Hawaii congressional candidates span party views

In the crowded race for the congressional seat being vacated by U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa, the Democratic candidates span the spectrum of their party’s politics. Former Congressman Ed Case and state Sen. Donna Mercado Kim are known for their moderate to conservative stances, while state Reps. Kaniela Ing and Beth Fukumoto embody young, progressive ideas that are challenging the status quo.

Somewhere in the middle is Lt. Gov. Doug Chin, who made a name for himself as Hawaii’s attorney general by suing President Donald Trump and staking out moral ground on issues such as the president’s travel ban on residents from Muslim-majority countries and threats to rescind Obama-era protections for immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children by their parents.

Honolulu Council Chairman Ernie Martin is harder to pin down when it comes to national politics but has run a campaign focused on supporting working families and “fighting for those who can’t fight for themselves.”

Despite their political diversity, the candidates agree on mainstream issues, such as banning assault weapons and boosting Hawaii’s missile defense system, which has gained attention with rising tensions between the U.S. and North Korea.

They all said they are ready to stand up to Trump but diverge in their tactics.

Ing and Fukumoto said that if it were held today, they would vote in favor of impeachment.

“The presidency as an institution is greater than any one president, and a vote to impeach should not be taken lightly for purely political purposes,” Fukumoto told the Honolulu Star- Advertiser. “But I do believe there is enough evidence that he has and is obstructing justice to begin impeachment proceedings.”

Ing said Trump has performed numerous impeachable offenses. “I think it’s warranted when our democracy is on the brink of collapse,” he said.

In addition to taking hard stances against Trump, Ing said he’s fighting against the “Democratic Party machine” that attracts the same donors as Trump.

The other candidates said they weren’t ready to make a decision on impeachment, but said they would be ready to take that step if at some point it appeared warranted and the vote was before the House. Martin and Kim said that they would need to see the results of Robert Mueller’s investigation into whether there had been any collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

Chin said he wouldn’t vote in favor of impeachment at this point, but has made his challenge to Trump’s policies a major theme of his campaign.

“I am prepared like no other candidate to hold Trump and his administration accountable,” he said. “If that’s through impeachment, I am prepared to cross that bridge based on the evidence. But this president, his Cabinet, his administration and his divisive agenda need to be held accountable every single day.”

One of the more surprising themes to arise from the race has been the candidates’ embrace of positions that have been relegated to the left of the party.

“The success of Bernie Sanders showed that there really was an audience for these far more liberal positions,” said Colin Moore, director of the Public Policy Center at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

He said policies such as Medicare for All and free college tuition are filtering down locally. “They are popular, so I think they have become these mainstream ideas,” said Moore.

Those two issues have been central to the policy platforms of Fukumoto and Ing but have also received varying levels of support from other candidates.

Martin and Chin said they support a single-payer system, while Kim and Case are more cautious, saying they are open to it but would need more information on specific proposals.

“I’m open to the discussion because our current health care system is not delivering affordable quality health care to too many Americans, and variations of single payer in other countries are fairly successful,” Case said.

Chin, Fukumoto and Ing said they would support free tuition at public colleges and universities. Kim and Martin said that it would depend on the costs, while Case has come out against it.

“I support reduced to free tuition at our public institutions for those truly in need, but do not support it for all because I believe that those that can pay should pay,” he said.