The whip-elect: Talk about calling an election early!

It’s still 15 months before Senate Democrats elect their leadership after next year’s mid-terms, but Hawaiʻi U. S. Sen. Brian Schatz is now being hailed by national media as a lock to become the next Democratic whip.

That’s the No. 2 party post in the Senate, and it might even come with an inside track for Schatz, 52, to eventually take over the No. 1 job currently held by Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, 74. By then, of course, it could be Senate majority leader if the Democrats remember how to win elections again.

It’s partly Schumer’s new endorsement of Schatz that had Punchbowl News and The Hill on Tuesday practically bestowing the title of whip-elect on Hawaiʻi’s senior senator. They both cite unnamed insiders as saying Schatz now has support from a comfortable majority of the 47-member Democratic Caucus.

“Brian Schatz is not just a trusted colleague and a clear communicator — he’s a close friend and one of my most valued allies in the Senate,” Schumer told Punchbowl News. “Over the past several months, Brian and I have worked hand-in-hand to build strong backing across the caucus, and I’m proud to endorse him for whip.”

Schatz issued his own statement: “I’m grateful for the support from so many of my colleagues. I intend to continue earning their support in the months to come.” 

He would replace retiring Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, who has been whip since 2005.

As chief deputy whip, Schatz has long been a key player behind the scenes within the Senate Democratic Caucus.

“Senators of both parties see him as an effective communicator for Democrats who can bridge divides between progressives and moderates,” Punchbowl News wrote.

Still, The Blog can’t help but think of the adage, be careful what you wish for, because there are stormy days ahead for anyone trying to make Congress functional in the current political environment.

Buckle up, Brian.

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Have allowance, will travel: Financial reports for the first six months of the year are in for the Honolulu City Council members, and they show a predilection for spending their $25,000 allowances flying to conferences.

The disclosures included trips to the NACo Legislative Conference in Washington, D.C., for Tommy Waters, the council chair, and Esther Kiaʻāina, the floor leader. The National Association of Counties featured speakers including Brooke Rollins, secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Doug Collins, the secretary of U.S. Veterans Affairs, Sens. Ron Wyden and Alex Padilla and other federal officials.

While the council members paid for the trips through their allowances — they had to book the travel in advance — Waters and Kiaʻāina later recouped much of their expenses through the city’s annual contingency allowance. It’s part of the legislative budget to cover expenses incurred while fulfilling official duties associated with city business.

Kiaʻāina was also reimbursed to attend Hawaiʻi on the Hill in D.C. in June. Same goes for Radiant Cordero and Tyler Dos Santos-Tam, who were also on the Hill, no doubt arm-wrestling with Sen. Chuck Schumer over the Spam Musubi. (It’s true: The Senate minority leader cannot get enough of those little puppies.)

Waters also spent $263 for a green light pointer, picture frames, binders and carpet, and a floor sweeper.

Scott Nishimoto, meantime, used his allowance to travel to Philadelphia last month for the NACo Annual Conference and Exhibition — a second NACo event held this year. Nishimoto also spent $215 to split the costs of an Easter egg hunt and community food drive with state Rep. Della Au Belatti. Cordero paid $5,802 for newsletter postage to her district, and Dos Santos-Tam paid $42 for a Year of the Snake Chinese New Year banner and $915 for a love seat for his office.

(The Blog has reported before on these coveted council love seats.)

Matt Weyer, Val Okimoto and Augie Tulba did not use their allowances for mainland travel, but they did spend (respectively) $300 for 100 white kukui nut lei, $690 for a one-year subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud and $27 for two boxes of gloves for North Road Beautification Day.

Andria Tupola, the council vice chair, also did not report any mainland travel. But she did use her $350 monthly car allowance, as did each of her eight colleagues. Must be nice, given the price of a gallon of unleaded these days.

Scrubbing the data: Hawaiʻi Data Collaborative, which seeks to promote “a culture of data-guided decision making” in the islands, last week released its own recap of the 2025 legislative session.

“Good data policy helps make information more reliable and secure, while also making it interoperable — exchangeable and useful for developing insights,” according to a press release from the collaborative. “When data policy is weak, however, gaps, conflicting definitions, or privacy concerns can creep in and erode evidence-based decisions and public trust.”

The Blog concurs!

The collaborative identified 133 bills out of the 3,172 that were data relevant, of which three became law. Here are three of note:

• Senate Bill 742, which sets up a data sharing and governance working group in the Office of Enterprise Technology Services. It will report back to the Legislature on what it found.
• Senate Bill 1491, which adds the Department of Taxation and Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism to the list of state agencies required to share data and determine what data should be shared through the Statewide Longitudinal Data System.
• House Bill 1099, which makes an emergency appropriation equaling 50% of an $11 million penalty assessed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service to be reinvested in the development of a new eligibility system that will assist in reducing Hawaiʻi’s SNAP payment error rate — and maybe get that fine reduced or eliminated. The idea is to help the state help local folks who depend on food stamps in the wake of Trump administration cutbacks.

As well, a permanent full-time data and artificial intelligence equity manager position was added to the Office of Enterprise Technology Services to support the chief data officer.

House Bill 726, which did not pass, would have created and paid for a data and AI governance and decision intelligence center and positions to improve data quality and data sharing statewide. The collaborative hopes to see that bill fare better next time around.

CORRECTION: Honolulu City Council member Radiant Cordero was incorrectly identified as having attended the NACo conference in Philadelphia.