LIHU‘E — One way or the other, Neil Abercrombie is coming home. The 10-term Democratic congressman who has represented Hawai‘i’s 1st district in Washington for nearly two decades recently announced a run for governor, and explained his motivations during a
LIHU‘E — One way or the other, Neil Abercrombie is coming home.
The 10-term Democratic congressman who has represented Hawai‘i’s 1st district in Washington for nearly two decades recently announced a run for governor, and explained his motivations during a lengthy interview at The Garden Island office in Lihu‘e on Friday afternoon.
Abercrombie said a “triangle” between the White House, home to Hawai‘i-born President Barack Obama, the Democrat-controlled Congress and Hawai‘i’s governor seat would increase the likelihood of the Akaka Bill becoming law and would give the 50th state a pipeline to federal money that has been an unrealized opportunity in the past.
“I don’t want to be in Congress anymore passing money but seeing no carrythrough,” Abercrombie said, adding that the state “absolutely has to take advantage” of the favorable situation in the nation’s capital. “We’ve missed opportunities again and again, but I won’t miss them.”
Declining to point fingers specifically at current Gov. Linda Lingle and Lt. Gov. James “Duke” Aiona, who could be a Republican opponent in next year’s election, the congressman said the state has been “a spectacle of gridlock and conflict” but that he would bring “the Abercrombie advantage” from Washington, D.C. to Washington Place and the Neighbor Islands.
“It’s better to have somebody in the governor’s chair who can reach out for federal dollars,” he said. “The day I come into office, that same day, the wheels will start turning.”
Health care
Abercrombie said he expects that Obama will “be helping any good Democrat” in 2010, himself included, and that Democrats should in turn help the president with his initiatives.
Asked about the ongoing debate over health care reform, the congressman said he prefers the term “insurance reform” and that widespread confusion over the definition of a “public option” has led to anxiety and anger and has given Republican opposition an opportunity to put up roadblocks.
“It’s our fault,” he said. “I think we could have moved faster by keeping things more simple.”
Pressed about his decision to abstain from a letter signed by 60 of his colleagues in the House Progressive Caucus and sent to congressional leaders and Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius warning that any bill without “a public option with reimbursement rates based on Medicare rates — not negotiated rates — is unacceptable” and would not get their votes, Abercrombie said he told friends that the letter was “premature.”
“My view is that these are works in progress and it is never a good idea … to stake out a position” you can’t change, he said, adding that the House does not have a finished bill in front of it and that “This is legislation, not theology.”
However, he did say he would vote for an otherwise good bill missing a public option “in a second,” adding anything that advances health care for all would constitute “a giant step forward” and that amendments can always be added later.
He said vulnerable Democrats’ reelection considerations should be factored into any bill, a mentality that could undermine attempts to secure what he described as “Medicare for all.”
“There’s always a compromise,” Abercrombie said with a smile, noting that even the Constitution didn’t gain passage until the Bill of Rights’ 10 amendments were tacked on. “That’s the glory … of democracy.”
For more information on Abercrombie’s run for governor, visit NeilAbercrombie.com.
• Michael Levine, assistant news editor, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 252) or via e-mail at mlevine@kauaipubco.com.
