Talented legislators got lost in crowded primary

Former Lt. Gov. Duke Aiona was in fine form and high spirits on primary election night when he quipped about how difficult it can be to field good candidates in local contests. “Normal people don’t run for office,” he said on Hawaii News Now, and though he was laughing at the time, we all know there’s some truth to that. There are so many, shall we say, fringe candidates. Smart, sturdy, practical people who truly want to do the hard work of public service are becoming more rare.

So why did they all crowd into two races?

OK, not all. But the primary election swept away the political perches of those who had to give up their seats to run for lieutenant governor or Congress, so now there are qualified, experienced players having to sit on the bench, at least for the next two years.

The 2019 Legislature will be without unsuccessful lieutenant governor candidates Jill Tokuda and Will Espero, both of whom could be counted on to take shots at entrenched bureaucracies in the state. Sen. Tokuda asked hard questions about the rail project and Espero took on the police department every chance he could. Without those two at the Capitol, some tough questions may go unasked.

Kauai Mayor Bernard Carvalho, who also ran unsuccessfully for L.G., has worked for the County of Kauai in one job or another since 1985, ever since he left the Miami Dolphins. That’s too much experience and knowledge to waste in a placeholder job with some developer or inert government agency.

Doug Chin, who lost his primary bid for Congress, gets to play lieutenant governor for the next few months, but then he’ll have to take his law degree and rostrum-ready quotes elsewhere unless his friend David Ige makes a spot for him in the administration.

Republican-­turned-Democrat Beth Fukumoto worked this campaign like it was a practice run, so though she won’t be in the Legislature, she’ll likely be back before she’s ever really missed.

Donna Kim’s term in the state Senate wasn’t up, so she will hold on to her seat, but former City Councilman Ernie Martin is going to have to find a job in the real world for a while. Kaniela Ing is also without an elected position, so it’s unclear how he will pay his rent without campaign donations. No doubt he’ll come up with something.

What happened to those legendary breakfast meetings of old, when the power brokers of the Hawaii Democratic Party would sit with a promising candidate, and over coffee and hotcakes, tell them which office they were going to run for?

Isn’t part of the function of a political party to strategize? To spread out the players across the board? Some of the best and brightest all crowded together into the same races, so now all that political experience is sitting at home updating resumes.

Aiona was right, and particularly about his own party. Republicans need to strategize, not just sit back and opine while crackpots don their party label. Without opposition for legislative seats in the general election, Democrats bunch up in the handful of big races, some good candidates get wiped out, and we end up without enough qualified, experienced, normal people actually running the government.

Reach Lee Cataluna at 529-4315 or lcataluna@staradvertiser.com.