Lackluster gubernatorial candidates failed to pick up the tempo to make campaigns sing

On election nights, one of the greats of Hawaii journalism, the late editor and columnist A.A.“Bud” Smyser, would advise reporters in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin newsroom to “cover the winners, not the losers.”

About loser U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa, it would be tempting to write about the historic, idea-inspiring campaign, while wearing “what could have been” glasses — but that was not the 2018 Democratic primary. If was an odd race for governor, but inspiring or historic? No.

Political advisers say the fake missile alert fumble in January helped artificially raise Hanabusa’s poll numbers to the extent that early in the campaign, she looked unbeatable.

But, that was just the downbeat; you have to pick up the tempo if you want a whole song. Instead, Hanabusa’s campaign just forgot the lyrics. If you come out with your white-paper plan for housing three days before the election, like the Hanabusa campaign did, it does not make voters say “keep hope alive”; it makes them wonder what the heck you have been doing for six months.

Across the way, Gov. David Ige broke no molds, pushed no envelopes with his re-election campaign. He, like any incumbent governor, promised voters little except four more years of the same, and won convincingly.

The campaign’s irony is that Ige was shunned by nearly all of the islands’ power centers and it mattered not at all. If you read the election endorsements from the AFL-CIO, the HGEA, the state’s newspapers plus the Democratic leadership of the state House and Senate, it was all Hanabusa territory. Add in the Patsy T. Mink Political Action Committee, U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard and the surviving members of the late U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye’s political machine.

Clearly Hawaii’s institutions were backing Hanabusa.

For Ige, the massive Hanabusa support made him look like the outsider, not the incumbent.

Only a handful of unions supported the Pearl City Democrat, but they included the Hawaii State Teachers Association providing the grassroots organization fueling his re-election.

As it turned out, neither candidate had the politically important “it” factor that makes voters say “that’s the one for me.” Hanabusa produced no memorable commercials and her early ones were just a waste of electrons.

For Ige, an irony of the campaign was that the state’s emergency services bureaucracy with its false missile alert was also the same group that gave Ige the roadmap to victory. Clearly the state’s ability to mount a quick and coherent response to the twin natural disasters on Kauai and the Big Island gave voters confidence in picking Ige.

Some campaign advisers think Hanabusa suffered from being a tough, unwavering political leader. She wasn’t a political boss, but when in office, she would do what needed to be done to move forward. For instance, during her first years as state Senate president, she found her Democratic coalition continually threatened by the divisive challenges of Sen. Clayton Hee, so as the session ended, Hanabusa, with legislative concurrence, changed Hee’s title, removing him as the powerful Judiciary chairman. Similarly, while serving as chairwoman of the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation, she was seen as a behind-the-scenes force regarding the resignations of much-criticized HART board chairman Don Horner and executive director Dan Grabauskas.

Whether Hanabusa didn’t win because she was unfavorably seen as the closer in political deals or, as other state political advisers say, because AJA voters were concerned about an AJA woman as the state’s chief executive, Hanabusa herself said she is ending the political election portion of her public service at 20 years.

For Ige, the challenge of making a mark as a two-term Hawaii governor is still something he has to define and answer.

Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays. Reach him at 808onpolitics@gmail.com.