Duke Aiona Is Running For Governor Again. Will This Time Be Any Different? 0 The Republican former lieutenant governor and retired judge is well known, but must “thread the needle” as he campaigns in heavily Democratic Hawaii.
Former Lt. Gov. Duke Aiona is making his third run for governor at a time when corruption and scandal have punctured the political armor that normally protects Democrats in Hawaii. But it won’t be easy for him to capitalize on this moment.
His pitch is simple, and it has worked before. He aims to harness public disgust at the long series of embarrassing charges and convictions of people in government — especially the criminal convictions of two Democratic lawmakers this year — to propel his campaign forward. That logic is embedded in his pithy campaign slogan, “Trust, Respect and Balance.”
“We believe that corruption is a result of the one-party dominance that we have in this state,” Aiona said at the opening of an interview earlier this month. “We’re all about a robust two-party system.”
He offers his credentials as a lawyer, as lieutenant governor for eight years, as a state judge for 12 years as well as his status as a grandfather of eight children. “All of that just lends to me being what we need right now in the executive branch for these times,” he said.
