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Capitol View
MONA LISA has nothing on the very special smile you see on a select few politicians only once every two or four years. Why some politicians
are smilingThere's the smile of victory after a campaign marked by early morning sign-holding, late-night coffee hours and constant telephone calls. There's the smile as a victorious politician is first seated in the Legislature or City Council. And there is the smile of seeing your own legislation enacted into law.
All that pales, however, next to the satisfaction of checking the list of candidates filing to run for office and finding out that nobody is running against you. If your luck holds and no one actually does run against you, then the smile goes from joy to something akin to rapture as politicians search for someone to thank for being left out of the fray.
There could be a lot of those special smiles this summer.
Here's the list of incumbent legislators who, as of the July 7 elections office listing, have no opponents:
Sens. Sam Slom, Brian Taniguchi; Reps. Jerry Chang, Eric Hamakawa, Paul Whalen, James Rath, Joe Souki, Robert Nakasone, Hermina Morita, Ezra Kanoho, Barbara Marumoto, Scott Saiki, Ken Hiraki, Sylvia Luke, Lei Ahu Isa, Dennis Arakaki, Nathan Suzuki, Nestor Garcia and Cynthia Thielen.
This could all change as we get down to the July 25 deadline to file for office. But as it stands now, the filing date is likely to be one of the great political non-events of the summer.
No opponent means either your district is so in love with you that no one could bear to see you out of office, or you are so formidable that a challenge is too scary to contemplate, or you reside in a district that is such a bother to represent that no one else wants the chore.
Nothing like this was expected two years ago after the Senate voted 14-12 to dump Margery Bronster as state attorney general.
"We won't forget," voters, letter writers and talk show hosts all pledged.
If they haven't forgotten, perhaps they have forgiven, because today there appears to be no great dump-a-solon movement because of 1999 outrages.
The exception to prove that rule is Sen. Brian Kanno who confessed to his constituents in a weekend letter that he erred in voting to dump Bronster.
"I realize now it was a mistake to vote out Margery Bronster when she was investigating the trustees," Kanno said.
After two years of controversy as he clashed with the small business community over labor legislation, it is unusual that Kanno now spots the Bronster vote as a mistake.
MISTAKE or not, when the Star-Bulletin surveyed voters after the Legislature closed in May, the results didn't indicate a revolution at the polls.
More than half of Hawaii's voters wanted to fire their senators immediately after the 1999 vote. Today, just 37 percent want them out. And to make matters even more comforting, senators doubled their supporters, as almost half of the voters want to keep their incumbent senators.
About half of the senators who voted against Bronster, a popular AG who is credited with leading the court case that resulted in the removal of the Bishop Estate trustees, are not up for re-election this fall. Those up for re-election don't consider the vote to be a litmus test for the 2000 election.
The political basics of listening to constituents, pumping money into the district and not doing anything embarrassing while the Legislature is in session appear to have carried the day -- and that's why legislators are smiling this summer.
Legislature Directory
Hawaii Revised Statutes
Legislature BillsRichard Borreca reports on Hawaii's politics every Wednesday.
He can be reached by e-mail at rborreca@pixi.com