Schatz, Gabbard have no big rivals

U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz and U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard will likely be easily re-elected to Congress this year with no major candidates opting to challenge them as the filing deadline for candidates running for election closed Tuesday.

Meanwhile, former U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa remains the expected front-runner for the seat of U.S. Rep. Mark Takai, who announced last month that he would not seek re-election after learning that his pancreatic cancer had spread. He said he needed to focus on his health.

If successful, this will mark a return for Hanabusa, 65, to the urban Honolulu U.S. House district seat, which she vacated in order to challenge Schatz for his Senate seat in 2014 — a race she lost.

Takai endorsed Hanabusa last week, saying in a statement that “she will be the champion Hawaii needs in Washington.”

Nine other candidates have also filed papers to run for Takai’s seat, including Leinaala “Lei” Ahu Isa, 72, a Democrat and former member of the state House of Representatives and current trustee for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.

The others are Republican Shirlene Ostrov; Democrats Sam Puletasi, Steve Tataii, Howard Kim, Javier Ocasio and Lei Sharsh-Davis; Libertarian Alan Yim; and nonpartisan candidate Calvin Griffin.

Schatz is the only U.S. senator from Hawaii facing re-election this year. U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono’s term ends in 2018.

Gov. Neil Abercrombie appointed Schatz to fill the seat of the late U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye in December 2012. Schatz carried out Inouye’s term and mounted a successful re-election campaign in 2014.

Schatz, 43, is being challenged by Republican John Carroll, known for his outspoken opposition to the Jones Act, a post-World War I law that requires all shipping between U.S. ports be conducted with domestic vessels and crews. Carroll argues that the federal law has led to Hawaii’s high shipping costs.

Carroll, 86, is an attorney who served in the Hawaii House of Representatives and Hawaii Senate during the 1970s. He owns a small farm in Hamakua on Hawaii island.

During a sparsely attended news conference Tuesday at the Hawaii Republican Party Campaign Headquarters in Honolulu, Carroll said that the “country is in crisis” following eight years of President Barack Obama.

Carroll denounced Hawaii’s high shipping costs, the soaring price tag of the Honolulu rail project, Hawaii’s high cost of living and the state’s slow pace in moving qualified Native Hawaiians onto homesteads.

“The Democrats’ failures are manifest: rail, high cost of living, too much bureaucratic red tape and unnecessary regulations, and a totally useless Department of Education,” he told reporters.

Other candidates who have filed papers to challenge Schatz include Democrats Makani Christensen, Tutz Honeychurch, Miles Shiratori and Arturo Reyes; Libertarian Michael Kokoski; Republicans John Roco, Eddie Pirkowski and Karla Gottschalk; John Giuffre of the American Shopping Party; and Joy Allison of the Constitution Party.

Challenging Gabbard for her 2nd Congressional District seat, which includes the neighbor islands and areas outside of urban Honolulu, is Maui resident and writer Shay Chan Hodges.

Gabbard, 35, has become a well-known Democrat in Washington since her upset victory over former Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann for the congressional seat in 2012. She’s a fixture on national political talk shows, scoring political points for her status as a combat veteran as she tangles over such policies as military intervention in the Middle East.

A Bernie Sanders supporter, Gabbard is also viewed as a rising leader among the progressive faction of the Democratic Party.

However, Hodges, 53, said that she was motivated to run, in part, because she didn’t think that Gabbard is progressive enough.

She’s pointed out that Progressive Punch, a website that tracks congressional voting, gave Gabbard an F when it comes to her voting record on progressive issues. Both Schatz and Hirono scored an A.

Hodges acknowledged that challenging Gabbard will be “an uphill battle.”

Also running against Gabbard are Republicans Eric Hafner and Angela Aulani Kaaihue, and nonpartisan candidate Richard Turner.