Gov. Josh Green does not plan to fill a vacant Senate seat representing the Leeward Coast before the primary election, leaving Westside residents without representation in the Legislature’s upper chamber for at least another month.

Former Sen. Maile Shimabukuro vacated that seat May 31, and the law requires the governor to fill that vacancy within 60 days. That would be the first week of August, a week before the primary election.

In a letter to the Senate on Tuesday, Green said he’s concerned that picking a candidate so close to the election “would place the full weight of the governor’s office on the scales in favor of one candidate over the others.”

In his letter, Green said the law did not contemplate the governor having to appoint someone to an empty seat just 11 days before the election.

Right now, Rep. Cedric Gates and Stacelynn Eli are competing for the Democratic nomination to that seat. Both are also on the short list to fill the vacancy. Shimabukuro has said she wants Gates to succeed her.

Green said voters should decide.

“It is my constitutional obligation to support free and fair elections, and an appointment this close to the election would have me fail that responsibility,” Green wrote, adding that he conferred with Attorney General Anne Lopez and decided to name the victor of the Democratic primary to fill the seat.

Senate President Ron Kouchi disagrees. In a written statement, Kouchi said Green has a clear duty to appoint a replacement senator under the law.

Kouchi said that the Legislature wanted the political party of the outgoing senator to have a say in who their successor should be. In this case, that would be the Democratic Party.

“Governor Green is taking away the political power from the people of Senate District 22 and depriving them from having a senator from the Democratic party for over two months,” Kouchi said.

There are also two Republicans vying for the GOP nomination in the primary, Samantha DeCorte and Teri Kia Saviinaea. One of them will face off against the Democratic nominee in the Nov. 5 general election.

Underscoring this dustup over the vacant seat is tension between the governor and the Senate as well as the dynamics within the 25-member chamber, which is now down to 24 members.

Shimabukuro has long been an ally of Kouchi as part of what was once known as the Opihi Faction, the Senate’s dominant group that helped push Kouchi into the presidency in 2015. 

Factional lines in the Senate have blurred since then, but Gates is seen as someone who would support the current leadership structure.

Various senators and Green have traded barbs within the last year over the governor’s cabinet appointments, and more recently, his administration’s handling of spending related to the August wildfire disasters.

Green has so far made five appointments to fill seats in the Legislature, created predominantly by lawmakers leaving their posts to work in his administration.