Schatz for Governor, December 2005

Open Letter to Hawaii Democrats and Rep. Brian Schatz

Re: Schatz For Governor

The general election is only 11 months away and we Hawaii Democrats still don’t have anyone willing to run for governor. Ed Case, Neil Abercrombie, Walter Dodds, even “second string” Eric Gill all won’t do it – they all say Lingle is unbeatable. The painful reality is that short of a complete meltdown, everyone who follows politics knows Linda Lingle is going to be re-elected.

So who should the Democrats nominate? If Harry Kim can get control over his Hamlet imitation, he would be a decent sacrificial lamb. I respectfully submit that a better choice would be State Rep. Brian Schatz. Harry is too valuable as Big Island mayor.

Schatz has already been making the rounds and talking to pretty much every major Democrat in town, including myself, about his desire to run state-wide for Lt. Gov. next year. Oddly, Schatz has been asking for commitments from me and other Dem. “big wigs” to support him for LG, but he himself won’t explicitly commit to running for LG. Aside from the unprofessional fashion how Schatz has handled himself, at least he is willing to put his name out there. If Schatz is willing to go out in a burst of flames running for LG, he might as well make it a suicidal burst of glory in a governor’s race.

Schatz will makes a half-way decent candidate to help us Democrats take one for the team because he is an energetic worker and a loss will probably do him good over the long term.

Hard work is what got Schatz into the legislature when he defeated an incumbent Republican for the State House. Hands down, there are only a handful of legislators and one (maybe two) City Councilmembers who work as hard as Schatz at campaigns. This will serve the Democrats well next year. Schatz won’t be lazy, he will work at fighting Lingle. He will still lose, but at least he can put up a good fight for us.

What Schatz really needs is a healthy dose of humility (see the paragraph above about how he is asking for support). If energy is Schatz’s greatest strength, then raw arrogance is his greatest flaw. If you can’t stand the “snobby, know-it-all, rich kid, from Punahou” (SKITARP) types, then you’ll absolutely hate Brian Schatz who is the SKITARP poster child. Schatz’ whole campaign team is basically a bunch of SKITARP types and next time you see someone with a Schatz bumper sticker on their car, look for a SKITARP or the parent of a SKITARP behind the steering wheel. Schatz may have tremendous energy, but his arrogance too often gets the better of him. His power in the State House fluctuates between irrelevant and insignificant. Schatz can talk a good talk and reporters (at least those from the Honolulu Advertiser) are in love with him, but he has no clout in the Legislature having failed in multiple coup attempts to oust other Democrats within the Majority Caucus. If Schatz loses, it will not only boost his name recognition for a future race for Congress against Donna Kim or Mufi Hannemann, but it may finally teach him a lesson about the need to be humble. Schatz also has nothing to lose, he already has no real power within the legislature.

So, let’s face it, the Democrats are going to lose the Governorship next year. The better strategy is to focus on the legislature and preserve the super majorities in both chambers so we Democrats can ignore, and over-ride if necessary, Linda Lingle. For a decent sacrificial lamb, however, Brian Schatz is the best choice. In 1974, a left-wing UH professor had the audacity to run and try to oust Sen. Dan Inouye from office. That professor lost big time, but that started his path to becoming our own Congressman Neil Abercrombie. Schatz can do the same with a suicide run against Lingle. You read it here first, Schatz for Governor. We could do worse.