Sens. Donna Ikeda, left, and Milton Holt.
A potentially volatile power shift - who has it and how it's exercised - is under way in the Senate.
It involves a band of generally younger senators who feel that veterans Ikeda and Holt have been imperial in their authority and cavalier in dismissing colleagues' concerns.
The Senate rump group wants to decentralize power and to have committee chairs on a more equal level with the influential money panel that Ikeda now heads. It also feels Holt's "bad boy" image and Machiavellian maneuverings have tarnished all lawmakers.
Some believe they have 13 votes for a reorganization, but that likely won't be tested until after the election.
For much of the just-concluded session, the insurgents bit their lips since they saw Ikeda, Holt and their allies as more powerful though fewer in number.
Even now, they don't want to be quoted by name. Holt has allies outside the Legislature who could be influential in how re-election campaigns turn out, one said.
But a good indicator of how the sides line up is to look at how the majority Democrats voted on Holt's 11th-hour motion to yank from the Senate Judiciary Committee the House bill calling for a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriages.
The five Democrats voting with Holt and Ikeda were James Aki, Robert Bunda, Randy Iwase, Malama Solomon and Joe Tanaka; they were joined by the Senate's two Republicans.
At least three senators describe Mizuguchi as an old-style politician smart enough to make changes to continue leading a group of self-described new-style politicians.
It was Mizuguchi, along with Majority Leader Rosalyn Baker and Majority Leader Les Ihara, who curbed talk in an off-the-floor huddle to retaliate against Holt's dramatic move to force a vote on same-sex marriages last Friday night. Some wanted to yank the no-fault measure from his control. Mizuguchi wanted the session to end on time and not in chaos.
Mizuguchi was unavailable for comment yesterday.
Holt said he wonders how Baker, as a Senate leader, can head the "informal" group searching for a new Senate position on no-fault. Since his jurisdiction on the issue is being sidestepped, that means a reorganization is already under way, he asserted. "How come no one is complaining about (Senate Judiciary Chairman) Rey Graulty? He sat on the biggest issue in town, same-sex marriages. No one is saying anything about that. People ought to start looking in the mirror."
Ikeda added: "It's convenient to single us out as the powers that need to be toppled. A lot of what I did was in consultation with the Senate president. It wasn't like I was moving independently on my own."
One senator said that the days of football-style politics with end runs, sneaks and smash-mouth hits are ending. "It's now baseball. You don't need shoulder pads and a helmet," the senator said.