ODDLY enough, in Hawaii the road to Washington passes through Honolulu Hale. It is a path traveled in the past and perhaps likely to be trod again next year. Council members
thinking of CongressFirst, take a look at the careers of our two incumbents in the U.S. House, Reps. Patsy Mink and Neil Abercrombie.
After a bombastic time at the state Legislature, Abercrombie tried for Congress. He won a special election good for three months, while losing the real race.
Then-Superintendent of Education Charles Toguchi tucked him away at the DOE until Abercrombie was able to win a City Council seat. After two years, Abercrombie won a seat in Congress.
Now with gray beard, shorn of his trademark ponytail, Abercrombie will be 60 next year. He has been in the U.S. House since 1990.
Also stopping at City Hall before returning to Congress is Hawaii's grand dame of national liberal politics, Patsy Mink. A fiery orator, devoted to educational support, Mink, 69, left the House to run unsuccessfully for the Senate. She found a home on the City Council. Although she was an activist Council chairwoman, she was unable to parlay that into a win when she ran for mayor.
The Council, however, did serve as a launch pad for her return to Congress in 1990.
Now, two more City Council Democrats, Mufi Hannemann and Donna Mercado Kim, are weighing the chances of their own congressional campaigns.
Neither Council member is talking publicly about it, but for different reasons both are thinking about moving next year.
Hannemann, of course, has been a regular in congressional contests, losing to Mink in a Second District race in 1990 and earlier to Republican Pat Saiki.
After listening to advice from former Gov. John Waihee and others that he had to prove that he could win and serve, Hannemann won a Council seat, representing the Pearl City-Waipahu area.
If he ran for Congress next year, Hannemann would be helped by extensive business ties both here and on the mainland.
As a former Fulbright scholar and White House Fellow, a state government executive, now involved in community sports and grass-roots programs, Hannemann would provide a counter to critics who say Mink is losing touch with her home base.
If Hannemann views the Council as a way station, Kim has been a fixture there, serving 11 years representing the Salt Lake-Kalihi district. That comes after four years in the Legislature.
Kim is a businesswoman who used to own a modeling agency and now is a board member of the Bank of America, a position likely to be lost when the sale of the local Bank of America operation is completed.
WHILE her strength would be in her home district, few probably know her in the rest of Abercrombie's district, which stretches from Waipahu to Hawaii Kai.
Her pro-economic development stance and her sometimes aggressive questioning at Council meetings, however, might make her a draw in usually Republican East Honolulu.
The pair would also take into the race a more youthful image than Mink and Abercrombie, something voters might consider important as they look at the rest of Hawaii's delegation, featuring our two 74-year-old senators.
Don't be surprised then, if Kim and Hannemann start talking foreign policy and Medicaid reform during Council meetings usually devoted to Honolulu beach parks.