Redistricting snafu gives more edge to incumbents

Two years ago, Garner Shimizu ran and lost his race to be the new Republican representing the Moanalua Valley-Salt Lake state House district. Now Shimizu, 52, wants to run again, but he doesn’t know where.

Shimizu isn’t lost — he, like the rest of the state’s possible political candidates, waits on the Reapportionment Commission and the courts to redraw the election maps.

Last month the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled that the proposed reapportionment plan was invalid and the bipartisan commission has been working on a new one.

"The plan which was thrown out would put me in a new district, and I would have been in competition with another Republican who ran two years ago.

"Out of respect, I won’t run against him," says Shimizu, who is now resigned to wait until the revised election maps are drawn.

While that is happening, candidates are fretting, time is a-wasting and the deadline for filing for office is becoming a moving target.

The candidates were supposed to be able to start filing for state legislative offices last Wednesday, but without an approved reapportionment plan, the state couldn’t process the applications.

State officials are now hoping to have something drawn up by Feb. 23, leading the more cynical to believe that Catch-22 is actually the first section of the state Constitution.

"It is affecting everything," reports GOP state Chairman David Chang.

"It is affecting our district caucuses; the presidential caucuses were going to be based on new lines, now we have to go back to the old lines.

"People want to start walking their districts now, but where are the lines?" says Chang. "I have people waiting."

The thing about a representative democracy is that you really have to know whom you are representing. If the Reapportionment Commission is still wandering in the weeds pondering where the 31st state House District begins and ends, folks like Garner Shimizu are stuck.

Chuck Freedman, spokesman for the Hawaii Democratic Party, says the current situation puts both incumbents and challengers at a disadvantage.

Those already holding office, Freedman reasons, fear that changes in House and Senate district lines could put them in a race against a fellow incumbent.

This is not something they don’t want to do out of respect; this is about survival. If two incumbents go into a race, only one wins, and no pro likes those odds.

The upside for those already holding office is that very few districts are likely to contain two incumbents, so those already in office have an even bigger advantage over challengers.

"Obviously someone who doesn’t know where the lines are and needs to get the geographic feel for the district will not be helped," Freedman said.

Incumbents already have most of the breaks in a political race. They are better known than their opponent; they already have had people in the district who vote for them; they have an easier time getting money; and they have media exposure.

Now add to that the uncertainty that challengers face with the not-yet-drawn election maps and almost everything tilts in favor of the incumbent.

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