High cost of housing key issue in Hawaii governor’s race

By AUDREY McAVOY
Associated Press

HONOLULU (AP) — Hawaii’s sitting lieutenant governor, Democrat Josh Green, has a large advantage heading into his state’s gubernatorial race against his Republican opponent Duke Aiona. The heavily Democratic state has had just two Republican governors since becoming a state in 1959. It hasn’t elected a Republican to the office since 2006. That’s when voters re-elected Linda Lingle to a second four-year term alongside her running mate Aiona, who was lieutenant governor. Aiona ran unsuccessfully for governor twice in the years since, in 2010 and 2014. Both Green and Aiona focused on Hawaii’s debilitating housing costs as the most important issue of their campaigns and their prospective administrations.