Legislators To Name 1st Female House Speaker In Hawaii History (original) (raw)
Nadine Nakamura is expected to be selected as part of a leadership reorganization Thursday. Lawmakers must vote to make it official when the next session begins.
House Democrats are poised to unofficially elevate Nadine Nakamura as the first-ever female speaker of the chamber in a private meeting Thursday to choose a new leadership slate.
Nakamura, 62, is a former Kauai County managing director who was elected to the House in 2016. In recent years she served as the low-key and likable House Democratic majority leader, and insiders say she has more than enough support from her fellow Democrats to take over as the next House speaker.
Nakamura said in an interview Wednesday she left her county job to come to the Legislature to try to solve problems for her Kauai community and never aspired to climbing the political ranks to become the first woman speaker.
“It is groundbreaking, and it’s an opportunity, and I’m excited about it, about representing my colleagues,” she said. “It’s a huge honor.”
If confirmed, she would replace Scott Saiki, a seasoned political leader who kept firm control of the House from the time he took charge of the House in 2017 but was defeated in the Democratic primary in August by Kim Coco Iwamoto.
House Majority Leader Nadine Nakamura is expected to be selected as the first woman House speaker in Hawaii history. (Kevin Fujii/Civil Beat/2024)
Nakamura, who is an urban planner, said U.S. Sen Brian Schatz has pointed out she also will become the first Asian woman speaker of the House in the nation.
Nakamura praised the work of Asian female leaders such as the late U.S. Rep. Patsy Mink, U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono and former Senate President Colleen Hanabusa “who lay the groundwork for this.”
Hanabusa was the first Asian woman to hold the top leadership position in a state legislative chamber.
The ruling state Democrats are slated to announce after a closed-door Democratic caucus Thursday they have selected some other key House leaders as well, according to people who are familiar with the process but spoke on condition of anonymity because it’s supposed to be confidential.
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State Rep. Sean Quinlan is expected to replace Nakamura as the House Democratic majority leader, and Rep. Linda Ichiyama is to become the new House vice speaker. Ichiyama would replace Rep. Greggor Ilagan of Puna in that largely ceremonial job.
Quinlan declined to comment on reports that he will take the House majority leader slot, saying he does not want to seem presumptuous. Selections to the various leadership positions do not become official until House members vote on them at the start of the next legislative session on Jan. 15.
Other lawmakers familiar with details of the new leadership structure being put into place declined to speak publicly about those plans because internal workings of the House are supposed to be confidential. However, leadership of at least three key House committees has also been unofficially decided, according to insiders.
House Finance Committee Chairman Kyle Yamashita and House Judiciary Chairman David Tarnas are expected to remain where they are, and Rep. Scot Matayoshi will likely take over as the next House Consumer Protection and Commerce Committee chairman.
The consumer protection position became vacant with the death of the former Chairman Mark Nakashima, 61, in July.
The Democrats emerged from the general election Tuesday with 43 seats in the 51-member state House, meaning they will retain control of the body. Democrats also control 22 seats of the 25-member state Senate.
John Hart, a longtime political observer and professor of communication at Hawaii Pacific University, said attention immediately focused on Nakamura as the obvious candidate for speaker after Saiki was unseated in the Democratic primary last summer.
Hart said he expects Nakamura’s political orientation to be quite similar to that of Saiki, who is generally regarded as a middle-of-the road Democrat.
“I think this is going to be a little bit of the ‘meet the new boss, same as the old boss’ thing,” Hart said. “She is going to be politically similar to her predecessor.”
Former House Speaker Scott Saiki lost his seat in the August Democratic primary. House Majority Leader Nadine Nakamura says she and Saiki both “believe in good government, and we believe in upholding strong ethics.” (Kevin Fujii/Civil Beat/2024)
He said elevating a woman to the speaker’s job is long overdue, “but in terms of style and politics, I don’t think we’re going to see a change there,” he said.
As for specific priority issues, Nakamura said she is “looking forward to the opportunity to help with the huge shortage of affordable housing in Hawaii.”
“I came to this position with a background in affordable housing, and I feel like there’s so much more we need to do,” she said.
When asked to compare her politics to Saiki’s, Nakamura said they both are “liberal in our thinking” and similar in “looking at the needs of people who can’t really represent themselves.”
“We are similar in that we believe in good government and we believe in upholding strong ethics,” she said. But she added Saiki represented urban Kakaako, while Nakamura’s constituents are in rural Kauai.
“We pretty much voted along the same lines, but not always,” she said.
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