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Significantly fewer candidates are running for county races than in years past, giving voters fewer options in choosing the political leaders who most directly affect their daily lives.

There’s no clear explanation for why candidate registrations are down across the board. On Tuesday, just 279 candidates filed to run this year. It’s the lowest number of candidates in at least a decade. 

What is certain, is that the lack of candidates will benefit incumbents, particularly at the county level, who have very clear paths to victory.

Some hypothesized that the increase in attacks by super PACs in recent years as well as the overall vitriol found on social media discouraged many from running. Candidates may be less willing to put themselves and their families through that.

“Running for office can be a really unpleasant thing,” University of Hawaii political scientist Colin Moore said.

Derek Turbin, the chair of the Democratic Party of Hawaii, also points to more hostile social media interactions factoring into people’s decision not to run. He recalled receiving aggressive messages on social media after commenting on the conviction of Donald Trump in a local news story.

Increasing political polarization, brought on in part by Trump’s rhetoric “made things a little bit more hostile in the political environment,” Turbin said.

Voters feeling as though they are being ignored by their elected leaders may also be contributing to the decline in candidates. Tamara McKay, the chair of the Hawaii Republican Party, said that some people feel why they should even try if their voices aren’t being heard already.

“I think some people in office forget they are supposed to be servants of the people and not servants of themselves,” McKay said.

Time And Expense

Fewer people were even interested in considering running for office this year. In 2020, more than 420 people pulled papers to run for office compared to just 383 this year. A smaller share of those who pulled papers filed; just 73% became registered candidates this year compared to 80% four years ago.

Several people who pulled papers but did not file their papers by the deadline said they ran out of time or couldn’t get enough signatures required to be a candidate.

Theresa Texeira, who planned to run as a Republican, was still stuck in traffic on her way to the state elections office in Pearl City when the 4:30 p.m. deadline on Tuesday passed.

She said she should have filed earlier, but believes that it would be easier for candidates to file if elections offices were open on the weekends or if they were allowed to file electronically. Right now, the offices are only .

“That would have made it much easier for me,” Texeira said of electronic filing. “I get it, that you need to be sworn in. But it would be a great option to be able to file online and be sworn in at another point.”

Turbin, the Democratic Party chair, said that the cost of running a campaign in Hawaii may also be discouraging people from pursuing office. 

The price of winning an election has gone up. For example, candidates who won their Honolulu City Council races in 2016 spent an average of $86,000. The price tag to win a seat in 2022 was double that amount, about $176,000.

“It’s a sad truth, but it is the truth: It’s expensive to run for office,” Turbin said. “That can be an intimidating factor. No matter what, you’re going to spend some money out of your pocket, and obviously you need to fundraise to make a competitive campaign.”

Fewer County Competitors

The major political parties fielded about the same number of candidates for legislative and congressional races as in years past. But there are only a dozen third-party and nonpartisan candidates running for seats in the Legislature and Congress this year compared to more than two dozen in 2020.

Third-party numbers were bolstered that year by the Aloha Aina party, which fielded 15 candidates. The party is now defunct and did not have any candidates this year.

And participation by Republicans has actually increased. The GOP has 58 candidates running this year compared to 50 in 2020.

McKay, the local GOP chair, said that candidates decided to run because they are worried about Hawaii’s economy and were startled to see the number of people who have left the islands.

While participation in state-level races seems to be holding steady, interest in most county level seats dropped significantly.

The Hawaii County Council has seen a gradual rise in the number of candidates running over the years, but it is the outlier.

Fewer people are running for council seats on Oahu, Kauai and Maui. There are also fewer candidates for seats on the Office of Hawaiian Affairs Board of Trustees.

The decline in candidates for council races in particular stumps Moore.

General angst over recent public corruption scandals were expected to drive more people to run for office. The controversial decision last year to give the Honolulu City Council massive pay raises should have also sparked more challengers.

“City Council races are usually pretty competitive, those are desirable offices,” Moore said. “I think it’s fair to say it’s a bit of a mystery.”

The lack of more competition for Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi and Hawaii County Mayor Mitch Roth was less surprising. Neither had major scandals in their first terms. Both are also incumbents. 

Four years ago, competition in the Honolulu mayor’s race was much tighter because of the opportunity to replace outgoing Mayor Kirk Caldwell.

For Blangiardi, “the political class has determined that he can’t be beat,” Moore said.

The mayor’s campaign has already sucked up most of the major political donors, accounting for more than $1.7 million during this four-year election period which began in 2020.

Prosecutors also only tend to have real challengers when their office has been caught in scandals. Keith Kaneshiro’s departure amidst a federal investigation in 2018 paved the way for Steve Alm to become the Honolulu prosecutor. Kaneshiro was recently acquitted of criminal charges in a bribery case.

Alm and Hawaii County Prosecutor Kelden Waltjen are the only candidates for their offices. So is Rebecca Like, the county prosecutor on Kauai.