HONOLULU — Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi will face three challengers in his bid for reelection this year.
In the Aug. 10 primary election, Blangiardi, a former media executive elected in 2020 to lead the city, will run against David L. Duke Bourgoin, a business owner and consultant; Karl O. Dicks, who’s variously worked as a farmer, journeyman carpenter and heavy equipment operator; and Choon James, a residential real estate broker.
But to retain his post, which comes with an annual salary of $209,856, Blangiardi so far has raised over $2 million — far surpassing any amounts his rivals have either raised or loaned to their respective campaigns.
Whether Blangiardi is reelected to a second four-year term or not, those seeking to govern Oahu’s nearly 1 million residents and oversee its $4.7 billion city budget will contend with a myriad of issues including crime, homelessness, traffic and completing the long-delayed, nearly $10 billion Skyline rail project to Kakaako by 2031.
Other major hurdles include bolstering the local economy, rectifying climate change impacts on the island, managing building and development projects with respect to sustaining natural resources and solving the lack of affordable housing options on Oahu as well.
Rick Blangiardi
Blangiardi, 77, of Honolulu, said his first term as mayor included “reorganizing government to reflect the priorities of the people.”
“In the first four years, while accomplishing significant achievements, such as interim operations of rail with a reduced construction budget by $3.5 billion and restored federal funding of $744 million; the revamping of the city’s hiring process; the completion of consent decree construction on the city’s Honouliuli Wastewater Treatment Plant; the emergency reconstruction of the Wailua Bridge and the establishment of the Crisis Outreach Response and Engagement, C.O.R.E., homeless outreach program,” Blangiardi said.
“We also committed to rethink key departments to reflect the people’s priorities,” he said. “To that end, working with men and women lifeguards in Ocean Safety and the Honolulu City Council, we formed the Ocean Safety Department with a commitment to improved facilities and resources for our first responder watermen and waterwomen.”
He noted that creating affordable housing on Oahu is a top priority.
“After a 23-year absence, we restarted the city’s private-activity bond program to provide low-cost bond financing for Oahu-based affordable housing projects,” he said. “And we are in the process of reorganizing the Office of Housing into the Department of Housing and Land Management, a key change for the development of affordable housing projects and the infrastructure needed to support those projects.”
To reduce building permits backlogs, he said the city has “also committed to bottom-up improvements in the Department of Planning and Permitting, with new technologies, efficient workflows, processes and standard operating procedures that reinforce our commitment to significantly improve operations in 2025.”
In his second term, Blangiardi said, he’ll commence Skyline’s interim rail operations to Middle Street and the start of construction on the guideway and stations through Kalihi, Iwilei, Chinatown and downtown Honolulu to Kakaako.
He also wants to break ground “on the city’s transit-oriented community adjacent to the rail station in Iwilei with approximately 2,000 affordable housing units.”
Other actions include implementing “significant improvements in the city’s ability to hire and retain essential city workers” to fill city government’s 2,500- person vacancy, he indicated.
According to Blangiardi, his reelection campaign has raised an estimated $2.1 million and borrowed $50,000 — loaned money that he says was repaid.
He estimates his campaign will spend $2 million in total for this year’s mayoral race.
In contrast, he said his 2020 campaign raised $1.96 million and spent $1.88 million in his successful bid for mayor.
Karl O. Dicks
Dicks, 63, of Wahiawa, said he’s running for mayor of Honolulu, in part, to downsize government.
“More government and more regulations, more laws and more restrictions is not the answer for the people,” he said. “More big infrastructure and more big, expensive projects is not the answer for the city and county or for Hawaii.”
He added that government “bans or mandates” don’t work. “I do not believe in regulating every detail of your life and forcing you to conform,” he said. “As mayor I will promote individual responsibility and opportunities.”
And he asserted that “Honolulu has grown too large to be properly one mayor and one City Council.”
Instead, he said he wanted the city to change its course and move back to a part-time government. “A butcher, a baker and candlestick maker, not career politicians,” he said.
Dicks says local government should be decentralized. “I will advocate for people in cities and communities that feel the need to be involved in their community to incorporate and form their own city structure,” he said.
And he wants “to promote local business and local manufacturing” and diversify the economy at the city and state levels.
“Hawaii and Honolulu are doomed if we continue with this tourism-based economy only,” Dicks said.
According to Dicks, he’s raised “zero” dollars in the 2024 race.
However, he said he plans to spend about $3,000 — a mix of his own money plus political donations — on this year’s election.
Choon James
James, 66, of Laie, said she’s running for mayor of Honolulu because “Oahu has an oligarchy that holds and protects the power, money, opportunities and decision-making.”
“Too many decisions are made against local residents’ best interests,” she added.
If elected, James said, residents will always be first, as noted in the Honolulu City Charter, and which she quotes as part of her campaign: “All city powers shall be administered in a transparent manner that is inclusive and shall encourage full participation by the citizenry in the process of governance.”
“It shouldn’t matter if we’re young or old, rich or poor, Democrat or Republican, military or civilian, unionized or not, we all have the same dreams for ourselves and our children,” she said.
She said the city’s fiscal management is important to her as well. “We must control the ‘tax and spend’ mindset,” she said. “Cities rise and fall with their fiscal management.”
Greater control over city rail costs, too — which had ballooned to over $12 billion before the project was scaled back in 2022 — should have occurred early on in the rapid transit project, she said.
“Imagine the billions of dollars that Oahu could use for other nice things when we contain the runaway costs,” James said.
She added that questions should also be asked of the city’s development of affordable housing.“To improve Oahu, we must constantly question the status quo and put residents first,” James said.
She said that “putting residents first also allows opportunity for local building industries.”
“Locals should have the opportunity to assist in Oahu’s housing needs first, not out of state or foreign corporations,” she said.
According to James, she’s loaned $10,000 to her campaign.
“I’m against big money buying elections. I have zero money from special interests. I want no part of this pay-to-play culture,” she said, adding that her campaign spent about $4,311 “for advertisements and recycled banners.”
Bourgoin, the fourth person running in this race, did not immediately respond to questions about his mayoral campaign.
