WAILUKU - Mufi Hannemann presents himself as a candidate who's willing to reach compromises to get things done for Hawaii's 2nd Congressional District.
In an interview this week at The Maui News, he cited examples of how, during two terms as mayor of Honolulu, he was ready to accept some items he didn't really want in order to get the big thing he did want.
That spirit is what's needed in a deadlocked Congress, said Hannemann, 57, of Aiea.
One example relates to one of his proudest, and hardest-fought, victories on Oahu: getting approval for a $5.5 billion passenger rail system. He wanted the first segment to connect with the airport.
One member of the Honolulu City Council was adamant about going to Salt Lake first. Rather than have that issue scuttle the rail project, Hannemann said, he acquiesced, figuring it was at worst a temporary detour.
Now that he's offering himself to the mostly rural 2nd District, which includes Neighbor Islands and rural Oahu, he still touts rail, although it's the most urban of urban issues.
It will be a job creator, he said, and Oahu cannot fill all those jobs. Some skilled workers from the Neighbor Islands will be needed.
This is not his first run at the 2nd District. When Daniel Akaka was appointed to the U.S. Senate in 1990, Hannemann tried to take the vacant seat, but he lost the Democratic primary to Patsy Mink by fewer than 1,800 votes out of 138,000 cast. Mink became unbeatable, holding the 2nd District seat until her death in 2002.
Hannemann went on to a mostly successful career in Oahu politics, but he cites his Neighbor Island connections, starting early in life as an executive for C. Brewer & Co. Since losing the governor's race, he has been chief executive officer of the Hawaii Hotel & Lodging Association, and he was on Maui to attend a board meeting of the Maui Hotel & Lodging Association.
Boosting tourism is a big part of his platform. Again, he offers a compromise.
The future of Hawaii tourism is in Asia, and the biggest prize will be China. But free-spending Chinese tourists are jammed up in long lines for visas.
Hannemann said he understands the doubts about giving Chinese the kind of easy entry - via visa waivers - that has meant success for tourism from Japan, doubts about whether China "is our friend" or whether tourists will "be on a one-way trip."
The middle-class Chinese who want to come are not one-way tourists, he asserted, but why not make Hawaii an experiment? Allow visa waivers to Hawaii and see how that works; then, if it does, expand it to the Mainland.
As a freshman in Congress, and from a small state to boot, he said he could succeed in promoting such a compromise because of his "proven record" as a networker and manager.
He cited his experience in the U.S. Conference of Mayors, where he rose to an officer position and also got chairmanship of a committee vital to the City and County of Honolulu, tourism.
For most American cities, tourism is the "first, second or third" most important economic driver, he said. For Honolulu and Hawaii it is, and will remain, first.
The three legs of the island's business have been tourism, the military and construction.
In his announcement of his candidacy, he sounded the themes that have been commonplace for Democrats seeking state and national office: tourism, a strong military and defense of Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare.
Expanding on those themes, he said that in Congress he would avoid extremes, either of promising never to raise a tax, like the Republicans; or of never seeing a tax increase that didn't seem attractive, like some Democrats.
As mayor, he said, he "cut to the bone" but opposed across-the-board nostrums, on the grounds that some departments will always need or deserve more.
To balance budgets, he turned to taxes (a half percent on the general excise to support rail) and fees. But he pledged to the voters that if he did raise fees, he wouldn't raid the funds for other purposes. And he said he didn't.
He said he opposes the congressional drop-dead triggers on budget-cutting, which mean that if Congress cannot agree to cuts by Thanksgiving, automatic across-the-board reductions will happen. Hannemann said that amounts to "giving up control."
While on economic issues he sounds pretty much like a mainstream Democrat, he has been described as "socially conservative" for a Democrat. He describes himself as a "social moderate," content to leave many such decisions to the states.
"I've always been for home rule," he said during Tuesday's interview.
So far, the Democratic contest for the nomination is between Hannemann and Tulsi Gabbard, a young Honolulu City Council member, although Hannemann expects five opponents from other parties.
The 2nd has been a Democratic district, usually by 2-to-1 and larger margins, but considering the anti-incumbent, anti-party mood of the nation, Hannemann said next year the 2nd cannot be considered a safe seat for the Democrats, nor will the party primary be the deciding election.
But he notes that the 2nd seat is open because Rep. Mazie Hirono is seeking the Senate seat that Akaka is leaving.
Akaka's retirement takes 34 years of congressional seniority off the board, all the more reason, Hannemann said, to select him, as someone who has already proved he can operate successfully on a national stage and whose networking abilities will serve Hawaii well.
* Harry Eagar can be reached at heagar@mauinews.com.
