As details continue to unfold, new voices and new interests may begin to enter the conversation — political figures, potential candidates, and institutional players who were largely silent during the opening stage. If Phase One was about self-identification and accusation, Phase Two increasingly looks like a story about positioning.
Even before definitive answers arrive, this moment offers an early look at how quickly narratives form, evolve, and reshape the political landscape around them. And in Hawaiʻi politics, that process often tells us as much as the outcome itself.
Over the past several weeks, a series of articles in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser and Honolulu Civil Beat marked a quiet but consequential shift in who is interpreting Hawaiʻi politics for the public. Two farewells and one arrival point to a change not simply in political voices, but in how the state’s political narrative is being shaped and understood.
May your New Year’s celebrations be bright, and may the return to work after the holidays be less stressful. See you on the other side.
On Sunday, the 14th of December, Civil Beatʻs Deputy Ideas Editor Richard Wiens penned an article about “The Silence of…
Rolling out a plan and acknowledging where the issue is now is one thing; it will be the follow-up by Miyahira that will tell whether the new plan put forward is the solution we’ve all been waiting for.
The airport’s inclusion wasn’t destiny; it was a decision, argued and voted into being, but credit is due where it’s due: Charles Djou saw the value of that alignment long before the city did. When we ride past after October 16, 2025, it’s worth remembering that what feels inevitable today was once anything but.
Younger candidates are challenging Case with a much more nuanced — and far less taboo — appeal to generational change. What Case once invoked against Akaka, and paid dearly for, is now tolerated, even expected, by an electorate seemingly more comfortable weighing leadership through the lenses of age, urgency, and readiness.
In the end, it’s a mixed bag so far – some deep cuts where support is most needed, and a few glimmers of consistency that, if nothing else, show someone’s still reading the fine print. For Native Hawaiians, it’s not the full erasure feared by some, but it’s certainly no full-throated embrace either.
While this is an interesting story, we’ll focus on the main point here – so, is Hawai‘i government procurement fixed? Technically, maybe. But let’s not declare victory just yet.