She left big clogs to fill: Count The Sunshine Blog as one of the many who was shocked and more than a little bit saddened to hear that Colleen Hanabusa had died. She played an outsized role in Hawaiʻi politics over the past few decades and was easily one of the most recognizable and talked about public figures in our state.

That’s why she was favorite fodder for the writers and cast of Gridiron Hawaiʻi, the semi-annual political follies put on by journalists and other media professionals to spoof the people and events that dominate the news here. All for a good cause, of course, with the proceeds going to the Hawaiʻi chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists to help fund its internship program.

Hanabusa also had the kind of rare grace that allowed her to handle the losing battles with dignity and even find a way to joke about them. She had no problem with and even relished the political satire heaped on her by the wickedly clever Gridiron writers and performers.

So it is totally in her honor that we dug up this video of Donalyn Dela Cruz’s show-stopping portrayal of Hanabusa in 2015. The Blog is sure many of you loyal Blog fans were there to see it and probably haven’t forgotten, it’s an imprint that remains indelible.

Hanabusa herself absolutely embraced the sketches and song-and-dance spoofs of her career highs and lows, bringing her staff and friends to many a show and even going so far as to lend Dela Cruz her own clogs and clothes for the numbers.

Click on this link (sorry, an embed wasn’t possible) to enjoy Dela Cruz and other Gridiron cast members in Kerry Yoshida’s “I’m Not Done (Upstart Senate Punk),” a riff on Hanabusa’s election loss to U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz the summer before. And keep an eye out near the end for a certain cameo. The Blog admits to shedding more than a few tears watching it now. It hopes that Gridiron, which went dark due to the Covid pandemic, returns again one day to a stage near you.

Fighting words: Hawaiʻi’s four members in Congress have already made clear just how much they oppose President Trump’s war against Iran. One of them, U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz, continues to air his outrage, as national media like HuffPost reported Thursday.

“Dem Rips Trump For Starting Iran War After ‘Taking Away Your Food And Your Healthcare,'” the headline blared.

Schatz, as HuffPost posted, said Trump had plunged the U.S. into a costly “war of choice” instead of paying for federal food programs and health care.

“This war is costing a billion dollars a day,” Schatz wrote Wednesday on X.

The Democratic lawmaker continued: “In one fucking month we will spend more over there than we needed to save health care for more than 2 million Americans. They literally are taking away your food and your health care for this regime change war of choice.”

Schatz has been dropping the F-bomb rather liberally these days, just like his D.C. buds Mazie Hirono and Jill Tokuda.

Ed Case? The Blog can’t think of an example. And yet, the election season is only beginning.

Fault lines: Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke recently confessed that she failed to report two $5,000 political donations four years ago as required by law. But one very powerful lawmaker and longtime Luke ally is blaming the Campaign Spending Commission for the political uproar Luke finds herself in.

That’s the view of Sen. Donovan Dela Cruz, chair of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, who for years worked seamlessly with Luke when she chaired the House Finance Committee.

Dela Cruz went down that oddly tangential path last week during a discussion of Senate Bill 2530, this year’s version of the long-sought pay-to-play bill that Dela Cruz and other legislative leaders killed at the last minute during the 2025 session. The bill would expand the current prohibition on political donations by certain state and county government contractors and grantees to include the contractors’ officers and immediate family members.

Does anyone think leadership will let the pay-to-play bill through this year? The Blog, for one, is doubtful. And cynical since good-government advocates and the Campaign Spending Commission have been working hard to win approval for several years, only to see it crash and burn at the last minute.

And Dela Cruz had a different spiel at last week’s hearing. The senator said he planned to include language in the bill’s committee report declaring the commission “should also focus on compliance and auditing to ensure candidates are compliant with campaign spending laws and rules.”

“One of my concerns is the incident that recently happened with the lieutenant governor,” Dela Cruz explained. He said “a blog” (meaning Civil Beat, of course, but he hates to give us credit for anything) discovered the $5,000 donations were missing from Luke’s campaign finance reports instead of the commission.

“If campaign spending had been checking these things, they would have probably found it a year or two earlier, versus letting bloggers go through and then reporting it to campaign spending,” Dela Cruz said.

