 you are viewing the text show the state of the state of Hawaii and I'm your host, Stephanie Stoll Dalton. For today, we are discussing Hawaii's recent midterm election outcomes and the expectations voters may have for the new team of executives and legislators. Our guest is Vicky Cayetano, who's very experienced in Hawaii's governing, having served as former first lady, successful woman, a good business woman in the state and herself a candidate for state executive office. So I welcome Vicky Cayetano to talk to us more about what this election means and how accurate are some of the predictions that we're reading about in our media. So one of the first concerns that it's a concern, it's not so much a concern as a fact. I'm asking if you think it should be a concern. It is reported that the voter turnout for this midterm election of 48% was lowest ever and that the last low was in 2014 with 52% of registered voters participating. Now, do you think that is an issue given our situation and our primary and our regular election? What do you think about this fact? Is this, should this be on the list of to-dos in your opinion, Vicky? Well, aloha Stephanie and thank you so much for having me on today. You know, I think the low voter turnout in spite of the fact that it was a mail-in ballot, supposedly, which is, you know, makes it so much more convenient for people does reflect an amount of apathy from voters. I think that for many of them they feel very frustrated to an extent almost like there's no hope. No matter what election outcome it is, nothing changes. If anything, things seem to be getting worse, right? Affordability, cost of living. And then on top of that, many of our residents work two jobs, maybe even three, two and a half and between the family and everything else, who has time to even talk about this? And I think that the biggest thing is the discouragement that they feel that no matter what every election cycle we talk about the same things and yet the outcome is not any better. Well, I was wanting to know if you think that Governor Green, who's our new, we have our newly inaugurated team now actually on this afternoon. So my question was, do you think that he has big shoes to fill or do you think other than that? It sounds like you might have some other comments for that question. You know, I realize that everybody likes to compare governors but every governor is in during a different time and a different time in state and our state affairs. And so I like to just look at leadership in terms of how they're addressing the needs that we currently have. Certainly Governor Green, when he was lieutenant governor said very high expectations. But, you know, to be honest, it's easy to be a lieutenant governor because you don't have that responsibility of governing and yet it's easy to say, oh, you should do this, you should do that, you know, from the sidelines. But now he is in the office and I think all of us have to hope that he will deliver on all the promises that he made because, you know, Hawaii's future is at stake here. I don't think the state's been at a more critical juncture than we're currently facing. And so that I think should be our hope. Well, why do you think we're at this juncture, Vicki? Is it, certainly there are comments about how Governor Green benefited as a candidate who played governor without having the accountability, right? But, and he'll be facing that music, right? So how will he show us that he can step up? What do you see as maybe an early test of this? We're here. Well, I think, you know, good leaders is not about, and one understands it's not about oneself. It's about your ability to bring people together, to lead by example. Talking is one thing, but delivering takes a lot more work. And so it's being able to bring people together to address those who are opposing to ideas, how to get them on board. And I think in times like this, we absolutely have to think out of the box. The traditional solutions will not be aggressive enough to address the numerous problems we have. Well, all right, now going back to the election issues, do you think that having such a dominant Democratic Party presence is an advantage or disadvantage for getting beyond or dissolving our critical issues here? You know, I think that one of the challenges for us as a state is this line that we put right here. Are you a Democrat or Republican? And the fact is that no one party really has an exclusiveness on good ideas. And when we talk about collaboration, I think you have to start with bringing people together, regardless of what party they belong to. I think that's really important, but I do believe that the national scene for Republicans has not helped local Republicans in any way, because it's been a very divisive theme in their communication. So local Republicans may not be like that, but I think that their national counterparts have not helped their ability in Hawaii to expand their reach. And I think that's a shame. Well, do you think that Hawaii was actually involved in these issues of the GOP to the local GOP, push on these conspiracy theories or express them, or talk a lot about the voting integrity? Do you think that those reached any level of public consideration during the campaign? No, I don't see a widespread use of that here locally, but what I do mean is that when you support, when Republicans support their nominee as they did in the past presidential election, Donald Trump, I know Bob McDermott reflected that he energizes the party, but I would have to disagree with that. I don't think that's called energizing. I think that's called destroying the people, because you're creating this divisiveness. So while it wasn't reflected here locally, I think there's just a natural tendency to associate people together. So my hope is that just putting aside party lines, we need everybody, all hands on deck, everyone with strong leadership from the top, from the governor really working to bring Hawaii to a better place by addressing