Print subscriber but without online access? Activate your Digital Account now.
In a major internal shakeup, Gov. Neil Abercrombie’s chief of staff and his deputy chief of staff have resigned just 10 months into an administration the governor acknowledges has fallen short of expectations.
Amy Asselbaye, the chief of staff, has been a loyal aide to Abercrombie for 18 years and was his chief of staff when he was a congressman before serving as operations director for his campaign for governor last year. Andrew Aoki, the deputy, was a director of the public-policy group Kanu Hawaii before serving as Abercrombie’s deputy campaign manager.
Abercrombie has described the pair as the "heart and soul" of his campaign, and they were rewarded with the top two staff positions in his administration, guiding the governor on operational and policy matters.
Abercrombie said Thursday that Asselbaye and Aoki cited the need to spend more time with their families and young children as the reasons for their resignations, which will take effect by the end of October.
Bruce Coppa, director of the state Department of Accounting and General Services, has been named the new chief of staff. No announcement was made on the deputy chief position.
"Amy and Andrew and their families have sacrificed for years on behalf of the people of Hawaii and I respect their desires to want to reconnect with their families," Abercrombie said in a statement. "The two of them have helped me make the transition from the campaign to governing. I’m sure the transition to continued leadership in the governor’s office will be a smooth one."
An Abercrombie spokeswoman said Asselbaye and Aoki declined to talk to the media.
Asselbaye, 41, and Aoki, 42, provided youthful balance for a 73-year-old governor who often relies on his own counsel and on advice from a circle of older allies he has built during his four decades in politics.
Several sources, speaking privately, said there was tension between Asselbaye and Aoki and the older allies who were part of the governor’s transition team after his election victory. Some of the older allies complained they could not get easy access to the governor, and were frustrated after the Abercrombie administration struggled to advance an agenda during its first legislative session and stumbled through a series of public-relations and public-policy-related embarrassments.
"Clearly, there was a learning curve," one source said.
The Abercrombie administration temporarily brought in Lloyd Nekoba, a behind-the-scenes strategist who worked for former Gov. Ben Cayetano, as a rudder earlier this year. The administration has since turned to Kate Stanley, a former state lawmaker, to help smooth relationships with state House and Senate leaders in advance of the next session.
William Kaneko, who was Abercrombie’s campaign manager and led his transition team, said Asselbaye and Aoki played an integral part in Abercrombie’s election and provided a road map for implementing his policy agenda. He said their decision to resign was their own.
"I was present in the room when they announced to some members of the transition team that they were leaving because they wanted to spend more time with their families," Kaneko said in an email. "As a father of a 14-year old, I can understand and appreciate that."
Sources close to the Abercrombie administration believe the problem has mostly been in communications and in execution, not with the underlying public policy. The governor, for example, offered a philosophical rationale for a pension tax and a soda tax, but he and his staff did not do the necessary outreach with interest groups and lawmakers that might have brought others along. The administration appeared unprepared to offer timely or adequate explanations for why the governor asked for the resignations of former Gov. Linda Lingle’s appointees to key boards and commissions or quietly issued an emergency proclamation to help remove unexploded ordnance.
But while Asselbaye and Aoki were inexperienced in state government and unfamiliar with the demands of the executive branch, sources say Abercrombie, not his staff, is primarily responsible for the setbacks over the past several months. Sources say the governor is often undisciplined — he "thinks out loud," one said — and has not fully grasped the weight of the office of the chief executive.
Several sources said Asselbaye and Aoki appeared devoted to Abercrombie’s policy agenda and had the right instincts about insulating the governor from his older allies. But the young advisers did not have the gravitas or the relationships with influential Democrats and business and labor leaders outside the state Capitol to effectively contain the governor’s impulses.
Coppa is a former chief operating officer at Communications Pacific, a public relations firm, and former executive director at Pacific Resource Partnership, an interest group for the carpenters union and contractors. He has extensive management background in the construction industry, but he lacks experience in state government or a track record as a political shepherd.
State Senate President Shan Tsutsui (D, Wailuku-Kahului) and state House Speaker Calvin Say (D, St. Louis Heights-Palolo Valley-Wilhelmina Rise) said they believe the Abercrombie administration has made progress in working more cooperatively with lawmakers.
Tsutsui said the announcement of Asselbaye and Aoki’s departure was "kind of a shock" because Senate leaders had been meeting with the advisers to prepare for next session. "We’ll just have to wait and see what the next step might be," he said.
Say described Asselbaye and Aoki as a bit overwhelmed when the last session started in January. But he said they proved to be focused and committed to the governor’s "A New Day in Hawaii" agenda. He predicted the governor would miss their youthful perspective. "It will be a tremendous loss because those particular views may not be discussed around their kitchen Cabinet table," he said.
Say said Abercrombie needs to learn to ride the "ups and downs" of life as governor. One of the biggest questions Abercrombie faced when he first announced that he would run for governor was whether he could make the transition from congressman to chief executive.
"Today he is beginning to realize he is the executive of the state, where he is the man in charge," Say said.
80