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Lt. Gov. James “Duke” Aiona held his second press conference in four days Wednesday.

There was even some interesting news — the gubernatorial hopeful thinks a four-day workweek for state workers will save money and improve quality of life. No more Aloha Fridays.

But the press conference, ostensibly about health care and transportation, also reveals a candidate eager for media attention after a primary election that focused heavily on his rival, Neil Abercrombie and his opponent, Mufi Hannemann.

Aiona dismissed the notion that he called reporters together just to get “ahead of the curve” on coverage, as an Associated Press reporter put it.

“This is the way the electoral process is set up,” he said at his Nimitz Highway campaign headquarters Wednesday. “A primary contest is sometimes contested. We both had contested primaries. Call it whatever you want, I still had an opponent.”

Aiona continued: “Now, I don’t think anyone has the attitude, the mindset, that knowing it was going to be tough to win and that’s it. But that seems to be Abercrombie’s mindset, that the primary was the campaign. Maybe it was all the attention from the media.”

The media certainly was consumed with the Democratic primary for governor and the mayoral contest.

Given that Aiona took 93 percent of the vote over opponent John Carroll, it looks like a good call.

Sunday Morning Press Conferences

Aiona’s other press conference this week was a hastily arranged event held at 11 a.m. Sunday at the Nimitz office.

It was , too. With running mate Lynn Finnegan at his side, Aiona challenged Abercrombie to six topic-specific televised debates.

Problem was, most of the media in town were five miles away at the Japanese Cultural Center in Moiliili for the traditional morning-after unity breakfast of the Democratic Party of Hawaii. Many of those same reporters then had to head to GOP headquarters for their unity event scheduled at noon — where Aiona and Finnegan would end up, too.

Only a handful of reporters made it to Aiona headquarters.

Aiona followed up on his challenge with a letter to Abercrombie.

On , Aiona issued another press release saying Abercrombie was “ducking” debating him.

On Wednesday Aiona said he still had not heard from his opponent’s camp about the debate challenge. (Of course, he didn’t mention that he had stayed away from at least three debates where he could have faced-off against Abercrombie during the primary, as well as Hannemann and Carroll, who did show up.)

Speaking of TV debates: While not ruling it out, Aiona said Wednesday he preferred a format that would not be marred by a live audience — an apparent reference to the Hawaii News Now debate between Abercrombie and Hannemann last month.

“This is not an event or a circus, this is serious stuff and should be conducted as such,” he said. “It’s like coming into a courtroom. This is the highest office in the state. I’m not saying be reverent, but respectful. I thought (the TV debate) was very disrespectful and distasteful.”

“Cultivating a Brighter Future”

Aiona released position papers Wednesday on and .

Not much new there.

His primary plan for transportation is to continue the modernization plans for the state’s highways, airports and harbors that is already underway, expanding and trimming the plans when necessary.

For health care, the focus is on promoting prevention through healthy lifestyles — something Aiona has talked a lot about during his time as lieutenant governor.

He also wants medical malpractice insurance reform (tort reform was favored by the Lingle-Aiona administration) and to address $100 million a year losses incurred by the organization that operates 13 state-supported hospitals.

Aiona’s policy agendas — all grouped under the title “Cultivating a Brighter Future” — do show the lieutenant governor fleshing out the issues that are most important to his campaign.

While the plans are not anywhere as detailed as Abercrombie’s 43-page “A New Day for Hawaii,” they are more substantive than the plans issued by Hannemann.

Aiona seems to think that the general election may well center on issues rather the negative campaigning that defined the primary battle between the Democrats.

Four-Day Workweek

Aiona’s idea for a four-day, 10-hour workweek for state workers was something fresh and will likely get people talking.

While he hasn’t worked out the details — or consulted with public-sector labor unions on how it might affect collective bargaining agreements — Aiona pointed to shorter work weeks in states like Utah and Texas.

He also pointed to pilot programs tried by Hawaii’s Department of Health and Department of Human Resources Development.

“I want to look at that seriously,” said Aiona. “I firmly believe it will make a big impact on quality of life, in costs savings, in government.”

Aiona added that, anecdotally, he understood that employees in those departments enjoyed the shorter workweek and that there was little impact on productivity.