all these issues of affordability, housing, homelessness, crime, climate change, education. I mean, the list goes on and on and no one person can do it, but the leader of this state, he now has those shoes to fill and can't be saying from the sideline what you should have done and not do. He's gonna be doing that and executing as the governor of our state. There will be no one else to place the responsibility on this time. So there's no finger pointing opportunity. But one of the issues that seems to be under discussion right now is of course the oil it won because of the high electricity rates that we have here, of course, which is not really new, but they have spiked some and seem to go along with how oil is priced. But how do you see Hawaii, the state of Hawaii, our state leadership, how are they gonna address that, Vicki? What can you do in that office to get at something that, I don't wanna say it's bigger than, well, Hawaii certainly has its own ways of approaching this, right, a responsibility for it. But tell me, can you talk a little bit about how that oil and electricity overcharging us? How can that be resolved or changed or made better? Well, I think one of the most important things is the attitude of government for our state. And I think that we need to be much more open and seek out solutions and not just have this tunnel vision that we've gotta solve everything ourselves. Now, we closed the last coal facility in September and Hawaii was ill-prepared to cope with that. And so again, we tend to over-promise what we can do and then under-deliver. We don't have the foresight to say, if we're going to achieve this, what are the steps we have to take? The second thing I would say is that government moves too slowly, not only to anticipate, but even to react to situations. And I think that's going to be really incumbent upon the governor to lead with, not to be rash, but to lead with a sense of urgency because people's lives are on the line. You know, Stephanie, five years in a row now, our population has decreased. People are leaving our state. And they're going to places where they have a chance not only to survive, but to thrive. Nobody wants to leave Hawaii. Very few people want to leave, but they have to just to survive. And so I hope that Governor Green understands that urgency, but moves with the ability to have that foresight, to have a focus and to bring people together to make it happen. Well, I'd like to just dip into this issue of the oil and the coal burning and the rates that we have here that are exorbitant in my opinion, but with a really high even compared to California. So with all of our natural resources in Hawaii, with the thermal, geothermal from the big island, the waves, the wind, the sun, you name the wind, you name the force. And we have it here in Hawaii, but there doesn't seem to be much going on with regard to those unless I'm very uninformed. I mean, I do know that we have wind. We do use wind. And yes, there is solar energy here. But what is this the kind of thing you're addressing by saying it's too slow or to timid? How does a governor of a state like Hawaii get at these kinds of things? What can that team do? Well, I think first of all, we need to recognize that, you know, it's much easier to talk about ideas. The devil's always in the details and implementation. And we have to have the courage to move forward, even knowing that there will be hiccups along the way. We need to have conversations with those who oppose these views. And I think that's one of the challenges in Hawaii we have. We don't like to have those difficult conversations. We all want to be nice and friendly. And we feel that if somebody speaks up to oppose something, that's not showing the right spirit. And that's not correct because people with opposing views, this is what makes a community rich, but you have to be able to manage those conversations and not just walk away from the situation. You've got to have the determination and the ability to bring those difficult conversations about and to find resolution. I mean, whether it's TMT, Red Hill, I mean, look, we've been talking about Red Hill for how long, healthcare crises. I mean, this is endless. And, you know, I'm sorry, but it really will take that kind of leadership to turn this shift around. Well, that's a high expectation. It is the case as far as I understand it that reapportionment has required all of the legislative seats to be reelected. So given that occurred, do you believe that opens up any opportunities for doing the kinds of things that you just discussed in terms of the communication, in terms of the turmoil, in terms of, you know, the power grabs? I mean, does that help to bring in an entirely new set of legislators? We do have a new and reelected one. So the dynamics will be interesting. And I think this is where strong leadership, good leadership is going to show itself and to bring people around because everybody's kind of got their own perspective on things. And whenever you bring people together, not everybody's going to agree and shouldn't. We need to have those conversations. And so I hope that Governor Green will reach out and work with the legislature. Really, the UDT's legislators, they're an equal partner and you need to engage them and make them a part of the plan to resolve things. I have hope in the Lieutenant Governor, Sylvia Lu, has had a long history being there, has the relationships. And so I certainly hope that she'll be able to engage on behalf of the executive branch, working with the governor to engage her former colleagues to make things happen. It just got to, everybody's got to come together if we're going to be able to accelerate and make some much needed progress. Well, does Sylvia Lu and the governor, do they have an opportunity to build a unique relationship or a refresh or a new way of relating as the two executive officers? Do you think they have that opportunity? Well, they certainly have been saying that they are great partners. And