On Politics: Election Day will deliver Blangiardi or Amemiya as mayor — then real decisions on rail

In 1975, it was Rick Blangiardi’s eye for details that made him stand out.

Besides being the University of Hawaii football defensive coordinator, Blangiardi was in charge of getting the team to mainland games, flights, luggage, tickets, all that.

“It was like a hot knife through butter. Rick Blangiardi could be a heck of a travel agent; we didn’t lose a bag, didn’t miss a pick-up,” said then-UH head coach Larry Price while arriving for a game against Rutgers.

UH lost the game, but Blangiardi, a former UH player, coach and broadcast executive, has reason to think he will be on the winning side when the votes for Honolulu mayor are counted Tuesday night. Blangiardi leads in the Star-Advertiser Hawaii Poll by about 13 points, while another media-sponsored poll had him 20 points ahead.

A long-time political observer who has worked in a number of major Democratic campaigns said that Blangiardi seems to be connecting.

“Rick came across as tougher and more decisive at a time when that was a high priority (COVID-19, homelessness and rail). Simply Rick as the tough, kind of Italian, manager suited the moment,” said the political consultant, who asked for anonymity to speak freely.

Blangiardi’s opponent, Keith Amemiya, has a political record that makes him a natural. His time as Hawaii High School Athletics Association executive director gave him a high profile with Hawaii’s sports fans. Amemiya also moved in the right political circles. He was executive assistant to the UH Board of Regents, a job for those with a degree in smart politics. Amemiya was also appointed to the Honolulu Police Commission, the state Board of Education and the Stadium Authority. After working with high school sports, Amemiya’s daytime job was as senior vice president for Island Holdings, which runs several insurance companies.

Amemiya is closely connected to some of downtown business and development interests, with Blangiardi getting support from the Hawaii Regional Council of Carpenters and the businesses that contract for their labor. Their political action committee “Be Change Now” has infused nearly $900,000 directly into the mayor’s race, according to research done by the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.

“I think the people behind Amemiya … probably felt that if they could paint Blangiardi as a Republican, tie him to (Donald) Trump then history can repeat itself. The issue with Blangiardi is he could self-fund,” said former U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa, who ran unsuccessfully in the mayoral primary race. She said Amemiya beat her in that race because he outspent her. The Star-Advertiser shows that Amemiya has raised $2,346,305 and spent $2,263,085, both still significantly higher than his opponent. Amemiya loaned his own campaign $268,712.

Many of the television commercials you see favoring Blangiardi are actually independently produced by the Carpenters’ PAC. While active with some county council and neighbor island races, the Carpenters, when they go all in, can be a game changer in local politics. The advertising avalanche swamped former Gov. Ben Cayetano when he ran as an anti-rail candidate for mayor in 2012.

Both Blangiardi and Amemiya have tentative supportive positions in favor of rail; neither is against it. The difficulty is that the semi-autonomous board governing the construction of the rail line is unable to decide how it will get the needed extra $1 billion or how it will complete the agreed-upon route, so saying you support rail is a safe position that means little. The big decisions will be made after the winner is declared.

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