The primary election is over they say. Why not just drop it some are saying. Well…primary or no primary this issue is not going away until the Lieutenant Governor and Democratic Party nominee for Governor Josh Green is fully transparent about the outside income he has received while working full-time as our L.G..

I’m thankful the Honolulu StarAdvertiser is now saying the same thing.

But first, some nuts and bolts post-primary results.

I realized this morning that while I’ve been incessantly bugging people about voting, I’ve failed to report promptly to my email list on the results of Saturday night.

There is very good news regarding both Legislative and Council races statewide – but there is also bad and sad news relating to some exceptional individuals who poured their heart and soul into their campaigns, and still fell short.

The past few months have been emotionally draining for many and I’ve tried my best to analyze and report honestly the results in this blog post: From the head and the heart – My post-primary election analysis

The General Election is on November 8th with ballots arriving in mailboxes on or about October 20th just 9 weeks or so from now. While most of my focus will be on the nonpartisan County Council races, I will also be reviewing the Green Party, Aloha Aina Party, and even the Republicans who are challenging Democrats.

As a former Vice Chair of the Democratic Party of Hawaiʻi and presently a member of its State Central Committee (SCC) this is sensitive territory to tread, but I owe it to readers of this blog to give every candidate an honest look – and report back.

Any honest look at all of the candidates running, in all of the races up and down the ticket, will inevitably lead to a conversation about voting for the “lesser of evils” or as I prefer to say the “lesser of imperfects”. Of course, all of us are imperfect, and all of us have strengths and weaknesses.

But that discussion is a complex one and must wait for another day.

Please stay with me while I pivot to the recent Democratic Party “Unity Breakfast”.

I’ve attended a few of these gatherings in the past, most of which I have enjoyed. This year’s event was harder to stomach than in previous years.

Regular readers of my email/blog know that I believe Congressman Ed Case, through his actions and inactions, has caused tangible harm to both people and the planet. Through his affiliation with the Blue Dog Caucus, he played a key role in both the weakening of the Build Back Better agenda, and its ultimate demise.

The Democratic Party of Hawaii itself said via a formal Resolution that Case’s actions concerning passage of the Build Back Better legislation “do not reflect the values and principles” of the party as outlined in its platform, previously adopted resolutions, and mission statement. Read the Civil Beat story: Hawaii Democrats: Rep. Case Does Not Reflect Party’s Values And Principles

With all of that in mind, it would have been hypocritical of me to attend the event, thank him for his service and congratulate him for beating a much better man who actually does reflect the values and principles of the Party.

But to some, I would be labeled a sore loser for not attending because my guy didn’t win.

The gubernatorial nominee for the Democratic Party, Lieutenant Governor Josh Green was of course the main honoree.

I wrote another piece titled: It’s time for the Lieutenant Governor to come clean – in which I support the very reasonable request made by Congressman Kai Kahele and Vicky Cayetano for full disclosure of Green’s outside income sources.

The Honolulu StarAdvertiser agrees and wrote recently, “…Green should make a full financial disclosure about his outside income — an issue raised by his primary-election opponents…”

Lieutenant Governor Green, who is now the Democratic Party nominee for Governor continues to hide the specific sources and amounts of his outside income.

Yet according to some political pundits, Kahele and Cayetano and those of us that supported them – are sore losers because we don’t show up to give him a hug and a lei and say everything is cool now because the primary election is over.

The truth is everything is not cool now. Are we supposed to say that just because he is the Democratic Party nominee he no longer has to be fully transparent with regards to disclosing where his money comes from?

Are we supposed to just look the other way? I don’t think so.

Speaking only for myself, I will have a hard time supporting any candidate who refuses to fully disclose their outside sources of income.

As of this moment, I don’t know what I will do. But I do know that as voters, we deserve an answer to our very reasonable questions before we are asked to cast our vote.

Mahalo for being involved, for supporting candidates, for voting, and for being part of this important conversation.

This I believe is what democracy looks like.

Sincerely,
Gary L. Hooser
https://garyhooser.blog
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Disclosure: No candidate has approved or authorized this email. No one pays me to write or post anything at all. I do this for my grandchildren and our planet.