Elections have consequences: Could Donna Kim replace Ron Kouchi as Senate president? That’s the rumor going around the Big Square Building On Beretania.

The Senate will not officially address any leadership changes until after the Nov. 3 election. But it’s definitely the time of year for palace intrigue (in case you missed last week’s Blog report on the Honolulu City Council leadership changes in the works) and The Blog hears jockeying is already happening behind the scenes at the State Capitol in the month before the election.

Whether Kim has the 13 votes needed to oust Kouchi is unclear. It’s also dependent on what happens with a couple of Senate races on Oʻahu yet to be decided.

One is whether Democrat Danielle Bass, the incumbent being challenged by Republican Kelly Kitashima and nonpartisan Max Hanna, will hang on to the seat being vacated by Michelle Kidani.

Republican Bob McDermott, who unseated Sen. Kurt Fevella in the primary, is up against Democrat Markus Owens on the Westside. Also out west GOP Rep. Elijah Pierick is taking on Democratic Sen. Rachele Lamosao, who’s only held that seat a short time. And Democrat Tricia Nakamatsu faces Republican Wallyn Kanoelani Christian for the downtown Honolulu seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Karl Rhoads.

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The retirement of Rhoads and Kidani along with the ouster of another veteran senator, Les Ihara, in the Democratic primary (he lost to Rep. Jackson Sayama) is complicating the usual math.

A few key positions have been as good as decided, according to the usual reliable sources. Lorraine Inouye replaced Kidani as Senate vice president Sept. 1. Jarrett Keohokalole is likely to chair the Senate Judiciary Committee, which may be renamed to include Hawaiian Affairs, as they call that committee in the House. And Troy Hashimoto is favored to replace Keohokalole as chair of the Commerce and Consumer Protection Committee.

Kouchi has been Senate president since May 2015, when he led a faction to remove Kim as president. Described as a “bloodless coup,” it came two days before the legislative session ended. That’s the time of year when “re-orgs” often happen.

“I’ve been asked to lead in a different way and we’ll see if that works better than the one that has,” Kouchi said at the time.

“I did not want to take on a presidency where I would just be in the background and be a rubber stamp,” Kim said at the time.

Kim herself became president in December 2012, taking it over from Shan Tsutsui who left when he was appointed lieutenant governor.

Still up in the air is whether Kim, if she doesn’t take back the gavel as Senate president, would continue to chair a combined higher and lower education committee or whether it will be split into two separate committees, as the House does and as the Senate used to do until very recently.

And last but certainly not least (not by a long shot) is where Donovan Dela Cruz fits into all this. Word around the Capitol a few months ago was that Dela Cruz lobbied hard against Bass getting the nod to replace Kidani when the longtime senator stepped down (some think purposely too late for the seat to be on the primary ballot).

Capitol denizens said at the time he was worried about keeping his very powerful position as chair of Ways and Means, a job he has had since May 2017, when Jill Tokuda was ousted from that high post.

As anyone follows legislative politics knows, DDC and Donna Kim have been thick as thieves for years. So perhaps that plot has thickened.

Rising to the occasion: A press conference Wednesday in support of Constitutional Amendment Question No. 2 — the one authorizing the use of RISE bonds (an acronym for resilient infrastructure for shelter and equity) to help pay for infrastructure without raising property taxes — paid big dividends for the main backers of the ConAm question, namely, the Carpenters Union.

A ballot issue committee called RISE Together Hawaiʻi has been spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to get the measure passed. Wednesday’s photo op — sorry, press conference — which starred Gov. Josh Green, his very likely incoming lieutenant governor Derek Kawakami, Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi, a couple of state representatives and dozens of supporters from sectors representing housing, labor and business, was generously covered by the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, KITV and Aloha State Daily. Talk about earned media!

The Blog wasn’t the only one who wondered: Can they do that? Can top elected officials publicly advocate for a ballot issue?

Yes then can, say both Robert Harris of the Hawaiʻi State Ethics Commission and Sandy Ma of the Honolulu Ethics Commission.

Even though the officials were on city and state time and at a state facility (the Capitol Rotunda), the officials can take positions on matters of policy that are considered part of their official duties. The House Majority Caucus even sent out invites to the presser and the Green administration posted plenny pics on the gov’s official website.

Now, backers of ConAm No. 2 just have to hope more people vote yes on the measure than vote no or leave their ballot blank (blank votes count as no votes.)

Gotta catch ’em all!: The online social casino ACE.com has determined Hawaiʻi is the most Pokémon card-obsessed state in the country. Hawaiʻi ranks No. 1 with 1,645 monthly searches per 100,000 residents for Pokémon card-related terms, says a recent press release. That’s ahead of Washington (1,597) and Oregon (1,511.6), who take second and third.

“The research also looked at which cards could turn a forgotten collection into a payday,” ACE.com reported. “Gengar (Reverse Holo) #18 has a PSA 10 value of $156,000, and Rayquaza (Holo) #22 jumps from $37.67 ungraded to $102,000 when graded PSA 10. At the other end, Shuppet #62 is worth just $0.11 ungraded.”

The Blog does not know what a Holo, Reverse Holo or a Shuppet are. And we had to Google PSA, which apparently can mean “professional sports authority.”

But we do know Pikachu! The playful iconic Pokémon (it means “pocket monster,” silly!) is so popular that a local political gadfly changed his name to Shelby Pikachu Billionaire and ran for office, including for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs this year.

Tenure track: The Hawaiʻi International Film Festival begins Wednesday and runs through Nov. 5. One of the featured shorts is by Nancie Caraway, a former first lady of Hawaiʻi (hint: Neil Abercrombie’s wife) and also a former professor at the University of Hawaiʻi Mānoa.

Co-directed with Jess Cole, “Profs” is described as following a retiring professor “who confronts his ego and his career” while engaging with Coco, a rebellious former student and his soon-to-be successor.

Both are non-Hawaiians on a campus that brands them “colonial settlers. The two share a conversation over dinner “where they struggle to find their kuleana.” 

The project, says a press release, grew out of a phone call in the summer of 2025 when Caraway and Cole say no films were being shot in the state.

Made with a SAG-AFTRA cast and an experienced crew, “Profs” is billed as a love letter to Hawaiʻi and UH.