Earlier this week, I found myself in a conversation with a couple of political veterans, both longtime Democrats, and both with experience as legislators. So I asked them about the choice between the candidates for Honolulu mayor in the upcoming general election.
One responded after a very brief pause.
“Blangiardi,” he said.
I asked why, in light of the recent endorsement given Keith Amemiya by U.S. Senator Brian Schatz, and that Amemiya has openly campaigned as a Democrat, although the office is nonpartisan.
He replied thoughtfully. He said he did not believe Amemiya had demonstrated that he has what it will take to say “no” to requests from the well-healed and well-placed insiders who have lined up to support his campaign.
We had been talking about the pressures the are brought to bear on elected and appointed officials from various directions by special interests, and the toll it takes on those who try to fend off those pressures and make their own way.
The second person nodded in agreement, although I don’t recall if they actually confirmed their agreement.
In any case, it appears to reflect a schism in the Democratic Party, already signaled by Colleen Hanabusa’s decision to move into Blangiardi’s camp.
And this appears to be separate from and in addition to the split between the traditional party mainstream and the pack of Bernie backers, which is still sorting itself out as the 2020 election nears.
Does this latest rift reflect jockeying for position as we go into the 2022 election cycle and the next gubernatorial election? How
It’s going to take some thought and analysis to sort out what’s happening within the party. Right now, I don’t even know how to properly characterize it.
Your thoughts?
Discover more from i L i n d
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
the chief of police has stated she sees no need for systemic change at hpd. right after he declared his candidacy, shopo endorsed blangiardi. impossible for change to happen with this configuration, i felt. recently, i was told that he is also a conservative republican and a strong trump supporter. nuff for me. i’ll vote for amemiya!
With the craziness swirling around the gov & his minions..I would see Keith as another “puppet” who wants to play in the “go along to get along arena”!Rick has had yrs of experience & understands the network but has up to now…been able to be above the fray. Keith is a bit “player” beholden to many powers that
control or want to control our Islands!
Have they no shame that even in the middle of a pandemic these politicos fiddled as Honolulu fell into a Covid crisis because everyone was dissembling!
Don’t want to appear as an advocate for maturity but Blangiardi has grown & evolved as a professional in the yrs he’s been in Hawaii.Keith is still a good ole
boy doing the bidding of those who got him into the race. Why would the folks in HNL want another” do nothing” patsy like our current gov??He must check the astrology charts daily to see what is gonna happen cause he is untethered
to any reality that I have encountered in my 70yrs of being here.The “only”
choice is maturity !
But if anyone in Hawaii thinks recovering from this disaster is gonna be smooth &easy ..just think how many yrs it took the Rail Fail to finally show its
worthlessness to an Island surrounded by sea level rise!..Now that’s something
the Feds aren’t gonna be able to fix! So who is more qualified?Blangiardi!
Hasn’t he sort of thrown his hat in with Lingle? Would you prefer she was running the City or State at the moment? I sure don’t.
Sen. Inouye used to “organize” things, with a whip and chair, for instance like this: “No, Mufi, you cannot run for that; this other is the seat we need you to go for.” He put the ducks in a row (and shot the uncooperative ones) and, if I understood it correctly, after his death it became a free-for-all. We rely on you, Ian, to sort things out for us, now that we are on our own.
Thank you 🙂
While Rick might have the cajones to tell someone no, he doesn’t strike me as the type to ever meet a business deal he doesn’t like. The environmentalists and the progressives are going to be the ones being told no.
IAN, thanks for your analysis of the current state of the Hawaii Democratic Party. Sometimes it’s best to say “I don’t know”.
Among your obviously well-informed and dedicated local Dem readers, the post that I tend to agree most with is the one that argues local Dems are still in disarray without Dan Inouye to maintain order and control–to a point.
If “Dan” were alive in 2016 and in the Senate, there’s no doubt he would have thrown his full support behind Hillary Clinton–at the expense of Bernie supporters. And we know what happens next as the Bernie wing of the party continues to grow in stature and size.
So, I’m not sure even “Dan” would know what to do in the current political climate except campaign against Trump and support Biden. But locally, would he have made a difference in the Mayor’s race?
Hard to say. . .
But if Hawaii wants to go back to being a smooth running machine, like it once was, and like it is in California, then they better figure things out soon, or else risk another Lingle type to sneak in get elected.
Smooth running machine, like it once was? Sir what year and decade was that?
Was that the smooth running machine that created the high cost of living that smoothly ran people off the island?
Governor Linda Lingle was the Best Governor we ever had. She built the Zip Lane (east bound) which the Democrats promised to complete the west bound zip lane but never fulfilled their promises, as usual.
She brought us the Ferry which would help make it affordable for local FAMILIES to move or travel between islands for sports, hula, and family events.
She created the infrastructure for the Hawaii government to be online. We can retrieve agendas, minutes, file business documents, and more because of her.
She realistically forloughed teachers on Fridays. Nothing close to what this Democrat Governor and Legislature have done with Quarantines-Without-Vision-and-solid-plans and No-Tracers to identify and stop clusters.
Smooth running machine? Okie dokie sir.
