Thanks to last week’s deadline for filing for office, we now know the cast of characters for Hawaii’s fall elections. That news sparks two questions: What will they do; and who cares?

The candidates in races to fill an estimated 120 elected federal, state and county positions — from Congress to governor to county council members — are set with about 400 candidates.

It is a big, important election that will answer the questions of not only who is in charge, but what is the plan?

Officials are hoping that with all registered voters being mailed a primary election ballot, that Hawaii’s historically anemic voter turnout will increase for that election, scheduled for Aug. 13. Election officials say they will start putting ballots in the mail on July 26.

For candidates, that July mail-out is essentially the opening of voting and will continue until the Aug. 13 election day.

Political observers are already saying that with the candidate slate now filled out, there are few expected surprises until the votes are counted.

One trend continuing is the dwindling number of Republican legislative members. Observers point out how the GOP faded after holding 19 seats in 2000 in the state House, to today controlling just four out of 51. If the GOP is hoping for a “throw the rascals out” movement to appear in this year’s election, it has yet to appear.

Still, GOP officials are looking for some hope in that gloomy future.

“Never in the recent history of the state GOP has there been over 100 Republican candidates campaigning toward the August primary,” said Lynn Finnegan, GOP state chairwoman.

“The party also has successfully filled candidate seats for 41 of the 51 state House and 22 of the 25 state Senate seats,” she added.

The dominant Democratic Party picked a new chairman this spring, attorney Dennis Jung, who has been a low-profile Democrat who has never held elective office and is a former deputy public defender. There has been no indication that Jung’s election will have any ripples in the controlling party.

This is a reapportionment year, which means that instead of staggering the vote for some races, all legislative seats will be up for election. That opens the way for a change in the leadership in the House and Senate, but observers are not expecting any new alliances to take shape until after the primary elections when politicians know who has survived the primary.

This year’s Legislature operated with a record operating budget surplus, so many usual pressure groups asking for more education or housing support were met with generous appropriations. That means many groups had little to protest and even less reason to complain about the existing lawmakers.

So the two trends — a budget surplus and a minuscule GOP — mean that elected Democrats can consider 2022 to be the year of the incumbent, saying confidently: “See you next year.”

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