Hawaii Governor Makes It Official: ‘My Final Campaign’
He began his re-election push last year with a soft and hard launch. This year he reopened his campaign headquarters, which never really closed. And he’s run political advertising and raised money hand over fist.
But just to make sure everyone knows how serious he is about wanting a second and final term as governor, Neil Abercrombie really made it official Thursday by formally filing candidate paperwork at the .
A scrum of reporters, photographers, supporters, campaign aides and public-relations handlers were there for the multi-photo-ops, following the governor during his short walk from the Hawaii State Capitol to the State Office Tower. His wife Nancie Caraway was at his side, with their dog Kanoa in front.
“I will do my level best with everything that I have within me to live up to the vote of confidence that I have had to this point in my political career,” Abercrombie said. “I will do everything I can to justify that confidence.”
It was an emotional moment for the governor, who made his first run for office in 1970. (He lost a bid for the U.S. Senate.)
But Abercrombie has won many elections since then, serving in the state House of Representatives, the state Senate, the Honolulu City Council, the U.S. Congress and today as the top elected official in the state. By his own recollection, this year marks the 34th primary, general or special election that he has competed in. (He won most of them.)
Gov. Neil Abercrombie walks his dog Kanoa from the Capitol Building to Office of Elections to file nomination papers to run for reelection as governor on May 15, 2014.
In brief remarks after the filing, Abercrombie said the main thing he wanted to express was his thanks for the opportunity over the past five decades to serve the people of Hawaii. As with President Barack Obama, the governor said, it’s a story that could only be told in Hawaii.
“To not be judged by a category or put into a slot but rather to be judged on the basis of one’s contribution, to be judged on the basis of one’s commitment to the values of aloha, to the values that we treasure of the aloha spirit, and to be given the opportunity to have the right vaules, the right priorities, is something not only I treasure but I honor,” he said.
Opponents on the Horizon
In fact, the governor is being judged, and by many people. They question his priorities. His approval ratings as governor have never exceeded 50 percent, and he has drawn a Democratic primary challenger in state Sen. David Ige.
Abercrombie’s lieutenant governor, Shan Tsutsui, is also being challenged, by another state senator, Clayton Hee. And the person Abercrombie appointed to serve out two years of the term of U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye, Brian Schatz, is in the midst of an attention-grabbing contest against U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa, who the governor passed over for the job.
And, should Abercrombie make it past the Aug. 9 primary, he will face the very same people he clobbered in his 2010 run for governor, independent Mufi Hannemann and Republican Duke Aiona. Except this time he will be facing them at the same time.
Around town you hear the whisperings: Could Abercrombie really lose?
Formidable Campaign Machine
The campaign is taking little for granted, and on Thursday the governor did not veer far from his talking points.
The state was in a “deep fiscal crisis” when he came in to office. By making “tough decisions” based on “hard choices,” and by putting “our paddles in the water … we would reach the shore.” The governor actually repeated several key phrases, such as “right values” and “right priorities,” which happen to be the words used in his recent television spots. And he talked a lot about his “commitment” to Hawaii and to “justifying confidence” in him.
Gov. Neil Abercrombie and wife Nancie Caraway pose with supporters and dog Kanoa after filing nomination papers at the Office of Elections on May 15, 2014.
During a short Q&A with reporters, the governor gave nods to groups representing labor, the environment, education and energy, suggesting that his administration has made progress toward shared goals. Perhaps so. But many in those same groups privately express disappointment in Abercrombie’s first term, and some are giving Ige a serious look.
Abercrombie still has a formidable campaign machine.
Just after the filing event, an email blast went out titled, “It’s Official — My Final Campaign.” No surprise, it cited the “severe budget crisis,” adding, “I thank all those who have supported me in this commitment to Hawaii. I pledge once again to do all I can to justify your confidence.”
His administration also runs the state, and it might well have been coincidence that the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations announced Thursday morning that Hawaii’s unemployment rate in April had dropped to 4.4 percent, the lowest it’s been since August 2008. But it was no surprise that the governor mentioned that fact at his campaign event.
Meanwhile, the Abercrombie campaign sent out a photo Thursday of Abercrombie as a baby at the time of his baptism. “His father was a small businessman, a broker for food manufacturers,” Abercrombie’s explained. “Neil’s mother Vera, was a kindergarten teacher who, like so many women in those days, faced open discrimination in the form of lower pay and benefits simply because she was a woman.”
A Guy ‘With a Different Style’
Abercrombie, who turns 76 next month, was surrounded by old friends and supporters Thursday. They included Amy Agbayani, Randy Iwase, John Radcliffe, Kate Stanley, Barbara Tanabe, Charlie Toguchi and Eddie Flores.
A reporter asked if the governor ever thought back in 1970, when he was still a student at the University of Hawaii, that he would one day be the “top dog” in the state. Demonstrating the quick wit he’s always had, he cracked that Kanoa was the “top dog.”
Neil Abercrombie with his parents as he is baptized.
Abercrombie said that not many people gave him a chance in the early days, being a guy from UH “with a different style.”
“I didn’t imagine ever any such thing because at the time I was so thrilled with the opportunity to be able to, as just an ordinary person, to be able to try and carry forward what had been given to me, which is to say the acceptance of everyone with a sense of aloha,” he replied.
He continued: “My sole preoccupation running for public office was to serve the public interest, the common interest, and to advance what Hawaii means, not just to me but everybody.”
Speaking of interest: Abercrombie will be holding — his fifth this month — Friday night in Kahala. The suggested contribution is $2,000.
Clearly, it has been a very long time since anyone might have called Neil Abercrombie an ordinary person.
Contact Chad Blair via email at cblair@civilbeat.com or follow him on Twitter at .
