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Hawaii voters have long been criticized for complacently electing the same old Democrats, election after election, despite little or no progress in solving our
social, economic and infrastructure woes.
I don’t put it all on voters, who often have little choice facing ballots filled with Democratic incumbents propped up by special-interest support who are running unopposed or against little-known Republican and third-party
opponents who lack funding and organization.
But this year’s election showed that voters will respond when given real choices for change, whether it be non-Democrats or different kinds of Democrats.
The prime example was Rick Blangiardi, an independent former TV executive who became Honolulu’s new mayor in a 19-percentage-
point landslide against the well-
connected Keith Amemiya, who was groomed for years to lead the Democratic establishment into the next generation.
Blangiardi voiced a no-nonsense, problem-solving message that resonated in the nonpartisan election as we deal with the dual problems of COVID-19 and economic devastation. Amemiya flopped by wrapping himself in the Democratic Party and its coterie of special interests while dubiously trying to tie Blangiardi to Donald Trump.
Hawaii’s Democratic electorate showed Trump little love in the presidential election but rejected him being dragged as an irrelevant bogeyman into a local election in which they were more interested in hearing about leadership than partisan preening.
The Democratic establishment also wasn’t as invincible as perceived in the party’s state House primary in McCully-Kakaako, where attorney Kim Coco Iwamoto came within 167 votes of unseating powerful House Speaker Scott Saiki.
Saiki isn’t the worst of our legislative leaders — he’s a smart and diligent collaborator — but he had the misfortune of being the only top lawmaker facing a well-known and decently financed opponent. District voters took the only opportunity available to voice their disgust with the state of the state.
Blangiardi and Iwamoto were outliers in that they had broad name recognition — he as a TV editorialist and she as a former school board member — and financial means to compete.
But their showings could inspire others of substance to more aggressively challenge the Democratic
status quo and give voters more choices.
Most voters in local elections care less about ideology than ability to do the job and willingness to
represent the public interest over special-interest “stakeholders.”
Blangiardi, who sits to the center-right of the political spectrum, had support from former Democratic and
Republican governors and others from across the ideological divide.
Iwamoto, a leading progressive activist, went at fellow Democrat Saiki from the left but also won support from many moderates who wanted to shake up our vacuous Legislature.
Blangiardi now bears the weight of delivering on the expectations he raised to give voters tired of the same-old the confidence to further stir things up.
Reach David Shapiro at volcanicash@gmail.com.
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