State Sen. Clayton Hee walks like he wishes he were on a horse. Just bowlegged enough to let you know he’s not going to his first rodeo.

He’s a horseman, farmer and politician, and has been all three for much of his 58 years.

Today there is some open speculation that Hee, who has previously unsuccessfully run for lieutenant governor and Congress, may next year challenge Honolulu Mayor Peter Carlisle.

"The policies of City Hall are not in alignment with my own policies regarding agriculture," Hee says, although he stops short of saying he is even "mulling over" a run, adding that he has "every intention of running for re-election."

The mayor’s term is up next year and he also has to run for re-election. If Hee jumped in, it would make for an interesting race.

After years of being both the squeaky wheel and the drama queen in both the state Legislature and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Hee is becoming something of the adult in the room. He has successfully navigated both his responsibilities as chairman of the Senate Judiciary and Labor Committee along with being a political ally of both former Gov. Ben Cayetano and current Gov. Neil Abercrombie.

During the last legislative session, some of the most on-point concerns raised about Abercrombie’s legislative proposals and nominees were brought up by Hee. For instance, it was Hee who worried about William Aila, the nominee to chair the Board of Land and Natural Resources, who gave approval for the state to incrementally approve the city rail line plans.

Hee thinks the rail plans will not adequately address the many native Hawaiian burials expected to be found along the downtown portion of the route, and wanted the plans reviewed as a complete package.

Hee also questioned why the cash-strapped state had to approve Abercrombie’s emergency request to pay $18 million to increase state worker health insurance benefits for just four months.

After first representing Maui, Molokai and Lanai in the Legislature, Hee was the senator from the Windward side of Oahu, the area most threatened by Honolulu’s urban expansion. Hee is ready to oppose large developments proposed for his district and he sees the need for the city to be a champion of the residents, not the developers.

"I believe the Turtle Bay proposal, their scaled-down proposal, and the Malaekahana housing proposal and the Laie Inn proposal have not yet been sufficiently discussed at the city level," Hee says.

Most troubling for Hee is Carlisle’s determination to plow ahead with the heavy-rail project, despite concerns from many quarters.

"A reason people have suggested I run for mayor is that I have not been shy about making public my concerns regarding the land use policies … It is my own personal view that heavy rail between two suburbs on one island is overkill," Hee says.

If Carlisle is the major pro-rail candidate in next year’s race, it stands to reason that voters looking for an alternative would have to find a coherent opponent to rail who can also handle the day-to-day workings of City Hall.

Former acting Mayor Kirk Caldwell and University of Hawaii engineering professor Panos Prevedouros have both been in the hunt to replace Carlisle, but Caldwell is as staunchly pro-rail as Carlisle and Prevedouros has not been a major factor in past elections.

So far Hee just says people have asked him to run and "we have discussed some issues with some researchers, but we wouldn’t make a decision until we had some research done."

Sometime soon, Hee will have to decide how big a rodeo he wants to ride in next year.

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