Gains in Hawaii Legislature small, but encouraging for Republican party

As far as waves being sized up in Hawaii, a “red wave” of winning Republican candidates joining the state Legislature later this year is closer to knee-high than head-high or overhead.

Five Republican candidates beat Democratic opponents, including four incumbents, after a final tally of Tuesday’s general election results released Wednesday evening by the state Office of Elections.

However, Democratic candidates won in two legislative contests where incumbent Republican lawmakers are departing after running for county or federal office. So, a net gain by Republicans in Hawaii’s Legislature is three seats, or an uptick to eight from five.

“We had a little bit of a red wave,” Colin Moore, director of the University of Hawaii’s Public Policy Center, said Wednesday on the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s livestream program “Spotlight Hawaii.” “Just to stay even, Republicans had to pick up two seats.”

In an interview, Moore added, “This was a great night for Republicans.”

The four incumbent Democrats who lost are Sen. Gil Riviere and Reps. Stacelynn Eli, Matt LoPresti and Sharon Har representing parts of Oahu.

Besting Riviere was Republican Brenton Awa, a former TV news reporter, to represent Senate District 23, which stretches from Mokuleia into part of Kaneohe.

On Tuesday night, Riviere, who switched from Republican to Democrat in 2013, held a slim lead of 189 votes, or about 1 percentage point. But that flipped to a 391-vote deficit after the final tally with all remaining counted ballots Wednesday.

Eli, representing a newly reapportioned House District 43 that now includes part of Kapolei and Makakilo, lost to Republican Kanani Souza, a former Honolulu deputy prosecuting attorney, by about 11 percentage points after the final printout.

LoPresti lost by a 17-point margin to Republican drywall contractor David Alcos in House District 41, which covers part of Ewa Beach and Kalaeloa.

Har lost by about 6 percentage points to Diamond Garcia, who is chief of staff to Rep. Gene Ward (R, Hawaii Kai-Kalama Valley) in the House District 42 race to represent parts of Ewa and Kapolei.

The fifth Republican to win a legislative contest is Elijah Pierick, an Air Force Reserve officer and a pastor at Encounter Church, who beat Democratic contender and former state teachers union leader Corey Rosenlee by 10 points for the open House District 39 seat to represent Royal Kunia and nearby areas.

The seat won by Pierick was vacated in January by then-Rep. Ty J.K. Cullen, a Democrat, who pleaded guilty to work-related bribery charges and was sentenced in July to 40 months in federal prison.

Moore noted that Pierick, a “relatively unknown” hospital chaplain, received a lot of support from the evangelical community and others, including Honolulu City Council member Augie Tulba. Still, in Moore’s view Pierick’s winning was an upset especially compared with performances by LoPresti and Har, both of whom won court dismissals of drunken driving charges this year on procedural grounds.

“It’s surprising when someone who has those kinds of union connections loses,” Moore said about Rosenlee, who previously headed the Hawaii State Teachers Association.

Retired University of Hawaii political science professor Neal Milner said on “Spotlight” that some strategic financial campaign contributions helped Pierick, but that generally the Hawaii Republican Party attracted good candidates to run, including some first-timers and some with experience.

Pierick and Awa are first-time candidates. Alcos and Garcia have run for office before.

Lynn Finnegan, chair of the Hawaii Republican Party, said a historically high number of Republican candidates competed for legislative seats this year and a lot of hard work paid off.

“We’re really excited about that for the future of our party,” she said.

There were 61 Republican candidates competing for legislative seats in the general election where 63 seats were on the ballot and 13 seats were uncontested, including two held by Republicans.

One competitive race where a Republican fell just short was for Senate District 22 representing Honokai Hale to Makaha where the Democratic incumbent, Sen. Maile Shimabukuro, held off Republican Native Hawaiian challenger Samantha DeCorte by 0.7 percentage point, or only 71 votes.

In another close contest, Democratic candidate Micah Aiu topped Republican Garner Shimizu by 3 percentage points in the race for the House District 32 seat representing neighborhoods including Moanalua and parts of Aiea and Halawa, where Rep. Aaron Ling Johanson, a Democrat since leaving the Republican Party in 2014, decided not to run for reelection to care for his parents.

Finnegan, a former state lawmaker, said the party’s goal is to build a foundation that can be sustained and expanded over time to establish a true two-party system of government in Hawaii where Democratic politics have dominated since statehood in 1959 after earlier Republican control.

Partly undermining such a foundation this year are two impending Republican departures from the Legislature with Democrats winning the seats.

In one instance, Rep. Bob McDermott opted not to run for reelection so he could try to unseat Democratic U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz, a move that was unsuccessful.

Winning the race for McDermott’s House District 40 seat representing part of Ewa Beach and nearby areas was Dem­ocratic candidate Rose Martinez, a former teacher and legislative aide. Martinez won by 4 percentage points over Republican contender Janie Gueso, a substitute teacher who also helps operate Silva Store, her family’s 76-year-old grocery and liquor retail business.

In the other seat with a departing Republican, Val Okimoto opted to run for City Council where she scored a win. Okimoto’s House District 36 seat for the past decade represented parts of Mililani and Waipio, but with redistricting represents Waipahu.

Democrat Rachele Lamosao, a legislative office manager and former Hawaii Farm Bureau manager, delivered a blowout win over Republican contender and information security expert Veamoniti Lautaha for the House District 36 seat.

All the gains by Republicans give the party its highest representation in the Legislature since 2014 when there were nine Republican lawmakers, though the number was considerably higher in the early 2000s when it ranged from 15 to 22.

“The Democrats still overwhelmingly control the Legislature,” Milner said. But he added that there were some encouraging election results for the party, saying, “In places where they really haven’t done well in the past, at least in the recent past, if you work hard, and you get a good candidate, you at least have a shot.”