David Ige finds little support in the Legislature

Two years ago, David Ige, a little-known Pearl City Democratic legislative veteran, made Hawaii political history by ousting the outspoken and polarizing incumbent Democratic governor, Neil Abercrombie.

Never had a Democratic governor lost in Hawaii primary election, essentially tossed out by the party rank-and-file.

The Ige victory was widely seen not as the sudden materialization of a new captivating political figure, like Barack Obama in his 2004 Democratic National Convention keynote address, but rather voters saying, “Anybody but Abercrombie.”

Now, two years later, Ige is trudging through his first term, raising neither expectations nor his voice.

Ige has set up a somewhat solitary administration. His major effort at collaboration has been his involvement in setting up a team to advise the school system on the “Every Student Succeeds Act,” which is the federal replacement for the nationwide “No Child Left Behind” program.

The Ige approach in other areas could be summed up in this portion of a November speech to the Hawaii Tax Institute, in which he explains the administration’s plans to rejigger state funding of the looming unfunded liabilities in public employee retirement and health benefits.

“I know these types of initiatives aren’t splashy — they aren’t the programs that are going to make headlines. But the engineer in me says that we can’t get lasting results without fundamental change, and I am determined to do this — to make things fundamentally right first.”

Making headlines or not, Ige in 2017 will be making major decisions to set the future of transportation — on Oahu, with Honolulu’s rail project, and across the state, with a new or increased highway tax.

For more than a decade, Hawaii’s legislative life has not been about innovations to make life better, or reforms for efficiencies; it has simply been about finding the money to pay enough public employees to do what they were hired to do.

Four years ago, Abercrombie was looking for money just to balance the state budget, not for an expensive mass transit system or highways.

Almost all of Abercrombie’s ideas, from taxing pensions to taxing soda and cutting public-worker benefits, were ignored by the Legislature.

Ige now faces a Legislature that may be almost completely populated with Democrats but not Ige supporters.

Some longtime Democrats are saying that Ige is just not a political leader.

“I don’t see him reaching out and talking to us, getting us together regarding the direction of his plans — having him tell us what he would like to do. We are lacking with leadership all over the place,” said one lawmaker who asked for anonymity.

Ige’s problem is that he just doesn’t get any support for his programs, and he has not been clear in pushing a specific direction.

Veteran legislator Rep. Marcus Oshiro, the Democratic policy leader, says Ige is having problems with both Rep. Sylvia Luke, House Finance chairwoman, and Sen. Jill Tokuda, Senate Ways and Means chairwoman.

“I will be honest and frank. I hear it both inside the Capitol and outside,” Oshiro said. “There seems to be an exaggerated tension between the Legislature and the governor.”

Oshiro added that there are political overtones because “whether he succeeds or not will be a reflection not on just his administration, but his chances for re-election in 2018.”

As it stands now, it is a big question mark.

Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays. Reach him at 808onpolitics@gmail.com.