State Senate leadership caught in power struggle

The Big Island of Hawaii is where you go for earthquakes. With dozens of seismic events registering every week, the island is always shaking.

In local politics, the seismic-rich environment is the state Senate. It would be fair to say that on any given day, a whole lot of shaking is going on right below the surface.

This year there have already been two quietly fizzled attempts to replace Donna Mercado Kim as Senate president. Last week, there was a series of heated closed-door caucus meetings that started to question the existing Senate structure.

While Senate leaders confidently say the existing set-up is not in question, the speculation remains. The reason: The 24 Senate Democrats are clustered into enough four- or five-person factions that linking any two groups gives them more than half of the 13 votes needed to oust the Senate president and start negotiating a new lineup. It is a political body divided by many personal and political fault lines.

The issue with Kim, however, is a little different. She did not become Senate president because she wanted the post and she and her buddies put her there.

Instead, Kim had been the longtime Senate vice president, serving with both Colleen Hanabusa when she was Senate president and then Shan Tsutsui.

But according to the rules of succession, when Lt. Gov. Brian Schatz was elevated to the U.S. Senate by Gov. Neil Abercrombie, Senate President Tsutsui became the lieutenant governor and Kim became Senate president.

Kim told reporters that she didn’t want the job and had asked Tsutsui not to take the LG post so she could remain as vice president and keep running an investigative committee.

But Kim was not aloof from Senate politics. She also was part of Hanabusa’s 2006 coalition that ousted Sen. Robert Bunda from his position as Senate president.

Now two years into the job, Kim is clear about her style of running the Senate. She and Sen. David Ige, chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, have upset senators who have asked that internal rules be bent so that legislation that failed to meet a deadline or that had not passed still could be considered.

The insistence on following the rules has upset some senators looking for an expedient solution. But both Kim and Ige are running for higher office Kim for Congress and Ige for governor and neither wants to be accused of ignoring the rules to favor a special bill.

So far, the pressure to replace Kim is coming from a small group of senators, but as one Senate leader said, "No one is sure they want to put that group in charge."

Kim also has the political advantage. Without a specific allegation of misdoing, showing Kim the door now would look more like bullying and political gamesmanship than needed reform.

Earlier, when Bunda’s leadership was being questioned, Hanabusa said Democrats had a lack of confidence in Bunda’s leadership and questioned his ability to develop a clear opposition to GOP Gov. Linda Lingle, so there was a reason to get rid of him.

That is not the case with Kim’s presidency.

Finally, this fall half of the Senate is up for election and there is no assurance that being a victorious rebel today will mean voters will allow you to be around to enjoy your triumph on the 2015 legislative opening.

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