My favorite image that sums up Hawaii politics is this screencap of the Wikipedia article on the Hawaii Senate in 2018:
Since 2016, when Hawaii's sole Republican state Senator was defeated in his bid for reelection, the Democratic Party has held all 25 seats in the Hawaii Senate. This makes the Hawaii Senate the only state legislative chamber with no opposition members (excluding the officially nonpartisan Nebraska Legislature). This was the first time that any state legislative chamber was completely dominated by a single party since 1980 (when the Alabama Senate and Louisiana Senate were all-Democratic).
Feel the Diversity!™ That is true Democracy™. What could be more Democratic™ than an all-Democrat legislative chamber?
Alas, three elephants have snuck into the Senate since then. Sad.
Fortunately, none of the three are Europpressive, and at least two are Native Hawaiian - remnants of the old Maoli-Haole - Native-White (Republican) - alliance no one wants to talk about anymore. I never knew about that alliance until I read Chad Blair’s Money, Color & Sex in Hawaii Politics. Blair wrote that before the Hawaii Democratic Revolution of 1954,
[m]any [Native] Hawaiians relished the power that enabled them to extract patronage, services and even cash payments from the whites who controlled Hawaii during Republican rule[.]
Most Native Hawaiians have since switched to The One Party, while a minority hangs onto The Other Party for historical reasons unique to Hawaii, not because they lurve the freeeee market or MAGA (though yes, the X factor - the GOP’s association with Christianity - is a plus for Native Hawaiians with a sand implant).
August 8’s primary elections in Hawaii did not pit The One Party against The Other Party. By definition, a primary election eliminates all but one candidate for each party who then gets to go on to the general election which will occur in November. Nonetheless, looking at the numbers as of today (August 10) at 7:40 AM will still give you an idea of just how dominant The One Party is in Hawaii.
Lieutenant Governor
Whoever wins the race for the Democrat candidate for Lieutenant Governor will almost certainly be governor for eight years.
More than half of all voters in the primary chose CONvid Dancer Derek Kawakami of The One Party, so he will be our governor in 2030-2038 after he finishes his one term as lieutenant governor. Big money propelled him to an easy victory against the other Democrat candidates.
The only alternative of note was Della Au Belatti who allegedly got a contribution from CONvid lobbyist Tobi Solidum. Last week, I wrote,
He [Solidum] made a lot of money off CONvid. And that doesn’t bother Belatti fans. I guess they’re glad that Solidum kept them safe from the dethplague.
The other Democrat candidates combined got just 7% of the votes. Having The One Letter after your name is not enough to generate excitement.
All Republican candidates combined got fewer votes than Belatti.
The one nonpartisan candidate got 1% of the votes. I suspect many of those votes are votes against the other candidates rather than votes for an unknown candidate. If I ran for office, I’d only get that protest vote.
Governor
Seven out of ten primary voters (and 88.5% of all Democrat voters in the primary) chose Gov. Dr. Josh Green, MDeeee (The One Party), who saved us all not only from the dethplague but also from the dethwaves last year and the dethstorms this year.
It’s hard to complete with a medical messiah. All other Democrat candidates combined got only an eighth of Green’s votes. The Republican candidates got a fourth of his votes. Bu Laia the “Hawaiian Su’paman”, who was the dissident candidate in the nineties, got just 1% of the votes after being out of politics for decades. He got four times as many votes in 1994, when he was disqualified for being too young.
District 1 Representative in Congress
Jarrett Keohokalole (The One Party) was touted as our savior - the opponent of “dark money” in politics. His top donor in his last campaign at opensecrets.org was “Organization unavailable for these records”.
Sounds “dark” to me. So I didn’t shed a tear when he lost to incumbent Ed Case (The One Party), who hearts Ukraine soooo much. I wonder why.
District 2 Representative in Congress
Incumbent Jill Tokuda (The One Party) got ten times as many votes as all other Democrats combined. She too has a soft spot for Ukraine:
I am proud to stand with our Ukrainian partners who have waited far too long for additional U.S. aid to defend against Vladimir Putin’s illegal and brutal invasion. The future of European and trans-Atlantic security and democracy depends on our unwavering commitment to Ukraine and its self-defense.
I will give her credit for
voting against additional offensive military aid to Israel as it plans future military operations in Rafah, the last refuge for over a million civilians. […W]e cannot continue to provide unconditional support for Israel’s conduct and prosecution of this war that has been marked by extraordinary levels of civilian casualties, especially of women, children, aid workers, and journalists, often inflicted by U.S.-provided weapons.
Native Hawaiian Brendon Awa, one of the three red senators in the State Senate, was the sole Republican candidate. He will face Tokuda in the primary and lose. There aren’t enough Native Hawaiian or White elephants left for him to win. Like Native Hawaiians, Whites in Hawaii have also gone increasingly blue over time.
Honolulu City Council District 4
The City Council is nonpartisan, but I’m color-coding it as if it were partisan, because it’s no secret where the loyalties of these candidates lie. I wrote about the Chreva (Trevor Ozawa) vs. Tami (Tommy Waters) show two weeks ago. Incumbent Waters is infamous
for advocating for more money for himself, his council colleagues and all the city officials whose salaries [were] also on the table [in 2023.]
The City Council’s pay is now 86% higher than in 2022.
Waters’ opponent Ozawa, on the other hand, is associated with the mob[.]
Now “association” is a very loose word, and Ozawa has not been convicted of any crime. Nonetheless, Ozawa - like other One Party luminaries (everybody does it!) - did raise funds at a nightclub owned by Honolulu’s late ‘godfather’ - and did a favor for him involving Christmas tree lights (long story).
Waters has been disqualified, but maybe his votes will count after all.
Ozawa and Waters’ opponent Tara Malia Gregory1 is Native Hawaiian like they are. Unlike those One Party members, she was once a Republican - yet another heir of the old Native/White alliance? - but like several elephants before her, has shed the evil letter, theoretically improving her electability. Doesn’t matter. She’ll lose.
Like self-proclaimed “democratic socialist” Jason Liang. Mainland Leftism doesn’t sell in Hawaii, not even with an Asian face.
Take all the red out of the pie charts above - all the Republican votes - and what’s left? Blue Pac-Men with a bit of nonpartisan yellow on their teeth.
There is no Republican to cut out of the Honolulu City Council District 4 primary, but if I white out the former Republican-turned-nonpartisan, the blue Pac-Man has a mouth with light blue teeth (Liang the “democratic socialist”).
Hawaii has Pac-Man Fever!
Blue voters are a solid majority here. Any ‘competition’ will be eaten.
Why bother to have elections at all anymore?
Malia is a Hawaiianization of Maria. Gregory uses her Hawaiian middle name in campaigning to indicate that she is Native Hawaiian, offsetting the disadvantage of her Europpressive surname - the product of Native Hawaiian/European mixture back in the days of the Maoli-Haole (Native-White) Alliance.