Recently, Rick Blangiardi has enjoyed the unprecedented endorsement of the mainstream Hawaii Republican leader (former Governor Linda Lingle) and the late Senator Inouye-faction Dem. Party head Colleen Hanabusa. To make his political “branding” inclusivity wholistic, he only needs Uncle Walter Ritte’s approval (!). In some ways Blangiardi channels Mayor Fasi’s paradoxical persona (they share Italian ethnicity and a pronounced East Coast accent). Fasi was complex: he had enormous popularity among Hawaiians and Filipinos as the fighter for the “underdog”, the “Junk Dealer from Kalihi”, a former WWII Marine who loved Japanese people and culture, a Catholic among scowling Protestant missionary family descendants (he was also the “media” guy with his trademark pipe and raspy voice on TV, and a cute pet dog Gino — he was an Instagram “influencer” before Internet). Like Fasi, Blangiardi employs “mood” and Hawaiian music/celebration – the appearance of Henry Kapono with his electric guitar slung on his back strolling a Hawaii-Kai beach (this minimalist 10-second spot is like a political TikTok) in a now-iconic commercial evokes Fasi’s choice for his Best Party Lt. Governor candidate: Danny Kaleikini, the Hawaiian crooner, a non-politician, a “feel good” persona. Like a CEO (before CEOs became fashionable to “run” government), Fasi set a vision, an agenda, and hired Nisei technocrats and engineers to efficiently run municipal government agencies (his buddy/adviser – he had a wide range of court insiders — included Dem. Party Rep. Duke Kawasaki, who represented Kalihi Valley for many years). Ultimately, Fasi was agnostic to party affiliation: he had his own ideology (which he personally defined), and was in at least four parties: Democratic, Independent Democratic, GOP, Best Party) – and D.G. “Andy” Anderson, a GOP leader (and a Dem. Party gubernatorial candidate) was hired as City Managing Director. Old-timer Honolulu residents who look back to a “Golden Age” of Honolulu (“the Livable City”) and younger voters searching for non-politicians for their uneasy future — can Rick Blangiardi leverage these two trends — past and future — occurring simultaneously in this “annus horribilis” of 2020?
I seriously doubt Hanabusa’s endorsement of Blangiardi reflects anything more than sour grapes and the understanding that the very negative campaigning conducted against Amemiya for her benefit precludes any chance of her having influence under an Amemiya regime. So to hell with any notions of loyalty to the Democratic Party, ideological pretensions, or posturing currency that’s now lost all value. The path ahead is sprinkled with naked self-interest and nobody should be surprised.
Also, Blangiardi as mayor would need to surround himself with people who actually know what they’re doing or can pass themselves off as such, creating opportunities for power brokers both actual and aspiring.
Your observer is probably correct that Amemiya lacks the ability, or even the desire, to say no to the entrenched special interests backing him. Some thoughtful Democrats may vote accordingly. But for Caldwell puppeteers and many others, there’s simply a hope for gravy train continuity under Amemiya and no danger of any real changes.
Any for plenty of average low-information voters, many more of whom are now participating in the mail-in electoral process, this will all just boil down to appearances and sound bites.
Several unnamed insiders say other unnamed insiders have too much influence on a mayoral administration that…hasn’t happened yet. For a candidate…who is running for the first time. who voters chose over Colleeen Hanabusa and Mufi Hannemann…two professional politicians who are the insider’s insider.
That is galaxy brain thinking lol.
The left-wing in the local Democratic Party who voted for Sanders in the 2016 primary might vote for a conservative outsider over a mainstream machine politician who they find overly receptive to corporate interests. That might be what is going on with support for Blangiardi.
If Hanabusa supports Blangiardi, it is probably because they are both conservative. Hanabusa’s support of Blangiardi might not be related the progressive support of Blangiardi (if it does exist).
Which do you prefer? The Mortgage Scandal Swindler vs. The Affordable Housing Hustler?
I’m all for Affordable Housing and against swindlers.
This year marks my fifteenth year of permanent residence here in the Islands. But I was born and raised on another Pacific Island that has very similar dynamics to Hawai’i – Guam.
On the surface, especially in a Mainlander’s eyes, Blangiardi vs. Amemiya seems like an open-and-shut case. Amemiya is running as a Democrat, in a State that has traditionally been heavily Democrat and progressive, and he’s Asian. Blangiardi is not running as a Republican, but he is running as an Independent, in a State that traditionally has not been favorable towards non-Democrats. And he is White.
But anyone who has lived in the Islands – or is originally from an Island – can see something much more complicated occurring in Hawai’i that is not well reported in the media – either locally or on the Mainland. There still exists an “insider” vs “outsider” culture in Hawai’i, a culture in which those on the “inside” reward their family and friends, while those on the “outside” are left out. It’s an unfortunate, albeit inescapable, reality of living on an island.
More than race or class or gender, it really is about “who you know.”
The wealthiest and most powerful interest groups have always understood this dynamic, which is one of the reasons why they continue to exert so much power and influence in Hawai’i. They know which “friends” to make, and the smartest ones know how to do it in a way that’s under-the-radar.
And alot of politics, both in Hawai’i and on Guam, flies under the public radar: backroom deals, handshakes, and personal favors.
Both Amemiya and Blangiardi have been part of this culture, even though they are not considered part of the political “establishment.”
But who is reading the political winds more accurately?
Hawai’i is changing. More locals are leaving the Islands for better economic opportunities on the Mainland, and those moving in are less familiar with the Islands and local culture. Many of these residents will be voting for the first time this year, and they will be doing so in light of the disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Perhaps there was a time when Hawai’i politics was much more stable and predictable, when it was clear who was going to takeover the reigns. But that time more than likely passed away along with the late Senator Daniel Inouye. And Amemiya’s decision to run as an out-and-out Democrat has turned the Mayoral race into a partisan race (although I think this was inevitable considering the hyper partisan politics on the National level).
But in the end, it really comes down to this question:
Will Honolulu voters go for the “insider?” Or the “outsider?”
And who will that person be?
Aloha