Breaking away: When’s the last time a Democratic politician in Hawaiʻi switched parties to become a Republican?

The Sunshine Blog can’t think of a recent example — there are plenty of examples of GOP pols leaving to become Dems, of course. And yet on Monday state Rep. Elle Cochran jumped ship from the majority party to the minority.

“I stand before you here today to officially announce my resignation from the Democratic Party and to join the Republican Party, so it’s official,” Cochran said at a State Capitol Rotunda press conference Monday. “Can’t take it back.”

Cochran, the West Maui rep for District 14, said she was still the same person elected to the House in 2022 as well as the same person who served on the nonpartisan Maui County Council.

But the Lahaina fire of 2023 made her realize that it had become increasingly clear that her district needed stronger advocacy and a louder voice.

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“Many in our community felt left behind during the response and recovery,” she said. “I listened closely to those concerns, and I took them to heart. It’s deep in my heart, as I too am a fire survivor.”

Cochran said Hawaiʻi works best “when there is balance in government, when different perspectives are welcomed and ideas are debated openly for the good of the people. I believe that joining the Republican caucus allows me to better advocate for my district, while helping restore that balance in our State Capitol.” 

Cochran did not do much advocating for Lahaina in the Legislature last session, however, when she missed 51 of 60 House floor sessions while still collecting $11,475 in per diem payments.

Asked about her absence, Cochran suggested her votes would not have made much difference.

“My people needed me with them by their side, hand in hand, working with them,” she said. “So that was my reason for being there.”

Cochran’s switcheroo raises the number of House Republicans from nine to 10 in the 51-member chamber, marking the first time since the halcyon days of Linda Lingle that the GOP hit double digits in that chamber. The new size comes with an asterisk, though, as Kanani Souza does not actually meet with the caucus and skipped being in the group photo-op.

House Speaker Nadine Nakamura issued this response to the Cochran defection: “We wish Representative Cochran well in her future.”

And this from Rep. Terez Amato, a Democrat representing nearby South Maui (District 11): “Given her defection from the Democratic party by the West Maui Representative and abandonment of the Democrats who elected her, I stand ready to advocate for the people and the needs of the West Maui community in collaboration with Democratic Senator McKelvey.”

At least three candidates — one Democrat and two Greens — had pulled papers to run for the Lahaina seat as of March 12.

And the nominees are: The Judicial Selection Commission has finally officially sent Gov. Josh Green the list of nominees for the position of chief justice of the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court. No surprise here, the list is the same as it was when The Blog wrote about it in December:

• Lance D. Collins, a president/principal attorney at the Law Office of Lance D. Collins and a graduate of William S. Richardson School of Law at the University of Hawaiʻi Mānoa;
• Vladimir Devens, an associate justice at the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court and a graduate of the University of California Berkeley School of Law;
• David M. Forman, a professor of law at William S. Richardson School of Law and a graduate of the school;
• Benjamin E. Lowenthal, an attorney at the Law Office of Benjamin E. Lowenthal and a graduate of the University of Kansas School of Law; and
• Sabrina S. McKenna, the interim chief justice at the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court and a Richardson graduate.

Green now has 30 days to name the new CJ. But if The Blog were a dabbler in prediction markets, its money would be on Vlad Devens.

The nominee is subject to state Senate confirmation.

Fido votes no: It’s election season, and that means lots of fact-challenged people are flooding social media zones with conspiracy theories about voting.

To set the record straight, the Hawaiʻi Office of Elections has posted on its website an Election Rumors Vs. Facts tab, something it first did during the 2024 elections.

“Our role is to help you cut through the noise with accurate and reliable information about voting in Hawaiʻi,” the office said in a press release last week.

The fact versus rumors page addresses voter registration, mailing ballots to voters, election day voting, the posting of election results and post-election matters such as certification of races.

Here’s an example from the page (and no, The Blog is not making this up):

Poetic license: And finally, with apologies to Lewis Carroll and “The Walrus and the Carpenter,” an ode to the Hawaiʻi budget conundrum by former legislator and longtime education advocate Jim Shon.