Abercrombie’s aloofness could alienate voters

Most politicians will hold on to their elective offices as long as campaign contributions and law will allow. Oh, and voters, of course.

Neil Abercrombie has done this time after time, hopscotching through the state House, the Senate and the City Council before finally taking a seat in Congress for 20 years.

Through those 20 long years, while the scraps and spats of home-front governance of the Harrises, Cayetanos, Lingles and Hannemanns grabbed much of the public’s attention, Abercrombie remained far, far away in Washington, largely out of sight and somewhat out of mind.

Except for intermittent appearances on C-SPAN and departures from the Beltway to the islands in his biennial petition to stay in that loop, he sort of dissolved from public view.

Then Abercrombie returned to Hawaii, boisterously and effectively campaigning to become the state’s seventh governor. But that seems to have been the endgame; doing the job seems an afterthought.

Despite his New Day plan, Abercrombie’s administration has been one of sluggish reaction rather than of lively, transformative pursuits. There is little guidance in building the multifaceted stable of renewable energy ventures the state badly needs, in restructuring public education or adjusting and reshaping land-use and water-resource policies that have triggered expansive development and unsustainable population growth.

To be sure, previous state leaders were not very effective in making institutional changes, but expectations were that Abercrombie, allied with a Democratic Legislature, would be a hands-on governor, willing to dive into the deep waters to bring changes to the surface.

He has spent his first few months at the top of the political food chain just nibbling around the edges.

A newly restructured Board of Education is supposed to take the lead in school reform, but the governor needs to be present to assure remedies move in the right direction.

He should be studying, then channeling energy developments that ply the best of Hawaii’s resources as they fit into a community’s needs and assets.

More important, Abercrombie needs to engage and communicate. Tactics and strategies in Congress are vastly different from those in the state Capitol.

The decades the governor spent off island may have allowed him to develop a distant approach to leadership.

Abercrombie recently suspended land use and environmental rules to allow the Army Corps of Engineers to clear and destroy discarded military munitions, contending federal funds to pay for the work would have been lost if held up by environmental assessments.

True or not, as governor, Abercrombie is obliged to let the public, lawmakers and county officials know what he is doing and explain why. And claiming his lack of communication was merely an oversight reflects a disdain for people and his responsibilities.

This disengagement from the public could lead to a disengagement of voters in the next election go-round. From his performance thus far, it would not be implausible that Abercrombie’s aim is for one turn at the helm.

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Cynthia Oi can be reached at coi@staradvertiser.com.