again, setting the bar high, they're going to work together. And so I would believe that they're going to deliver on the promises that they've made to the people of Hawaii. And let's not forget that this administration is extremely fortunate to have the surplus from the previous administration left of over $2 billion. No administration has been fortunate enough to have that. And although much of it came from federal funding, the point is it's money. It's money that you've got. And so they're starting off with a big plus right there. Well, what do you expect to see come out of that first? What do you think the governor will do about that? Is it, I mean, if you, as you've observed and known how these things work at that level, will he make those decisions? For instance, does he tend to do that independently or will he pull people in, like you say, Sylvia? And then will Sylvia Lu pull in and her people? How does that kind of decision come to be made by our highest official? You know, I don't want to speculate how he thinks and what he would do, but I would share with voters that I think it's so important when you look at promises that are made and are they being delivered is looking at the results and also following the money. You know, recently, as you've read, there's been so much corruption in government, both at the county and state level, okay? And follow the money trail. And so, yes, it's wonderful that there's all this money, but is it a concern? Absolutely, because there's always a temptation for it to be used inappropriately. So I would just say that all of us should certainly be cognizant of how our monies are being spent and let's look for not just the talk, but more importantly, let's look for the results that I think good leadership is going to be able to deliver. Well, I have mentioned a question, people from UH Minaw that are in, it has been very casual and for me, who are in research in these areas. I mean, for instance, like wave action. And so, it's totally naive as I am about it. You know, I ask, why can't we use these, to get these, there's electricity to happen. And I just get these really dismissive responses about, which I understand, it's just so complicated and it's very hard to do and all of that. And of course, you know, my response is always man on the moon, man on the moon. So if we can get somebody up there, like what are you telling me? It's complicated, of course it is, even thinking that we could possibly do something about that. But here again, that just means when it's so complicated, is that we've got to do the research. And of course, that's expensive. And are the feds, is the federal government gonna come out here and do us favors on the research? Maybe, I mean, that's how we're getting anything done at all now. But if there's that much money available, that as you said, that out of the box thinking that can be about Hawaii's best interest, can we get to see that? So you know, Stephanie, I gotta tell you, the fallacy that we have is that we have to reinvent the wheel. There are a lot of good ideas out there, whether you're talking about housing plans, homelessness. I mean, Houston took 25,000 people off the streets, homeless people. So it's not like we have to form more committees. We just have been lacking the political will in our government to get things done. We've been lacking in execution of these things. So it's not like we got to start from ground zero. There are examples out there of what we need to do, but we need to move forward. Governor Green and his administration and the legislators have to work together with the county because there are so many opportunities between state and county to work together and have that kind of will to move forward and start implementing, not forming more committees. There really are a lot of great ideas out there and that have been done in other places. Sorry. Yeah, well, no, that's very, very good. And I hear you, I hear that theme is that let's not talk about the theory of the issue and not have any evidence yet or haven't applied yet. No, you've got to be able to be grounded and have to be concrete about these things. And then there are these other models. So that's one way to go is to look at other models of somewhat similar circumstances in areas like I don't know if Houston would be considered that without doing some analysis, but what did they do and how does that apply here? But I mean, have you heard anything like this? I mean, is that message to be more concrete about it and more applied? Is that message, have you heard much about that message anywhere than anybody's thinking that way? Well, I think voters have been saying that. I know I kept hearing that all through my campaign. People are just so fed up. When you talk about the poor, low voter turnout, and I think that's exactly why they are just so frustrated that nothing changes. And so it's really important now for this governor to deliver and he certainly campaigned on things that he would do, set a high bar. And so now we want to see those results. And I think as voters, as the people of this state that we all love, we deserve to have that delivered, not just make excuses. Exactly. Well, I was impressed that during your campaign, as you mentioned, I'm sure you got lots of feedback, but you did talk about governing as public service. Did that, was that a means of getting at this very issue that you provide service through the government which improves life and wellbeing in Hawaii? Is that what you meant using that notion? Yes, that's one aspect of it, but we also need leadership that has the mindset to be creative. We cannot go down the same path that we've been a one-party system for the last 50 years, 60 years. So we can't even blame another party for blocking our ideas, but we need leaders who have that kind of creativity, have the determination to serve the people and not just, shall we say, doing it for the next election, thinking of the next race. This is one of the reasons I support a