On Politics: How did Gov. Ige do? Three former gubernatorial rivals weigh in

This month, David Ige, an unassuming, modest politician, is concluding eight years as Hawaii’s eighth governor.

In that time, Ige, 65, has risen from being a trusted and well-liked Democratic member of the state Legislature to serving two terms as governor during a time of both change and turmoil for Hawaii.

The University of Hawaii-educated and Pearl City-raised electrical engineer had never been one to seek major leadership positions. His legislative career started when former Gov. George Ariyoshi appointed the GTE Hawaiian Tel engineer to fill a legislative vacancy, not because he decided to run for office. In office, Ige flourished — making allies with other rising young Democrats, including fellow legislator Mike McCartney, who has served as head of the state Democratic Party, Hawaii Public Broadcasting and the public teachers union. Later when Ige became governor, McCartney served as his chief of staff and then director of the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.

Ige and McCartney leave state service without accomplishing their current goal of nailing down specific plans for a new state stadium to serve as a home for the UH football team. In a Star-Advertiser interview last week, Ige said he was working on a “memorandum of understanding” regarding how the state’s stadium authority would complete plans to build a stadium, although nothing had been formalized by last week.

To provide analysis on how Ige did in office, I asked his three major gubernatorial opponents how they judged his two terms.

Mufi Hannemann, whom Ige beat 49% to 11.6% in the 2014 general election when Hannemann ran as an independent, praised Ige.

“Gov. Ige and I served from the same Pearl City-Aiea legislative district and have enjoyed a positive professional relationship for many years,” Hannemann said in an interview, adding that Ige and he both opposed legislative plans to increase the state’s hotel room tax.

“We appreciated his willingness to meet us at the table and take a bold position on this measure,” said the former Honolulu mayor.

Gov. Neil Abercrombie, who was defeated in his 2014 Democratic primary reelection bid 31% to 60%, said in an interview that he didn’t purposely criticize or comment on Ige’s performance after the election.

“I can say that I offered my advice and observations to him privately and when, on occasion, he made inquiries of me I responded fully and forthrightly with regard to what I thought the situation warranted,” said Abercrombie.

Ige’s biggest challenge came from former U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa, who lost to him 50% to 43% in the 2018 primary election.

“David Ige has managed what very few elected officials have, that is to be noncontroversial in a time where he not only faced many challenges but created them as well,” said Hanabusa, adding that she couldn’t really criticize Ige. “Only time will tell,” she said.

As Ige himself noted in an interview about his time in office, he along with others had not focused much discussion on his work of energy independence for Hawaii.

The goal is for Hawaii to meet the state’s energy needs with 70% clean energy (primarily indigenous renewables and efficiency) by 2030. It is a crucial goal, perhaps like Ige not flashy, but still germane and important.

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