Look who’s pulling papers to run: There’s still more than three months to go until the June 2 filing deadline for Hawaiʻi candidates seeking office this year, but — as of Friday evening — 146 people had already indicated interest by getting the necessary nomination and signatures paperwork. The filing period only opened Feb. 2.

There are over 100 offices up for election this year, with key races including governor and lieutenant governor, Maui mayor and Kauai mayor, and the two congressional seats. (Spoiler alert: No one has yet pulled papers to run in the Democratic Party primary for lieutenant governor, but The Blog is hearing a lot of talk about that race because of … well, you know!)

Many of the most likely contested races are down ballot, and several show would-be candidates seeking rematches. They include Democrat Micah Aiu, who lost his House District 32 seat on Oʻahu to Republican Garner Shimizu two years ago by less than 100 votes in a race where more than 9,000 people cast votes. And Sheila Medeiros looks to take another swing at Kanani Souza in the Republican Party primary for the House District 32 seat on Oʻahu. Souza is on the outs with the House Minority Caucus.

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Legislative seats where longtime incumbents are leaving office include Della Au Belatti’s House District 26 seat on Oʻahu. Three Democrats and one Republican are in the hunt for that rep job. Former Office of Hawaiian Affairs Trustee Lei Ahu Isa is eyeing Karl Rhoads’ Senate District 13 seat on Oʻahu. And two Dems are hoping to succeed Jackson Sayama in House District 21, as The Blog hears Sayama has indicated he’ll challenge longtime legislator Les Ihara in Senate District 10.

Speaking of challenges to legislative lions: The Blog hears Donovan Dela Cruz in Senate District 17 may have some competition in the Democratic Primary, while Donna Kim could draw an opponent in her Senate District 14. Both seats are on Oʻahu, and both incumbents are formidable presences at the Big Square Building.

The primary is Aug. 8 and the general election Nov. 3. Click here for more on Hawaiʻi elections.

A tale of two bills: One of the reasons there are so many bills at the Hawaiʻi Legislature is because many overlap, including identical “companion” bills in each chamber. Other measures seek to accomplish similar outcomes but with different approaches.

Such is the case of House Bill 2110, which wants legislative and judicial employees to have the same ethical standards prohibiting nepotism as other state employees, and Senate Bill 2661, which would repeal language in the state’s Code of Ethics that exempts the legislative and judicial branches from prohibitions against nepotism in public employment.

On Wednesday, Rep. Sean Quinlan killed HB 2110 in the House Legislative Management Committee that he chairs. He said that, because the House already has in place “pretty strict rules” on nepotism, the bill was unnecessarily “duplicative.”

This, even though the Hawaiʻi State Ethics Commission (which proposed the bill) argued HB 2110 would lead to a “consistent statewide standard” to help ensure that employment decisions “are based on merit rather than personal relationships” and reinforce public confidence in government processes. That quote comes from the testimony of Robert Harris, the executive director and general counsel of the commission, who was on hand to watch his bill die.

Two days later, in the Senate Judiciary Committee chaired by Sen. Karl Rhoads, SB 2661 was passed, but not before Rhoads rewrote it.

“The way it was written, it didn’t cover legislators or judges,” he told the audience in his conference room. “It covered other people who worked in the legislative and judiciary branches. So my recommendation is to cover everybody.”

“It’s a good bill,” said GOP Sen. Brenton Awa, who often votes against bills in JDC.

“You can thank Senator Kim,” Rhoads replied, referring to the bill’s author, Donna Kim.

In other sunshine legislation developments, Rhoads amended a bill “fairly dramatically” (his words) to work around a potential constitutional conflict of interest. Senate Bill 2143 would have had the Hawaiʻi attorney general certify state elections if for some reason the chief election officer could not — even though the AG might be sued over those very elections. Rather than have the AG take on the job, Rhoads instead said certification should fall to the next Elections Office staffers in line after chief Scott Nago.

Ralph Cushnie, a commissioner with the Hawaiʻi State Elections Commission who has tried unsuccessfully for several years now to fire Nago, zoomed in from Kauaʻi to oppose SB 2143. Cushnie laid out all the reasons he thinks Nago is still not doing his job before Rhoads summarily cut him off for exceeding his allotted speaking time.

Rhoads also approved another bill Cushnie hates, Senate Bill 2239. It would allow state agencies to make applications for voter registration part of the application process for other things like permits, services and licenses. Cushnie says the Elections Office under Nago’s watch cannot be trusted with existing voter rolls, so why expand registration opportunities?

Rhoads said he planned to amend the bill to keep voter registration part of the county departments of motor vehicles but to make clearer to registrants that they can opt out. Awa, back to his usual role of playing Dr. No, voted “no” on the election bills.

Meanwhile, Rhoads’ counterpart in the House, Rep. David Tarnas, killed House Bill 2132 in his Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs Committee. It too would have allowed other state agencies to help with voter registration and clarify how to opt out. (Hawaiʻi, you may have heard, has a problem in getting people to vote.)

Tarnas said he liked the idea of the bill but that it needed more work, especially more consultation with the four counties, which handle voter rolls. Another tale of two bills!

Never-ending story: The Blog had to look back in the CB archives to recall the name of one Thomas Cayetano, which has recently resurfaced.

Cayetano was a deputy sheriff working for what was then called the Hawaiʻi Department of Public Safety (now called the Department of Law Enforcement). He was a witness in the federal case against Louis Kealoha, the former Honolulu Police Department chief, and his then-wife Katherine Kealoha, the former deputy prosecuting attorney for the City and County of Honolulu — you know, the case about the stolen mailbox that would send the Kealohas to prison and gave HPD a black eye for the ages.

Long story long: Cayetano testified in U.S. District Court in 2019 that he helped Katherine Kealoha visit her then-incarcerated uncle, Gerard Puana (wrongly incarcerated, as it turns out; the Kealohas had helped frame him over that “stolen” mailbox), in a Circuit Court building basement cell block “as a professional courtesy and without supervisor approval,” according to the Office of the Attorney General.

Cayetano was subsequently investigated by the Internal Affairs Office at PSD to see if there was cause to discipline him. He was then terminated in 2020, but he appealed and an arbitrator in 2021 rescinded the termination and reinstated Cayetano at PSD with restoration of his full benefits. He subsequently sued for wrongful termination and related claims, alleging that he was not fully compensated for back-pay and retirement benefits, loss of continuing employment with PSD and medical and psychological treatments, “the costs of which he has not been reimbursed.”

Cayetano, who retired from DLE, now stands to receive $47,500 from the state’s general fund as part of a settlement with DLE. The deal is part of the annual claims against the state bill pending at the Hawaiʻi Legislature which, as of Friday, called for paying out 27 claims for a total of $18.5 million.