one-term for governors. I think that that makes it much more viable for them to make the tough decisions that will alienate some people, but that has to be done. Well, that is very interesting. Has that ever come up as a possibility here, one-term governorship? Oh, yes, a number of candidates have said that and actually it's in our campaign finance reform issues, there are a number of things that I spoke of, that Kai Kahelei spoke about. And I think it's time to look at talking with the legislators to get it through so that we don't look at these races at these positions as a stepping stone. Okay, so I think that makes a big difference in how we focus. And also for those in the legislature that they don't see it as a career. We need to make these changes, term limits, campaign finance reform, that should be really at the top of the list during this next session as well. Well, then with the legislature being all newly elected, do you think that that brings any more open-mindedness so that people might be able to engage these topics? Do you think that's a positive for us? I hope so. But you know, Stephanie, ideas are so many and to take ideas and to harness them and then to implement them so that we get some good out of it, get good action results, this is what we need leadership to do because there are many ideas out there, many new legislators as well as well as the returning ones. So how to bring them all together, right? This is what the next governor needs to do and certainly let's hope Governor Green is going to deliver that. So I'm hearing you now that it is, it resides at the head of the government and of course that's what the organizational research shows is that you have to have that CEO has got to be the one making those calls and pushing them through, that's what you're saying. So I think that it's all brand new now in a way and I know that we're really not brand new because certainly people were reelected to their positions and the leadership issues are so major as you point out and but that's where it's got to come from. So and he's got a lot going for him, you know, Stephanie if I may say he's got the surplus, he's got a great partner in the Lieutenant Governor Sylvia Luke who has tremendous experience in these issues. So he has a lot of benefits starting forward as governor, you know, so we need to believe that he can deliver this now. Well, I think that that's a very encouraging message and the fact that he does bring a scientific professional investment to it is another feature. But if there's anything you could say about improving campaigning or our elections, what would you like to say something about that before we close out our show? I mean, I'm here, you've made so many good points and making the suggestions about one term and term limits and the other points that you've made and the incredibly good luck of the budget that this team has, what else can make a difference for having the leader perform? I think if we wanna attract the new generation of leaders and not just those who want to have a job in the political scene cause they can't get a job outside of it, we need to go back to the roots of what public service is all about. And I think one of the things that's really difficult is dealing with social media because that can be very ugly and it's certainly a deterrent to good people who want to run for the right reasons. And so I don't have an answer, a solution but I would just say to the voters is listen more than just looking at candidates. Don't just buy the sound bites, look at your candidate and while a great leader like the former chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel. For example, if you look at her, she probably is a rather boring candidate but what a great leader she was. And so I think this is the thing, sometimes we just look at exciting candidates, they're not necessarily the right kind of leaders or good leaders. I think in America and even in Hawaii, we tend to be to glamorize this. And I think it's important that we listen more than just looking at the candidates. That's very, very good advice, no doubt about it. Hopefully it will sink in. I wanted to just ask you to clarify that how it is you see social media as a deterrent to this whole process. Is that something we're not recognizing as much as we should that as a deterrent and how is it a deterrent? It is, but you can't do anything about it. Well, why is it a deterrent? First of all, there's those pseudonyms that they go under and then they make all kinds of false statements about a candidate, right? Yeah, that's right. And so imagine for yourself. I mean, every candidate has a family, is a human being. And so with that said, I wanna be very clear that questioning candidates is something we should do as part of the vetting process, but just calling names or saying something that has no basis for it. That is what I'm saying is the ugliness of social media. And we need to address that if we wanna attract people from the everyday world to participate in our, to have civic engagement in our process. Very, very good. Well, that's very informative. Thank you for being so insightful for us out of your experience and in your thinking about these important issues for our state and all of our wellbeing here. We're out of time and I will say that this is the state of the state of Hawaii and I'm your host, Stephanie Stone-Dalton. We've been talking with Vicky Cayetano and on topics related to our recent midterm election and what our life's gonna be like for this term. So thank you very much for being here, Vicky, and being so forthcoming, really informative comments you've made are useful. And I hope you all will join us again in two weeks and mahalo to viewers for viewing. Aloha. Thank you so much for watching Think Tech Hawaii. If you like what we do, please like us and click the subscribe button on YouTube and the follow button on Vimeo. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, and donate to us at thinktechhawaii.com. Mahalo.