“Most of us — at least 90% of us — have volunteer treasurers,” Dela Cruz said. “In the last 10 years we’ve made so many changes to campaign spending laws that the volunteer doesn’t have the experience to deal with all the technical expertise, and they’re not full time. They’re just trying to help.”

“You know, for some it’s your classmates, your relative, they’re just trying to help, and yet people get in trouble,” he said.

Given that dynamic, the Campaign Spending Commission “should be a lot more proactive in trying to help candidates and their treasurers comply with the law, versus this gotcha system which we currently have.”

When mistakes are discovered, the candidates and their campaign workers should be required to take a class before a fine is imposed.

“Most of it is innocent mistakes,” Dela Cruz said. “I agree that there is some of it that’s probably not, but most of it probably is, but they should be helping candidates and treasurers who are all volunteers.”

He added: “Most people are running for office really because they just want to make a difference.”

Nani v. Donovan: Dela Cruz has drawn a challenger in the Aug. 8 Democratic primary for the District 17 seat (which covers basically his hometown of Wahiawā, Whitmore Village, a portion of Mililani, Mililani Mauka, a portion of Waipi‘o Acres and Launani Valley).

Nani Brown is already off and running, including turning up at two recent Civil Beat events to introduce herself. Whatever her chances, she is not shy.

According to her website, Brown is a Native Hawaiian born and raised in the islands who is running “to restore accountability to government, strengthen community safety, and protect local food systems so our keiki can thrive.”

The Blog can’t think of a more lopsided contest.

Dela Cruz currently is sitting on $1.2 million in cash in his campaign treasury and has received recent donations from prominent lawyers, executives, developers, unions, PACs and lobbyists. Friends for Donovan Dela Cruz not only has a campaign chairperson but a treasurer and a deputy treasurer.

Brown, by contrast, is her own campaign chair and treasurer, though she does have a deputy treasurer. She loaned herself $3,675 and her campaign war chest was $66.51 in the red, according to her filing Feb. 26 with the state Campaign Spending Commission. Just three people have donated to her campaign so far and you’ve likely never heard of them.

Politics can be unpredictable. People often express their unhappiness with Dela Cruz and urge voters to oust him. The Blog is not holding its breath.

And then there were three: The Democratic Party’s Oʻahu County Committee has picked three names to send to Gov. Josh Green so he can pick a replacement for Rep. Daniel Holt’s District 28 seat (Sand Island, Iwilei, Chinatown).

They are:

• Nadia Alves, a first-generation immigrant born into a large, working-class, multi-generational household that taught her the values of hard work, responsibility, and the importance of family. “Her career has taken many turns, from making minimum wage at a fast food chain, to being a residential supervisor at a school for neurodivergent youths, a preschool teacher, a campaign organizer, a leadership program manager, and most recently, as an office manager at the Hawaiʻi State House of Representatives,” according to a press release Tuesday from the Democratic Party of Hawaiʻi.
• Ernest D. K. Caravalho, a United States Air Force veteran and Chair of Neighborhood Board 13 Downtown-Chinatown “who has dedicated years to strengthening public safety, supporting small businesses, and preserving Hawaiʻi’s cultural identity through hands-on community leadership.”
• Michael “Cov” Ratcliffe, a labor law attorney who serves on the Kalihi-Palama Neighborhood Board. “He attended California State University — East Bay where he studied Philosophy and History and then returned home to study and receive a J.D. from Richardson Law School. After graduation, Michael served as a law clerk for the Hawaiʻi Intermediate Court of Appeals. He also volunteers at the Legal Advocacy Clinic at Kōkua Kalihi Valley.”

The governor has until April 14 to fill the seat. Holt stepped down last month to take a job with the Hawaiʻi Department of Land and Natural Resources.

Almost as if it never happened: The Blog ran across these filings in federal court last week:

For the unenlightened, former city Corporation Counsel Donna Leong, former Honolulu Police Commission Chair Max Sword and former Honolulu Managing Director Roy Amemiya got in some criminal trouble for their role in a $250,000 payout to former Honolulu Police Chief Louis Kealoha who eventually went to prison for conspiracy and corruption.

Leong and Sword pleaded guilty while Amemiya worked a deal to accept a deferred prosecution and get his case dismissed.

Read much more of Civil Beat’s coverage: