Senate rivals tout qualities of leadership

HILO » U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz and U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa used a debate Wednesday evening to outline their leadership abilities, with Schatz describing the relationships he has built so far with Senate leaders and Hanabusa saying she has proved she can earn the trust and respect of her colleagues.

"I try to focus every day on not who’s for me, but who I’m for," Schatz said. "I try to think every day about middle-class families. I try to think every day about the fact that it’s not that easy to hold your family together on Hawaii island or in the state of Hawaii."

The senator said his relationships in the Senate have put him in a unique position to help Hawaii as the chairman of subcommittees on water and power and on tourism.

"And that’s not about my accomplishment," he said. "That’s about what I can do in terms of clean energy. That’s about what I can do in terms of helping our tourism economy."

Hanabusa said leadership is the ability to persuade others to follow you, which she said she has done both as state Senate president and during her time as a minority Democrat in the Republican-led U.S. House.

"Fundamentally, it is a matter of trust," she said. "That they trust you and that your word is good."

The congresswoman also described leadership as the courage of independence.

"Leadership is being able to take very tough votes. That’s what it is," she said. "It means standing up even if they tell you it is absolutely politically incorrect, because you believe in your heart that is the right thing to do for your constituents."

The 90-minute debate at Sangha Hall, moderated by Sherry Bracken, a Hawaii island journalist, was sponsored by the Hawaii Island Chamber of Commerce. The Democratic contenders in the primary for U.S. Senate fielded a range of questions and, for the first time in a debate, had some opportunity to follow up on each other’s answers.

The format produced a flashpoint when Schatz challenged Hanabusa to explain her February 2013 vote on a failed amendment that would have instructed President Barack Obama to use the Simpson-Bowles deficit reduction plan as a guide on the deficit.

Simpson-Bowles contained a blend of tax and entitlement reforms, but some advocates for seniors argued that the plan was too heavy on benefit cuts.

The National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare has cited Hanabusa’s vote as one of the reasons why the group endorsed Schatz over Hanabusa in the primary.

"And unfortunately, Colleen, you voted for this amendment," Schatz said. "I know you have your explanation for it. But the fact is this was a bad vote and I think people in Hawaii deserve an explanation beyond ‘That’s not what I meant to do.’"

Hanabusa pointed out that the national seniors’ group had supported her for Congress in 2012.

"So I think that it is unfair and really uncalled for to be able to take an issue which I feel is out there to scare our kupunas, when our kupuna know that Social Security is something that is dear to every Democrat’s heart," she said. "And we will all fight for Social Security."

Schatz also said he differs from Hanabusa on the potential expansion of the Army’s Pohakuloa Training Area on Hawaii island, including the possibility of a wider runway so C-17 transport planes could land and would allow war games with nations throughout the Asia-Pacific region.

Hanabusa spoke with House colleagues and defense officials about the concept, "but I think she should have started here," Schatz said. "I think she should have started with Big Island residents and asked whether we want a massive increase in federal jurisdiction on the Big Island."

Hanabusa described the potential expansion at Pohakuloa as a study in the context of the U.S. military’s pivot to the Asia-Pacific region.

The encounter, which will be rebroadcast Thursday evening on Hawaii Public Radio, was the second of five debates between Schatz and Hanabusa before the primary. The Democrats meet again on Monday in a forum hosted by KITV and Civil Beat; July 15 in an event with KHON and AARP Hawaii; and a July 17 finale with Hawaii News Now and the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.

Schatz has shown confidence and an ability to stay on message during the campaign, and Hanabusa’s advisers have said they hope to use the debates to try to throw the senator off script, forcing him into policy duels with the congresswoman outside the comfort of prepared statements.

But there have been few such moments during the first two debates.

Instead, the trickiest inquiry Schatz has faced was from Bracken. The moderator asked the senator about what he thought about his chief of staff Andy Winer’s role as a consultant in Pacific Resource Partnership’s negative attacks on former Gov. Ben Cayetano in the Honolulu mayor’s race in 2012.

"Look, I found what happened in 2012 in the Hono­lulu mayor’s race to be deeply, deeply objectionable," Schatz said.

While he hired Winer for his staff and Winer has done a good job, "I set the standards in my campaign," Schatz said. "I set the tone in my office. And I will not allow the kind of thing that happened in 2012 to happen in this campaign."