On Politics: Calm campaign field here bodes ill for 2024 election – Honolulu Star-Advertiser

We are just one year away from starting to vote for a new president, U.S. senator, two U.S. House members plus
12 state senators and 51 state House members.

Voters will be getting their ballots in the mail for the 2024 general election by Oct. 18 of next year, according to the state elections office.

With so many key contests up for a final decision, one would think the general election would have spawned more campaigns already. But, it looks that unlike past election cycles, this is not the year to lure out the early candidates. Instead, this appears to be a quiet political time.

Perhaps the overarching sorrow from the nearly 100 Maui wildfire deaths, plus the daily troubles for Maui survivors, means more than any of tomorrow’s political promises. Or perhaps there is worry that ongoing investigations into the source and cause of the fires have not yet led to a clear explanation.

Whatever the reason, no one is marking this as a vibrant political year. Instead of new faces, this is an election cycle with good tidings for incumbents up and down the ballot.

So far, Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi, a prime incumbent, has not attracted a major opponent. It is a bit strange to describe someone who is 77 as a “freshman,” but Blangiardi, after a successful career in the competitive world of broadcasting, is wrapping up his first term as mayor without an announced or even rumored viable opponent.

The City Council, the usual breeding ground for mayoral opponents, has failed to produce any named candidates.

There’s nothing from Council Chairman Tommy Waters; nothing from Andria Tupola, a successful GOP candidate, who was the Republican nominee in the last Hawaii governor’s race, who had been a leader in the state Legislature. Also nothing yet from Donna Mercado Kim, who twice ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. House in 2018 and 2014, but otherwise has a long history of political wins, including as a state senator since 2000, and before that was on the City Council and prior to that, was a member of the state House. Her son, Micah Kim Aiu, is a member of the state House, making them the first mother-son duo to serve in the Hawaii Legislature at the same time.

Of course, some, but not all, City Council incumbents are going into the campaign season already forced to answer how they could allow themselves a staggering 64% pay raise. Some, like Council members Tupola and Augie Tulba, had introduced resolutions against the raises, but they were not successful.

Still, with just a year left before voters start marking their just-delivered ballots, the question to be answered is not whom to vote for, but is that all we have?

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