The wrong kind of voter guide: The Sunshine Blog bids aloha to retiring state Sen. Maile Shimabukuro, but we do have to quibble a bit with one part of her announcement that she won’t seek reelection. Just three paragraphs in, she tells West Oahu voters who they should choose to replace her.

Rep. Cedric Gates might make a fine senator. And Shimabukuro has every right to endorse him. But doing so at the same time she reveals her owns plans to leave makes the filling of an open Senate seat seem like a fait accompli.

The Shimabukuro press release even includes a quote from Gates saying how much he appreciates her endorsement.

He made his candidacy official with his own “momentous announcement,” as his press release begins, on Wednesday. And included a quote from her endorsing him.

There’s an election next year, folks, and voters will be making their own decisions about who will represent them in the Legislature. With all the calls — especially from us — for legislative reform, it’s possible they’ll opt to send some fresh faces to the Capitol.

Meanwhile, we’re hoping Senate candidate Gates will be more forthcoming than House candidate Gates, who has never responded to Civil Beat’s candidate questionnaires during his past five election campaigns dating back to 2014.

The right kind of voter guide: The Hawaii Office of Elections is working on that digital voter information guide approved by the Hawaii Legislature last session.

The guide will offer candidates the opportunity to submit a photo and short statement about their candidacy, explanations of any constitutional amendment and county charter questions, details about where, when and how to vote, and translations into Olelo Hawaii, Chinese, Ilocano and Tagalog.

Earlier this month Scott Nago, the chief elections officer, informed the Hawaii Elections Commission of other updates involving the guide, including that it will be available online at least 45 days prior to election day, which coincides with sending ballots to uniformed and overseas voters.

It will also be made available at the 51 state libraries 18 days before each election, which coincides with the delivery of mail packets to voters. And there will be separate guides for the Aug. 10 primary and Nov. 5 general elections.

Nago also said his office will propose a bill to the Legislature in January to clarify that the contents of the voter guide “shall not be released to any requester in whole or in part before the public release of the entire guide.”

Sore losers: Talk about party infighting. A lawsuit that tried to disqualify and disband the Hawaii Republican Party, ban its top officers from holding office for five years and to pay plaintiffs’ damages of $25 million was dismissed by the U.S. District Court of Hawaii last week.

The complaint came from a former Republican candidate, Karl Dicks, and two others upset about an alleged failure of the local GOP to comply with reporting requirements, the removal of party officers and other members, and the design of the 2022 primary ballots. They also accused the Hawaii Office of Elections of failing to deal sufficiently with their complaints.

Nonsense, ruled Chief U.S. District Court Judge Derrick Watson, who determined that Dicks and Co. lacked subject matter jurisdiction and dismissed the complaint.

Dicks, we should note, lost a state Senate primary in 2022. Co-plaintiffs James Malish (who ran for a state Senate seat as a nonpartisan) and Daniel Decker (who ran for the U.S. Senate under the banner of the Aloha Aina Party) also lost their races that year.

Life of the parties: Speaking of political parties, the Aloha Aina Party is petitioning to get on the 2024 ballot. So are the Green Party of Hawaii, the Solidarity Party of Hawaii, the Royal Hawaiian Kingdom, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, Free Will (you simply must check out its homepage), the 1787 National Committee and the New Republican Party of Hawaii.

Already on the ballot: the Democratic Party of Hawaii (like, duh), the Hawaii Republican Party (sorry, Mr. Dicks), the Libertarian Party of Hawaii and — something new — No Labels Hawaii.

The Hawaii group is affiliated with the national No Labels organization based in Washington, D.C., that has been around since 2009 and helped put in place the House Problem Solvers Caucus in 2019. More recently Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) has talked about a run for president on the No Labels ticket but the party hasn’t decided yet whether it will field candidates for a presidential run.