LIHU‘E — Former County Councilman Ron Kouchi said Tuesday that he likely will seek the county’s state Senate seat if Gary Hooser, D-Kaua‘i-Ni‘ihau, resigns to run for lieutenant governor. Hooser’s current term runs through 2012, though he would have to
LIHU‘E — Former County Councilman Ron Kouchi said Tuesday that he likely will seek the county’s state Senate seat if Gary Hooser, D-Kaua‘i-Ni‘ihau, resigns to run for lieutenant governor.
Hooser’s current term runs through 2012, though he would have to resign from that seat if he intends to run for lieutenant governor in this year’s elections, which he has announced he will do.
Hooser has until July 20 to file papers to run for lieutenant governor. Kouchi said Kaua‘i and Ni‘ihau residents need Hooser to remain in his position as Senate majority leader and member of the Senate’s powerful Ways and Means Committee at least through May when the session ends.
“He is our senator and I am respectful of that,” Kouchi said of Hooser. “It’s critical for Kaua‘i” to have Hooser finish the current session and his legislative obligations, said Kouchi, adding he has spoken to Hooser about his plans.
Kouchi, 52, of Lihu‘e, was chair or member of the Kaua‘i County Council for several two-year terms in the 1980s and 1990s, but failed in his bid for the mayor’s office against the late Bryan Baptiste in the 2002 general election.
He returned to the council in 2006 for another two-year term, but lost re-election in 2008, finishing eighth in the General Election, with the top seven gaining seats.
Speaking by phone from O‘ahu where he was lobbying at the state Legislature on behalf of the County of Kaua‘i, Kouchi said the best way to describe his current political aspirations is to say he has put together an exploratory committee to examine the possibility of running for state Senate should Hooser resign.
If Hooser doesn’t resign, there would be no election for his seat in 2010, and Kouchi likely wouldn’t run for elective office this year, he said.
If Hooser opts to wait until July 20 to file papers to run for lieutenant governor, the candidate filing deadline for this year’s state and county elections, that would leave Kouchi just 45 days to canvass the entire island and otherwise get the word out that he is running for the final two years in Hooser’s term. The primary election is Sept. 18.
“That doesn’t allow (enough) time to get out in the community and listen to concerns,” said Kouchi.
Despite the cliché that it’s a small island, the truth is that it is a “pretty big place covering it one house at a time,” he said.
But he feels that is a necessary tactic for several reasons, including the need to find out what Kaua‘i people think about state issues versus county concerns, and because “Kaua‘i is still a word-of-mouth kind of place, and people want to get to know you, know who you are.
“The biggest mistake is to think people know who you are,” Kouchi said, adding that there are a lot of new residents too.
Asked why he is considering getting back into politics, he said reporters called him, JoAnn Yukimura, state Rep. Jimmy Tokioka, D-Wailua-Lihu‘e-Koloa, Mel Rapozo and others when Hooser first announced he was going to run for lieutenant governor around a year ago, to ask them if they were interested in Hooser’s seat if Hooser resigned mid-term.
He said he was “touched by the amount of people who asked me to run.” He said he has established relationships with those in the state House and Senate, and has experience on the council forming budgets in down economic times, like after Hurricanes ‘Iwa in 1982 and ‘Iniki in 1992.
With sons Dan and Egan in college in the Pacific Northwest, and the OK nod from wife Joy, a family decision was that they could make it work, he said.
James “Jimmy” Pacopac, who won the $50,000 contract to lobby at the state Legislature on behalf of the County of Kaua‘i, hired Kouchi as a subcontractor to assist him, Kouchi said.
The name of the campaign entity has been changed from Friends and Family of Ron Kouchi to Kouchi for Senate, he said.
Kouchi said he hoped to arrive at a decision by the end of January, and has spoken to various people who may have expressed interest in Hooser’s seat should it become vacant. Most of those whom he has spoken with either are opting to run for re-election or other office, he said.
Hooser was in a Senate committee hearing Tuesday afternoon and unable to be reached for comment by press time.
• Paul C. Curtis, staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 224) or pcurtis@kauaipubco.com.