Of course he literally can. Gov. Josh Green can jet off to the East Coast whenever he wants to. 

He’s an ambitious guy with things to do, people to impress, funds to raise, and, apparently, ways of dealing with the mercurial president that no other Democrat has ever mastered. (Perhaps it’s all those years of experience as an emergency room physician talking down freaked out people during their most unhinged moments. Whatever magic it required, Green secured FEMA funding for the recent flooding as if he was the loyal leader of a ruby red state.)

In February, Green canceled his annual trip to the National Governors Association meeting in Washington, D.C., saying that he couldn’t leave Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke in charge of the state while he was gone. Luke had just outed herself, saying she might be the lawmaker under investigation for accepting money from a campaign donor at a dinner meeting set up by an FBI informant. Luke maintained that she had done nothing wrong, but it was a shocking revelation from a longtime elected official who projected the image of a fastidious rule-follower.

“In light of recent events and to ensure steady leadership for our state during this time, I have canceled out-of-state travel for this month,” Green said.

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That statement served two purposes: It sent the message to Hawaiʻi residents that the gov was holding things steady amid the roiling intrigue, and it let Luke know that the Green was putting distance between himself and her mess.

Last week, in rapid succession, Luke dropped her reelection campaign, revealed she had received a target letter from the Attoney General’s Office, and was asked by Green to take unpaid leave immediately.

To find a replacement lieutenant governor, Green then went down the procedural list of successors until he found someone, anyone — in this case, comptroller Keith Regan — willing to serve.

But even with a warm body in the co-pilot’s chair, it’s still risky for Green to venture too far out of state.

When government leaders travel away from home base, there’s a kind of Murphy’s Law or Cosmic Bachi that predicts the worst possible thing is going to happen. Ask Herman Andaya, the Maui Emergency Management Agency director who was out of town during the Lahaina fires. Ask Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who was in Cancun during the 2021 winter storm that froze his constituents. Ask Cruz again about being in Greece last year during the Texas floods. Ask Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who left on a trip to Africa despite the wind warnings that preceded the Palisades fires last year. Old timers in Massachusetts still bitterly remember Gov. Ed King, who was out of town during the blizzard of ’78.  It may not end a politician’s career to be out of town when everything falls apart, but it is a badge of dishonor that people remember about them forever.  

By swapping an unelected bureaucrat for scandal-tainted Luke, Green has not solved the problem of leaving the leadership of the state to the political equivalent of a substitute teacher.

It’s so telling that the line of succession got down to the fifth tier. It’s hard to imagine Senate President Ron Kouchi, the first in line to the LG’s seat, would ever agree to play second banana to anybody. House Speaker Nadine Nakamura respectfully declined. State Attorney General Anne Lopez is running the investigation into Luke. The next guy, director of budget and finance, was just named to the position a few months ago and hasn’t been confirmed by the Senate yet.

So it came down to the comptroller, a position no schoolchild ever lists as their dream job.

Fifth in a line of succession is like Prince Harry becoming King of England after his brother William and all William’s kids say, “Nah, no thanks.” It’s like Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent becoming U.S. President. It’s a big jump.

Not to disparage Keith Regan, the guy who took the job nobody wanted because he had nothing to lose, but who is he? We can look up his resumé and times he was in the news, watch video of him singing “Dahil Sa’Yo”, but he didn’t run for the office. Voters of the state did not vet him. He did run for Maui County Council 10 years ago, for the seat representing Wailuku, Waiheʻe and Waikāpu. He came in third in that primary behind Dain Kane and Alika Atay.

This is the second time in less that 10 years that the lieutenant governor of Hawaiʻi had to be replaced. In 2018, when Shan Tsutsui had enough of Gov. David Ige and went back home to Maui for more lucrative business ventures,  Attorney General Doug Chin accepted the job after Ron Kouchi laughed at the suggestion that he’d become Ige’s sidekick (I have no idea if Kouchi reacted that way, but that’s how I imagine it going down.) House Speaker Scott Saiki also declined.

In the fallout of the Sylvia Luke implosion, an issue that needs serious consideration is the succession plan for the office.

But even before that, practical civic-minded folks need to examine the function of the lieutenant governor’s office, long a notoriously cruise job where the office holder can spend their time posing for photos for their eventual gubernatorial campaign.