HI-Gov: The Democratic race to succeed termed-out Gov. David Ige is well underway as, while both Lt. Gov. Josh Green and former Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell have held off publicly announcing their bids, each man has a website that identifies them as candidates for the Aloha State’s highest office.
They may also get some company in the primary soon, as businesswoman Vicky Cayetano, who served as first lady of Hawaii while her husband, Ben Cayetano, was governor two decades ago, told Civil Beat on Wednesday that she was “definitely considering” a bid. She also said to Hawaii News Now’s Mahealani Richardson that she’d likely announce her plans in a month.
Civil Beat reporter Kevin Dayton writes that Cayetano, who leads the state division of the laundry giant PureStar, had “generally had not been politically active” until last year, when she co-chaired independent Rick Blangiardi’s successful campaign for mayor of Honolulu. Cayetano sounds like she plans to pitch herself as a political outsider if she runs for governor, saying that, like Blangiardi, she would bring “a new perspective on the problems that we face.”
If Cayetano gets in, she’ll need to get past both Caldwell, who beat her husband 54-46 in the 2012 race for mayor of what is by far Hawaii’s most populous community, and Green. Each man refrained from confirming their candidacies this week: Caldwell saying he was still in what Dayton characterized as “the planning stages,” while Green said he’d announce his plans after the COVID “crisis has passed.” The fact that each of their aforementioned campaign websites, though, identifies them as candidates for governor provides all the confirmation we require that they’re officially running.
Both men have held high-profile positions in Hawaii politics. Ige appointed Green, who works as an emergency room doctor, in March of 2020 as the administration’s “COVID-19 healthcare liaison,” and the lieutenant governor has had a large media presence throughout the pandemic. Green’s appearances seem to have boosted his image: An April MRG Research poll gave him a 63-17 statewide favorable image, with Democrats linking him by a wide 72-11 spread.
Caldwell, meanwhile, left office early this year as the leader of Honolulu, which is home to about 70% of Hawaii's residents. While the former mayor is well-known statewide, however, MRG found that a large plurality disliked him in the spring: The poll showed Caldwell with a 29-46 unfavorable image, though Democratic respondents gave him a better 37-38 score.
Other Democrats may also take a look at running for governor in what is one of the bluest states in the nation, and Richardson relays that there are “rumors” about Reps. Ed Case and Kai Kahele, as well as former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard. No members of this trio appear to have shown any obvious interest in running, however.
And thankfully, a candidacy from Gabbard, has stepped up her attacks on fellow Democrats since leaving Congress this year, may be especially unlikely: The Fox News-favorite transferred from the Hawaii Army National Guard to a California-based post in the Army Reserve in October, a move that some observers interpreted as a sign she wasn’t planning to run for office in the Aloha State again for a while.
The Republican Party hasn’t been much of a force in Hawaii politics since Linda Lingle left office at the end of 2010, and it doesn’t appear like 2022 will be any different. The only person that Richardson mentioned as a potential candidate for the GOP nod is Honolulu City Councilwoman Andria Tupola, who lost the 2018 general election to Ige in a 63-34 landslide.