Kanohowailuku Helm was so disappointed with state Senate support for the undersea cable bill that he decided to run for office.

Helm is president of I Aloha Molokai, a grassroots hui that opposes the cable connecting Molokai to Oahu and the construction of wind turbines on the island to generate power.

“When they made the final decision to approve the cable bill, myself and a few others went down to visit with some of the senators who heard the bill on the floor, and it was kinda sickening for us,” he told Civil Beat. “Pretty much the senators did not want to meet.”

What really upset Helm was when his own senator, Kalani English, voted in favor of the bill but “with reservations” — a way for legislators to express that they have concerns with the legislation even while they are voting for it.

Helm, who had thought English would vote against the bill, was astounded. He believes Molokai has not been well represented at the Hawaii Legislature, and so he pulled papers to run against English the same day as the cable bill vote, May 3.

But that’s not all.

With the help of filmmaker PF Bentley, another Molokai resident, Helm produced a two-and-a-half-minute video titled Aloha — With Reservations?

In the video, Helm criticizes the “with reservations” vote by English and nine others.

“What does that even mean?” he asks. “We the people hire you to make decisions for the community. If you think a bill is bad, your job is to vote ‘no.'”

Helm continues: “‘Yes with reservations’ … is that like being partially pregnant?'”

The “WR” vote, he concludes, amounts to a “conscience-clearing gesture.”

By May 16, Kanohowailuku Helm, 32, a homestead farmer, fisherman and musician from Hoolehua on Molokai’s northwest side, was certified by the state Office of Elections. To move on to the Nov. 6 general election, Helm must get either 10 percent of the total votes cast in Senate District 7 or at least as many as any partisan candidate who wins the primary.

Then he will face either English or another Democrat, Barbara J. Haliniak of Kaunakakai, in November.

Helm is one of nine candidates running this year as an independent in a slate of races dominated by Democrats and some Republicans.

Like Helm, some are running because they are angry at what legislators have done. Some are former Democrats who felt their party no longer represented their views.

While independent candidates have had little electoral success in the islands, a handful have been elected to office. They are also part of a larger trend nationally away from traditional left and right divisions.

“I have my own views on particular issues — I am who I am,” explained Helm, nephew of Native Hawaiian activist George Helm, who disappeared at sea before Kanohowailuku was born. “If you run as part of a party, you kinda have to follow party guides and positions and work with certain people. I want to work with all of the people, not just the ones a party tells me to talk to.”

Kanoho expands on that point in another Bentley video, Independent Thinking.:

“Like many of you, I have been a registered Democrat, and I share many Democratic values. But the Hawaii Democratic Party wants to control information and limit public input. The party wants to dictate who can run, who can win and how they vote once elected. It even wants to control who they talk too.”

English, whose district also includes Lanai, Upcountry Maui and his home in Hana, served on the Maui County Council from 1997-2000 and joined the Senate in 2000. He declined to comment for this article.

Little Electoral Success

In a state dominated by the Democratic Party of Hawaii, Republicans have had difficulty making inroads.

But independents rarely win at the ballot box and often perform poorly.

In 2010, a Green Party candidate, a Libertarian and a nonpartisan candidate ran against the Democrat incumbent, U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye, pulling just a combined 3.5 percent of the total vote — even less than the 3.8 percent of ballots that were left blank. Inouye won the race with 72 percent of the vote to Republican Cam Cavasso’s 21 percent.

It was a similar wipeout for Libertarian and nonpartisan candidates challenging the Democrat incumbent in the 2nd Congressional District, U.S. Rep. Mazie Hirono; and for nonpartisan and Free Energy tickets losing the gubernatorial contest to Neil Abercrombie and Brian Schatz.

Often, independent candidates are difficult to take very seriously.

The head of the Free Energy party ticket, Daniel Cunningham, for example, essentially had only one platform issue in the 2010 race — energy self-sufficiency — which he recited whenever someone asked.

