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It’s Betsy Lin vs. Bob Lee in Hawaii’s hot U.S. Senate race.

But unless you follow Hawaii politics closely, you may not know who Betsy Lin and Bob Lee are.

They are, respectively, the campaign managers for U.S. Senate candidates Mazie Hirono and Linda Lingle.

Lin and Lee are the top proxies for their bosses, and their duties include lobbing press releases back and forth on a near daily basis — sometimes several times a day. The social media stream for both campaigns is even heavier.

If it’s not Lin and Lee doing the talking for the campaign, it’s Carolyn Tanaka and Lenny Klompus or Kinsey Kiriakos and Corrie Heck, respectively.

They’re just doing their jobs, of course.

But voters are not voting to have Lin, Lee and company represent Hawaii in Washington, D.C. Rather, they have a critical decision to make between Hirono and Lingle.

The media’s job is to help voters better understand who they are voting for. But, far more often than not, reporters are blocked from speaking directly to the candidates and most often have to settle for canned quotes distributed via their staff.

For both voters and the media, it’s important to know what the candidates — not their proxies — have to say about significant issues or events of the day.

Busy People

Reporters aren’t naive.

We realize a phalanx of well-scripted handlers keeps campaigns on message and avoids gaffes that can derail campaigns. We understand that candidates are busy campaigning throughout the state and trying to keep up with their personal lives.

There are press conferences, and occasional functions where candidates are briefly accessible. And interviews with candidates are arranged, though sparingly.

We recognize that the staff’s role is to speak for their boss, and we don’t presume the candidate needs to directly address every issue.

But can a reporter get a candidate on the phone to ask their view on, say, controlling Medicare costs or “legitimate rape?” Rarely.

Civil Beat decided to try to reach Hirono, Lingle, Colleen Hanabusa, Charles Djou and Tulsi Gabbard Wednesday. The primary is pau, Congress is in recess and the general election doesn’t kick into high gear until after Labor Day.

We called their campaign headquarters first thing in the morning and said we wanted to talk to the candidates themselves about media access and voter accountability.

Here’s what we have to report:

Mazie Hirono

Hirono was the only candidate who eventually responded for herself. But before our brief interview late in the afternoon, her spokesman Kinsey Kiriakos talked to us several times — mostly off the record — about our inquiry.

“Every campaign has a spokesperson because (candidates) are balancing 10 or 15 things on any given day,” he said on the record. “So, it would be hard for me to imagine a campaign where you do not have a spokesperson and you just gave out their phone number. … My boss has a family and is balancing that with a statewide campaign and a congressional job. … Imagine if I were to just give you her phone number — I just can’t imagine that. That’s why we have press people. It is not to protect her or manage her, but to help her get through the day. It is important to understand the logistics of running a modern campaign and the staff that they need. It’s a balancing act.”

Hirono, who called a few minutes later, said she was “busting my okole every day. We are running a modern campaign. … You want my phone number so you can bug me 24 hours a day? I think not.”

She laughed after that remark.

Hirono told us that, in addition to the campaign and constituent work, she has an 88-year-old mother to take care of.

“This is quite a challenge,” she said referring to her myriad responsibilities.

Hirono said the best way to reach her is through her staff because her schedule has her “all over the place.” But, she added, her goal is also to make sure the campaign responds to reporters under deadline.

The campaign. But will that get us Hirono when we need her now that we’ve had this conversation?

Linda Lingle

The person answering the phone at Lingle’s Kalihi headquarters promised that someone would get back to us as soon as possible. They didn’t, not by the end of the day.

But the campaign did put out a press release — jointly with Hirono’s — announcing a schedule for upcoming debates.

Colleen Hanabusa

Hanabusa campaign spokesman Richard Rapoza returned Civil Beat’s not long after we left a message at her Kalihi headquarters. He said he would try to get the congresswoman on the phone.

By 3:30 p.m., Rapoza said it wasn’t going to happen.

“She’s totally booked today,” he said. “It’s a particularly bad day. Today is unusual. She’s not in Honolulu that often because she spends a lot of time in D.C., so when she’s here her days tend to be pretty full.”

Rapoza explained that Hanabusa’s Wednesday included congressional work meeting with the U.S. Coast Guard and “business walk-throughs” that continued into the afternoon. The evening was expected to be devoted to meeting with union supporters.

“In terms of reporters getting hold of her, we try to make her as available as possible given her schedule,” said Rapoza. “And it is ‘Team Play.’ If it is something I can take care of, then I’ll take care of it. If it is a specific request to talk to her, we do our best to accomodate that.”

Charles Djou

Djou’s campaign website does not include a phone contact (or at least, we couldn’t find one). Email appears to be the preferred contact method, so we sent two emails to info@djou.com. There was no word back by the end of the day.

Tulsi Gabbard

The person answering the phone at “Team Gabbard” took our message and promised we would hear back from someone. We didn’t, not by the end of the day.