When Neil Abercrombie crashed in his gubernatorial re-election bid last year, the political flameout also scorched Big Island Mayor Billy Kenoi.
It was conventional state Democratic Party wisdom that two terms of Abercrombie would lead smoothly to two terms of Kenoi as Hawaii’s next Democrat in Washington Place.
Kenoi never said he was interested in the job, and recently he said he would retire from politics after serving his second term as Big Island mayor.
But Kenoi is easily the most electable Democrat in the state. He is blessed with a light-up-the-room personality that gets people to agree with him. Last year’s YouTube video of Kenoi’s HPU commencement speech garnered 120,000 views (https://youtu.be/p_7bqrzFYj4).
Observers in Hilo have been privately saying Kenoi had a solid record stitching together the Hilo, Puna and Kona communities, which have been marked by decades of grumbling and feuding.
"Mayor Kenoi has done more for all areas of the island than either of his two or more predecessors," said one veteran Big Island journalist I respect.
Recently Kenoi and his staff have been devoting much attention to the eruptions, evacuations and advanced planning needed because of the lava flows threatening Pahoa. Kenoi’s combination of good planning and high-touch people skills has prevented a difficult situation from turning into a government disaster.
Today Kenoi is staring at a new disaster, one of his own making.
West Hawaii Today’s Nancy Cook Lauer wrote Sunday about Kenoi using a Hilo County credit card to buy drinks at a Honolulu hostess bar in December of 2013.
It wasn’t just a couple of beers after work. According to the story, Kenoi in one night charged $892 on his county card and didn’t get around to repaying the county until March of 2014.
County-issued credit cards are not to be used for personal purposes, and there is a prohibition against using them to buy liquor.
"Any error in judgment in the use of my card is entirely my own," Kenoi told West Hawaii Today.
"I take full responsibility for the purchases on my card … Certainly I could have exercised better judgment."
The newspaper reported that Kenoi said he’s used the county card for personal purchases on other occasions, but he’s always reimbursed the county.
"It’s not known how often this occurs, because repeated attempts by West Hawaii Today to get copies of the credit card statements have been turned back by the county," the paper said.
Kenoi’s 2013 charge was made at Club Evergreen on Kapiolani Boulevard, which is open from 2 p.m. to 4 a.m.
The news story says that Kenoi didn’t file a report, as is required for using the wrong credit card, but noted that the county treasury reported a deposit of $892 on March 20, 2014.
Kenoi, besides being easily outgoing, is smart. He has an only-in-Hawaii rags to riches story, pulling himself together, making it to law school and then a life of community involvement.
He worked for U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye in Washington, D.C., went to law school and was a former public defender.
Along the way he had also developed a reputation for enthusiastically enjoying a good party.
Because he is so high up the Hawaii political food chain, that reputation is likely to be very publicly examined.
Already, former U.S. Rep. Charles Djou is grabbing the low-hanging fruit, saying on his Facebook page that the "Big Island Mayor used his government credit card at hostess bars. This is the direct result of one-party rule in Hawaii."
Kenoi has two more years left in his term as mayor. He has said he wasn’t interested in running for Congress, but politicians have been known to change their minds.
The question now is: Will the voters change their minds about Kenoi?
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Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Reach him at rborreca@staradvertiser.com.