Still, some independent candidates have made a difference in elections.

In 1994, former Honolulu Mayor Frank Fasi — running as a self-titled Best Party candidate — finished second to Democrat Ben Cayetano and ahead of Republican Pat Saiki in the governor’s race.

In 1992, Keiko Bonk was elected as a Green Party candidate to the Hawaii County Council, becoming the first person in North America elected to a partisan level office as a member of the Greens. She was re-elected two years later and served as chair.

In 1996, she finished a strong second to Big Isle Mayor Steve Yamashiro, a Democrat, and well ahead of the Republican, Libertarian and nonpartisan candidates. She was expected to do well in the 2000 mayoral contest before Harry Kim, the popular Civil Defense director, entered and won the race as a Republican.

Hawaii Council later switched to nonpartisan races, something Bonk thinks had to do with her election and that of two other Green council members.

Today, Bonk, who moved to Oahu not long after her Big Island service, is running as a Green to challenge Speaker Calvin Say for the District 20 House seat that includes Palolo, St. Louis Heights and Kaimuki.

Like Kanoho Helm, Keiko Bonk, an environmental activist and community organizer, is disappointed with lawmakers.

“Every time I go to the Ledge to do any initiatives, there has been no interest in protecting oceans and endangered species in particular,” she said. “We have the most endangered species in world and there does not seem to be any champion in the Ledge, now that (Gary) Hooser is out. So, my concern is that our most prized asset, the natural environment of Hawaii, is rapidly being depleted and our leaders are not doing enough to protect it.”

Like Helm, Bonk is a former Democrat who left the party because she felt it had left her.

Libertarian Leanings

Tracy Ryan, vice chair of the Libertarian Party of Hawaii, said disgust with the major parties is helping to build interest in Libertarians, who generally oppose government’s heavy hand in personal lives.

“Ron Paul has been great for us,” she said, noting that the Texas congressman ran for president as a Libertarian long before he ran as a Republican. “He got the word ‘libertarian’ into the mainstream and energized folks who did not know there were alternatives.”

Ryan ran for the state Senate in 1996 and for governor in 2002. Though the party has yet to win office, it may have its best shot with Fred Vogel, who picked up 22 percent of the vote against Rep. Bob Herkes, a Democrat, in 2010.

With reapportionment, Herkes is running for the state Senate and a Big Island House seat is open. Ryan says several other candidates on the 2012 ballot lean Libertarian, though two are running as Republicans and the other in a nonpartisan race.

Meantime, in the crowded field seeking the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Daniel Akaka — there are three other Democrats besides Ed Case and Mazie Hirono and three other Republicans besides Linda Lingle and John Carroll — Heath Beasley stands out.

The 32-year-old substitute teacher is running as a nonpartisan candidate in his first-ever political race.

Born in El Paso, Texas, and raised as a military brat, his service in the U.S. Navy brought him to Oahu, where he decided to stay.

His priorities are the tax code — he wants ro rewrite it to close loopholes — and the budget — he wants to bring a neutral position to the Senate to help craft a compromise solution from the two parties that are so at odds that D.C. is stuck in perpetual gridlock.

“I have always been a firm believer of voting for the person that is best for office, and that is just common sense,” he said. “We have gotten away from the idea of representation to just being about representing parties. This goes back to Washington’s farewell words — that we would come to a point that political parties would go against each other, that a party agenda was more important than the nation. That’s wrong.”

Indy Candidates on Hawaii 2012 Ballot

U.S. Senate Heath Beasley (nonpartisan)
State Senate District 3 Michael Last (nonpartisan)
State Senate District 4 Kelly Greenwell (Green)
State Senate District 7 Kanohowailuku Helm (nonpartisan)
State House District 3 Frederick Fogel (Libertarian)
State House District 4 Hope Cermelj (nonpartisan), Moke Stevens (nonpartisan)
State House District 20 Keiko Bonk (Green), Joseph Heaukulani (nonpartisan)