Sen. Laura Thielen won’t seek reelection

State Sen. Laura Thielen has decided not to run for reelection to her seat representing Waimanalo, Kailua and Hawaii Kai. She will finish out her term in November 2020.

Thielen, a Democrat, said she wanted to announce her decision early enough so that others have time to think about whether they want to run for the District 25 seat next year. The primary is in August.

Thielen said she doesn’t know what she wants to do next, but expects it will involve working in an area of narrower focus.

“The legislative work I think is important. But what it does kind of come down to is you are telling people what they can and cannot do, you are deciding who gets or doesn’t get money and you are often calling up agencies on behalf of constituents and nagging them to do something or not do something,” said Thielen. “But you don’t get to do the things.”

Thielen is hoping her next job will involve more of the “doing.”

She said she has no plans to run for another elected office and has ruled out running for governor, Congress or the Honolulu City Council. She was only slightly more open to the idea of mayor.

“I have never taken money from political action committees. I don’t take money from lobbyists,” she said. “The mayor’s race is like this whole other realm of politics and I don’t think that is very realistic.”

Thielen, an attorney, was elected to the Senate in 2012 after beating incumbent Pohai Ryan in the Democratic primary. Prior to becoming a legislator, she served as the director of the Department of Land and Natural Resources under former Republican Gov. Lingle Lingle. She’s also served as the director of the state Office of Planning and as a member of the Board of Education and worked for years in the private sector.

In the Legislature, Thielen has been a vocal advocate for environmental protections and women’s issues and has successfully pushed for greater oversight of how law enforcement agencies treat sexual assault cases. She’s also fought against the proliferation of illegal vacation rentals taking to the floor of the Senate to deliver impassioned speeches about their impact on local communities and rising rents.

The Legislature has been criticized in recent years for being reticent to take on controversial issues and implement progressive policies championed by the local Democratic Party. Thielen said that by design the Legislature wasn’t set up to do radical things. But she did point to her support for term limits when asked if there were any areas she would reform.

“People just by their nature get tired of fighting certain battles and give up,” she said. “And maybe we need new people coming in to fight those battles to keep the pressure on and make the change.”

She also said term limits could help cultivate more political leadership within the state, which she said is lacking.

“There were days in Hawaii after the Democratic revolution where there was a lot of leadership in the Legislature,” she said. “But it was because they were reacting to a society where they had some very clear wrongs they wanted to correct. And today you are not going to get that out of the Legislature, partly because it has become a one party- system, so it’s not reacting to anything.”

Thielen’s announcement comes just a month after her mother, state Rep. Cynthia Thielen announced that she would not seek reelection after nearly three decades representing Kailua and Kaneohe Bay. The elder Thielen is just one of five Republicans serving in the state House.