Race to the top: The Sunshine Blog is delighted to see that Oʻahu voters will have something interesting to keep an eye on for the next two years — the race for Honolulu mayor is heating up.

Maybe it’s because the former likely frontrunner, Honolulu City Council Chair Tommy Waters, is kind of damaged goods these days. Or maybe because potential candidates are already over this year’s elections (which really aren’t over till November) and are starting to plan ahead.

Either way, The Blog was happy to hear that Matt Weyer, the freshman council member who reps Waikele, Wahiawā, the North Shore and Koʻolauloa, recently set up an official campaign committee to start raising money for the 2028 election. The position is nonpartisan but Weyer lists his party affiliation as Democrat on the state Campaign Spending Commission paperwork. But we knew that, right?

A Special Commentary Project

Civil Beat is focusing on transparency, accountability and ethics in government and other institutions. Help us by sending ideas and anecdotes to sunshine@civilbeat.org.

Read More

He joins longtime Republican Andria Tupola, also a City Council member from the Westside, who set up her campaign committee for mayor a long time ago and has made no secret of her ambitions for the top city elected gig when Mayor Rick Blangiardi terms out in two years. She’s been out there raising money hand over fist, so Weyer will have some catching up to do.

Weyer was unopposed in the Aug. 8 primary and won reelection to a second term outright. He tells Civil Beat’s Ben Angarone that he’d been mulling a run for mayor for a while.

It was during the aftermath of the Kona low storms – probably in April, he said – when he started seriously thinking about running for mayor. The storms had hit his district particularly hard with flooding, and he said that people who were falling through the cracks deserved a champion who would work hard for them.

“At that juncture,” he said, “it was just clear to me that it was something that I should consider.”

Last year, Waters engineered a restructuring of the council leadership that saw Weyer ousted from the vice chair position and other council members reorganized out of their chairmanships. At the time, Waters was annoyed with members who had gone against him on a crucial vote on sewer rates. Coincidentally, some targeted in the reorg also had been thought to be considering a run for mayor (Tyler Dos Santos-Tam among them).

But Waters will soon be out of office, having failed to persuade the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court to let him run for reelection this year. A new power structure will be coalescing soon and The Blog hears the scramble for support for those who would be chair is well underway.

A win for accountability: Speaking of Tommy Waters and campaign shortcuts, the council chair would have us believe he’s learned his lesson when it comes to mixing politics with the public’s business.

Waters certainly sent his fair share of taxpayer-funded updates on his accomplishments to thousands of his constituents as the Aug. 8 primary neared. Some closely tracked with political messaging suggested by a poll done independently (wink, wink) by his supporters at Pacific Resource Partnership, as The Blog detailed. In July, Civil Beat reported on newsletters that seemed to blur the line between legitimate government communication and campaign materials.

Other government bodies, such as Congress and the state House, restrict mailers from being sent out during the weeks leading up to elections. The city, however, has no such blackout period.

The Honolulu Ethics Commission — under the guidance of its new executive director, longtime good-government advocate Sandy Ma — appeared to be moving in the direction of recommending one, but then, last week, Waters beat her to the punch.

During a special committee meeting on Wednesday, he proposed a council rule change – the only item on the agenda – that would implement a 60-day blackout period.

“The issue has appropriately generated public discussion,” Waters said at the meeting, “and the Ethics Commission is considering a similar policy. In my view, there’s no reason for the council to wait to formalize a best practice that we should already be following.”

As soon as next month, that blackout period could pass the full council.

Gimme some money: Gov. Josh Green and his lieutenant governor running mate, Kauaʻi Mayor Derek Kawakami, together have raised millions this election cycle — a lot more than their Republican counterparts — and are heavily favored to prevail on Nov. 3. Kawakami is already backed by a super PAC. And both candidates scheduled joint fundraisers for Sept. 16 at the Waikīkī Business Plaza and another Sept. 24 at Park Lane Honolulu.

Translation: Be prepared for an onslaught of campaign ads and mailers between now and Nov. 3. And Kawakami will probably bank some of that kālā for a future run for the top job.

Gary Cordery, the GOP nominee, has scheduled no less than five campaign fundraisers himself since the Aug. 8 primary and at last accounting has raised $347,466. But not so for Daniel Anthony, his LG running mate — an unorthodox candidate, as CB’s Kevin Dayton explained in a recent profile. We will see what the latest campaign spending reports have to say come Oct. 1, but as of Aug. 8 Anthony had raised just $18,827 and spent half of it on signs, marketing, airfare, parking and volunteer support.

Speak now or forever hold your peace: Hawaiʻi’s highest court has an opening for a new associate justice and the public has until Oct. 5 to let the Judicial Selection Commission know what you think of the candidates.

The Blog was happy to see that there are 10 applicants this time around. That hasn’t always been the case as lawyers and lower court judges seemed to have shied away from applying for the judicial vacancies in recent years.

Here’s the list (in alphabetical order): Robert Brian Black also known in legal circles as R. Brian Black (and, full disclosure, known to Civil Beat readers as executive director of our sister org, the Public First Law Center), Lance D. Collins, Rebecca A. Copeland, David M. Forman, Nickolas A. Kacprowski, Shirley M. Kawamura (Shimizu), James S. Kawashima, Benjamin E. Lowenthal, Sonja M. L. P. McCullen, Karen T. Nakasone, Robert T. Nakatsuji and Catherine H. Remigio.

You can read more about what the JSC is looking for and how to submit your comments by clicking here. But basically they’d like more info about the applicants’ integrity and moral courage, legal ability and experience, intelligence and wisdom and compassion and fairness, to name a few criteria.

And fear not: All written comments will be kept confidential.

Civil Beat plans more detailed coverage of this important hire in the weeks ahead. Stay tuned.

Meetings ‘r us: And one last item to get in this week — the Honolulu Charter Commission begins a round of community meetings on Monday on the 20 ballot proposals that Oʻahu voters will be asked to approve or reject on Nov. 3.

The ballot questions, if approved, would amend the Honolulu City Charter, which is the city’s foundational governing document. The Charter Commission has been working for more than a year to review citizen proposals and whittle the ideas down to something the 13 commissioners think voters will be able to digest and help them make a reasoned decision.

This is a once-in-a-decade event, so The Blog urges you to pay attention, whether it’s going to one of the public sessions or reading up on the proposals (they’re starting to get a lot of media coverage including here at Civil Beat.)

Here’s the current schedule for the public sessions. Or go to the Charter Commission’s website where you can read more about the proposals, find testimony for and against them, and watch videos of the commission’s meeting where the proposals were (mostly) thoroughly debated.