If you visit the Hawaii State Office of Elections website, there’s a how-to guide called “Become a Candidate” which explains that locals still have until June 4 to submit paperwork if they wish to run for office this year. 

There’s also a regularly updated “Candidate Report” on the same website, that allows interested citizens (and hypervigilant incumbents) to check on the daily who is entertaining the possibility of running for office by “pulling papers” — requesting nomination papers to begin the process of getting on the ballot — or who has actually filed papers to be on the ballot.

People often gripe that they don’t have good choices on the ballot, so they have to pick the lesser of two evils. Like all popular or common sayings, there’s usually a kernel of truth to it, but if you’re reading this article, you’re probably wondering what the bigger problem is — and what we can do about it. 

As I see it, there are several problems we need to come to grips with as a community, and if you want better choices in 2024, the time to start is now.

Partisan Primaries In Hawaii Are Awful

The real election in Hawaii is the primary election. That’s because local Democrat and Republican leaders know that districting has made most seats predictably blue or red, and if you win the primary of the reigning party, in most cases you’ll cruise to victory in the general. This is nothing new. But the problem is because Hawaii is such a small state, the two major parties tend to recruit and reward individuals who are either ideological special interest-pleasing piranhas or establishment baby sharks dropped into a political fishbowl filled with weaker, middle-of-the-road goldfish opponents.

Between 2007 and 2014 the Pew Research Center conducted a national study of political and religious preferences and found that 48% of Hawaii adults identified as moderates, while only 18% identified as conservative and 33% saw themselves as liberal. Of those moderates, 18% said at the time they had no political preference, while 58% said they leaned Democrat and 24% leaned Republican. 

This is likely why many of the “firebrands” we have in local offices can be so extreme at times — they must go far left or far right to emerge victorious. Even if we switched to a nonpartisan primary, also called a jungle primary, which some have suggested Hawaii do, the people who will emerge from the nonpartisan jungle will still be partisan beasts. 

The type of candidate most likely to be good at advocating what parties want to hear may not necessarily be the kind of person given to careful deliberation, moderation or even collaboration when it comes to being in office. This tends to deter a lot of highly qualified individuals from running for office, because they may not want to take sides in a culture war they have no opinion about, or they may support a mixed bag of policies on opposing partisan sides that make them unpalatable. It also eliminates these same types of people in a primary, assuming they do run.

If “normies” want to get more balanced candidates, they’re going to have to either find a way to persuade their neighbors to stop voting so partisan or they’ll have to mobilize in a way that ensures the mildest Democrat or tamest Republican wins in their primary. And believe me, that is a heavy lift.

Why We Back Incumbents

I’ve mentioned previously on the topic of publicly funded campaigns that President John F. Kennedy once said that victory has a hundred fathers, but failure is an orphan. Last week WalletHub released a report that said Honolulu has the worst inflation in the nation. When it comes to gathering support for nascent political campaigns, our cost of living makes people highly selective in who they support.

“Highly selective” is a polite way of saying people can’t afford food, housing, bills and political donations at the same time, so they’ll either not help or — if they do help — they’ll fund known political personalities rather than startup candidates. 

There’s also a cloud of fear that hangs over Honolulu in which people don’t want to donate or be seen as openly supporting someone, lest they get recriminated against for backing a losing candidate.

The same goes for tapping into the help of Hawaii’s consultant class, which consists of a small pool of politically agnostic experts who are behind the victories of candidates on both sides of the aisle. That is the nature of a palace economy — it exists because the palace is never challenged because the palace always pays out.

Rather than backing someone who could win, people want to back someone who has already won. That means we back establishment incumbents and hyperpartisan primary winners.

“I really like your ideas,” we like to say here. “Keep it up! I’ll support you once you win your primary!” It reminds me of how the late President George H.W. Bush while in office tried to get the Kurds to overthrow Saddam Hussein by telling them to rise up first and promising America would follow. Of course, America did not follow, and the Kurds were butchered by Iraq’s dictator at the time.

The idea that a “good candidate” will be able to go around and collect a ton of $5 donations from ordinary people and prove their worth to win looks great on paper but in reality, it isn’t practical to do. That’s why successful candidates will “go to the dark side” and chase large donors first, because they need the immediate infusion of early support to then flex the “be like Mike” conformity effect on the little people to back them.

Media Coverage Doesn’t Help

I hate to say it, but local for-profit news reporting on campaigns and politics is awful. Not only is for-profit campaign reporting here shallow, superficial and clearly biased, but it also tends to flood the public with bad stuff that drowns out important topics and worthy candidates. I say “bad stuff” because I can’t use another term with the acronym “b.s.” but you get the idea.

The majority of press conferences that get reported are ones for established candidates seeking higher office, not startup challengers with great ideas but little exposure. Softball questions are usually asked by the media, with minimal assertive follow-ups or demands for explanation.

The end result? Vanity candidates who are well-funded or well-known usually win at the expense of policy expertise or moderation in worldview.

The majority of the people whom Hawaii would classify as a good choice on the ballot will likely never file for office or run because they are aware of all these things. Someone who is eminently qualified will often find themselves asking, “Why would I want to subject myself to all this when I can just stay in the private sector, make money and mind my own business?”

So where does that leave us, the people and the voters? Well, if you want better candidates, you’ve got to be better voters. Stop ignoring good opportunities and stop supporting bad candidates. The late President Kennedy famously said during his inaugural address, “Those who foolishly sought power by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside.”

How many times are we going to let ourselves be eaten by political tigers, and when will we start recruiting, supporting and electing better people? The system is broken. We broke it and we keep it broken. But we need to make the choice to do something different this year. 

Want better candidates on the November ballot? Be better voters from now to the primary.