Former Ige campaign manager gets plum posting

Gov. David Ige is offering a second plum judicial appointment to his high school friend and former campaign manager Keith K. Hiraoka, nominating Hiraoka to one of six seats on the state Intermediate Court of Appeals.

Last year Ige nominated Hiraoka to become a First Circuit judge on Oahu, and he was confirmed by the state Senate. Ige’s new nomination of Hiraoka to the second highest court in Hawaii would be for 10 years, assuming the state Senate confirms him. The annual salary for an ICA associate judge is $210,780.

In a news release and Facebook post last week, Ige said Hiraoka “was the most qualified applicant and the right fit for this position. He has years of experience, legal and analytical skills, and will complement the other judges on the Intermediate Court of Appeals. I’m proud to submit his name to the Senate.”

Ige is running for re-election, and his Republican opponent, House Minority Leader Andria Tupola, said Hiraoka’s advancement amounts to “quite the promotion.”

“This is very surprising that it happened in such a short period of time,” she said. “They should have really thought about how this is going to play out in public, because I don’t think the timing is good.”

Tupola called on the Senate Judiciary Committee to ask “hard questions” about Hiraoka’s nomination, but noted that all 25 senators are Democrats.

“The senators represent a large geographic area, so I would hope too that they would realize that they’re not just making a confirmation based on the governor’s recommendation, but they are representing the voices of the people, and if the people have questions about this, they should be asking those questions,” Tupola said.

Marissa Kerns, the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor, called on lawmakers to reject Hiraoka because Ige’s “fast-track career rewarding of Hiraoka is classic Aloha State Democrat cronyism on steroids and stinky politics of the worst kind.”

Kerns described Hiraoka as a “mega-donor” who contributed $6,000 to the Ige campaign, and has already been given a state judgeship. In a written statement, she described the latest nomination as a “pay-to-play insider deal.”

“Now, Ige has given this same former campaign manager and mega-donor Mr. Hiraoka a massive promotion to Hawaii’s intermediate court of appeals with another cushy state judgeship after almost no time for Hiraoka to even prove himself in the first job,” Kerns said in a written statement. “That’s a ridiculously speedy promotion for Governor Ige’s handpicked political insider.”

Hiraoka, 59, declined comment Monday. Hiraoka was managing partner of Roeca Luria Hiraoka LLP before he became a First Circuit judge on April 7, 2017. He began practicing law in 1983 with a focus on insurance coverage litigation and legal malpractice defense.

Ige and Hiraoka graduated from Pearl City High School, and Hiraoka was Ige’s campaign manager during the now-famous 2014 primary campaign when Ige ousted former Gov. Neil Abercrombie from office.

Hiraoka stepped down as Ige’s campaign manager on Jan. 4, 2017, when he learned that the state Judicial Selection Commission had advanced his name along with five others to Ige for consideration for appointment to the ICA.

Hiraoka was not selected for the ICA at that time, but was nominated by Ige for a First Circuit Court judgeship a month later. He was unanimously confirmed by the state Senate in 2017.

A spokeswoman for Ige said Monday the governor drew Hiraoka’s name from a list of six people sent to him by the Judicial Selection Commission to fill a vacancy on the Intermediate Court of Appeals created when Associate Judge Lisa M. Ginoza was promoted to chief judge on the ICA in April.

“Ige personally interviewed the nominees and sought input and guidance from former Supreme Court Justice James Duffy and the legal community before making his selection,” according to a statement from his office announcing Hiraoka’s nomination.

Ige said through the spokeswoman that “the public and the legal community will have the opportunity to comment during the confirmation process, so please do so.”

The Senate is expected to meet in a special session later this month to consider Ige’s latest judicial nominations, and likely would consider Hiraoka’s nomination at that time.