Hawaii’s voter turnout in Tuesday’s 2022 general election was disappointingly low — about 48.4% — but those who did show up had a lot to say. One takeaway message: The island electorate wanted to see change in the status quo and was more than willing to deliver some of it at the ballot box.
When the state Legislature convenes in January, those experienced in leadership ought to feel that the ground may have shifted beneath them. Some of the old guard is gone — Sylvia Luke is now lieutenant governor-elect, Aaron Ling Johanson decided not to seek reelection — and new alliances may be in order. And given the new blood on the Honolulu City Council, some new dynamics should be expected there as well.
The outcome of Hawaii’s top-tier races — governor, Congress, mayors — were tracked by polls and widely anticipated. So most of the post-election attention has been drawn to down-ballot races.
In particular, the election of four Republican political newcomers to the Legislature has raised eyebrows. The numbers are small, of course: The GOP count ticks up from five members to eight.
But in a state that has been dominated by the Democratic Party for so long, even a relatively small shakeup sends a signal, especially when several incumbents and political veterans were those who went down in defeat.
Does this mean people are switching parties based on the issues? Not necessarily. Hawaii’s one-party rule has meant that candidates with a range of philosophies have run under the Democratic banner, and for some of them the reason was pragmatism. It’s been seen as the only way to get elected.
What seems more evident here is that candidates’ personal contacts, made variously in community activities or door-to-door campaigning, left an impression. And in a low-turnout environment, little things like that mean a lot.
Further, two House incumbents, state Reps. Sharon Har and Matt LoPresti were ousted at least in part because of their well-publicized police stops on suspicion of DUI. There were no convictions but these were argumentative episodes — not a good look — and serious enough for constituents to give the incumbents’ opponents a try.
Such turnover is not so surprising where office-holders are seen as weakened, but elsewhere there were other factors in play. In the state Senate’s sprawling District 23, for example, the longtime Democratic incumbent Gil Riviere was narrowly bested by former newscaster Brenton Awa.
Reapportionment shifts complicated things for Riviere, and some name recognition surely helped Awa, but the GOP challenger’s walking of the district probably paid off in securing the 400-plus vote margin.
Lying beneath all the varied conditions in each political race may have been a general public disillusionment with government, especially with this year’s convictions of former state Sen. J. Kalani English and state Rep. Ty Cullen on corruption charges.
In such a climate, the fresh face gains a certain sheen. That wears off quickly, though, so the freshman legislators and Council members ought to make sure they build on their community contacts and deliver the service voters expect.
The returning incumbents, for their part, need to be aware of the altered landscape. New pacts will need to be struck in organizing what is still a partisan institution. Could Republicans be part of the new give-and-take? A radical change there may seem unlikely, but in the history of governance at the state Capitol, bipartisan brokerage of deals has been known to happen. If that leads to more transparent policy-making and better inclusion of public input, all the better.
The end product — affordable housing, jobs, completion of long-stymied projects — is what matters to the voters. They will get another chance to roust out any slackers in two years.