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Today’s question about political definitions is: What is the Hawaii version of meh?
Meh is usually defined as an expression of indifference, boredom or a lack interest. In Hawaii politics, however, you can easily describe meh as the Office of Lieutenant Governor.
According to the state Constitution, Hawaii’s lieutenant governor serves as acting governor upon the absence of the governor from the state and “has such other responsibilities and duties as the governor shall assign.”
You have to be at least 30 years old, been a resident of the state for the past five years and eligible to vote — and that’s it.
The strange thing is that as boring as the job of LG can be, the campaign for the office is always fascinating.
The interest is not in the candidate’s position on change-of-name forms, but the potential to go from meh, to governor.
In Hawaii’s short history, three Number Twos have become numero uno, while many others have tried and failed.
The feisty, liberal standard-bearer Tom Gill lost in a race against Gov. Jack Burns; Lt. Gov. Jean King lost to Gov. George Ariyoshi; Lt. Gov. Nelson Doi lost to Frank Fasi in a race for Honolulu mayor. Lt. Gov. Mazie Hirono lost to Linda Lingle in the 2002 race for governor. And Republican Lt. Gov. James Duke Aiona twice ran unsuccessfully for governor.
But, optimists look at the successful careers of Ben Cayetano, John Waihee and Brian Schatz and say, “someday I can be governor, or maybe a U.S. senator.”
In next year’s race for LG, the field is still forming with just two candidates saying they are all in.
First, Maui Mayor Alan Arakawa announced — and it caused hardly a ripple compared with his weird rumble with Native Hawaiians over the sacredness of Iao Valley rocks the county crushed, followed up by attempts to close Waiehu Municipal Golf Course.
Arakawa, who was Maui’s mayor from 2002 to 2006 and was elected again in 2010 and 2014, certainly needs either a lighter touch or better advisers before moving up. Also needed is just more Arakawa name identification; many in the news media keep saying that he is either nonpartisan or Republican although he switched to the Democratic Party several months ago.
Perhaps packing a bit more statewide name identification, but still nowhere close to being a household political name, is Big Island Democrat, state Sen. Josh Green.
“I’m all in, I’m running,” Green said in an interview.
“I am getting input from people across the state. I have an incredibly diverse base. I am the most progressive candidate,” said Green, who has a energetic campaign style bordering on hyperactivity.
The question for any candidate running for lieutenant governor is just how well can you get along with the governor, who today is David Ige? Arakawa so far is basing much of his campaign for LG on criticizing Ige.
“I do not see any direction where … the current administration is saying, ‘This is what we need to do to correct the situation in each of the departments,’” Arakawa said.
“We are kind of aimlessly floundering around,” he said to The Maui News.
Green, when asked if he would run a campaign that supports Ige’s record and platform, said, “No, I intend to run totally my own campaign as my own person.”
Green also has a campaign account of more than $400,000, and Arakawa has about half that.
The dilemma both face is geographic: neither is from Oahu, where most of the voters live, so the race for No. 2 without a major Oahu candidate is still indifferent enough to be meh.
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