Editorial
Changed landscape: No politics as usual

The news that Lt. Gov. Mazie Hirono has abandoned her race for governor and now intends to run for mayor of Honolulu has set off a firestorm of political speculation.

And that's understandable. Hirono's decision sharply alters the political landscape for next year and — at the same time — threatens a political tradition that has dominated Island politics for more than three decades.

For the first time since 1966, the race for governor will not feature an incumbent Democratic governor or lieutenant governor. This is no small matter because in every governor's race since that time, the winner was one of those incumbents.

Her switch also changes the dynamics of an already crowded winner-take-all race to choose a replacement for incumbent Mayor Jeremy Harris, who says he will resign to run for governor.

So there is more than enough grist for weeks of political speculation about the future of politics and the changing currents of these two important campaigns.

Eventually, however, the smoke will clear and the actual campaigns will begin. At that point, the voters must rise up and demand a campaign that truly serves their needs and the needs of Hawai'i.

The events of Sept. 11 have put Hawai'i at a critical crossroads. It is imperative that each and every candidate for office next year have sound and sensible ideas on how they will deal with our uncertain future. We are far past the days when candidates could focus on where they came from or who they were.

We have no time for campaigns based, essentially, on the idea that the candidate is not part of the "old-boy network" that currently runs things.

We have no time for campaigns based, essentially, on the idea that the candidate is "one of us," part of a tradition that combines local pride and historic continuity.

We have no time for campaigns based on negativity, personality or catering to interest groups.

In 2002, we must demand campaigns based on authentic ideas and concrete plans for our future.

At the city level, we need to hear how our Police Department will be run, how our garbage will be handled and how our traffic woes will be resolved. We want to know what our growth policy will be: where the growth will happen and what it will look like. We will want to know the candidates' ideas for Waikiki and what their intentions are for agriculture.

At the state level, we want the candidates to talk — in specifics — about their plans for education, from the earliest years of grammar school through the university. We know they all intend to improve education, but how? Every governor is an "education governor." What will next year's candidates do to make that pledge a reality?

We want our next governor to lay out, in terms we can both understand and accept, an economic plan for the state. What will they do to stabilize our economy, diversify it and get it to grow in a sustainable way?

In short, Hawai'i does not have time for another campaign-as-usual. If the candidates for office in next year's exciting election cycle aren't up to the task, they should get out of the way.