job is done.

And unless one of the mayor candidates manages to hit that 50% mark, which looks unlikely at this point, we’ll all have to revisit our choices going into the General Election in November.