Being lieutenant governor potentially pretty important

When he was in the state Senate, Ben Cayetano introduced legislation to abolish the office of lieutenant governor, saying it was useless. And that was back when the office had more duties than presiding over name changes.

Being lieutenant governor is perhaps the biggest non-job in state government — and yet this year, Republicans and Democrats are offering a slew of candidates

Officially, the LG becomes acting governor when the governor is out of state or is disabled. The only other job description is "such other responsibilities and duties as the governor shall assign."

Back when Cayetano was grumbling about the LG, the office was in charge of elections and the long-since-forgotten Hawaii crime commission.

None of that is important. The reason the LG is kept around is to serve as the breeding ground for gubernatorial candidates.

The only rationale for being lieutenant governor is because you want to be governor.

In our state’s short history, just 12 have held the office. Of those, eight ran for governor and three won. The outlier would be Brian Schatz, who was elected LG and then appointed to the U.S. Senate upon the death of U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye.

The two major candidates for LG in the upcoming Democratic primary are current Lt. Gov. Shan Tsutsui and veteran legislator state Sen. Clayton Hee. The other Democrats running are state medical board member Sam Puletasi, lifeguard and real estate investor Miles Shiratori and former TV reporter Mary Zanakis.

On the Republican side, Elwin Ahu, a senior pastor at New Hope Metro, and businessman Kimo Sutton are running for LG.

Ahu is a former Circuit Court judge who left the bench to become a full-time pastor with New Hope. Sutton is running as something of the secular candidate, saying on his campaign web page that the GOP failed four years ago because Democrats painted the GOP as dominated by the Christian right.

"It could happen again this election if there is not balance to the ticket. If voters make the team look too religious, the hits will be back," Sutton said.

Of the four, only Hee’s campaign is heavy on the issues. As a former Office of Hawaiian Affairs trustee and member of the state House and Senate, Hee has put himself at the forefront of several issues. The most controversial was his steady guiding last year of the same-sex marriage bill through the special legislative session.

Tsutsui, in comparison, was a Maui senator who became senate president after Colleen Hanabusa went to Congress. In the Legislature, Tsutsui has been a low-key fiscal conservative, who had previously said his political ambition was to someday move back to Maui to run for mayor.

What is lacking from all four is any detailed examination of how they would do as governor.

All four have said they could work with their respective party’s nominee for governor, but that is not saying much because as the Constitution says, their job would be whatever the governor has in mind.

One of the four is likely to be the next lieutenant governor and will then be a candidate for governor before the end of the decade. We should be hearing more not on their hopes and dreams but on how they want to run Hawaii if they were the boss.

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