John Carroll

John Stanley Carroll (born December 18, 1929) is an American politician who served as a state representative and state senator from Hawaii as a Republican. Since then he has become a perennial candidate for multiple statewide offices in Hawaii.

John Stanley Carroll was born in St. Marys, Kansas on December 18, 1929 to Hugh Stanley Carroll, who was a chemistry professor who later worked on the Manhattan Project. He initially began his education at Saint Mary's University, but in 1949 he moved to the Territory of Hawaii using a scholarship to play football for the University of Hawaii at Hilo. He later transferred to the University of Hawaii at Manoa and graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in education.

During the Korean War he served in the United States Army and later transferred to the United States Air Force. He graduated the Air Command and Staff College and the Air War College, became a staff judge advocate for the Army National Guard and the Air National Guard, and retired from the Air Force as a colonel. After military service, he worked as a pilot for Hawaiian Airlines.

In 1966, Carroll ran for one of Hawaii's two at-large congressional district seats, but came in third place behind incumbents Patsy Mink and Spark Matsunaga. He briefly ran for House again in 1968, but dropped out and ran for one of the Honolulu City Council's six at-large seats and came in eighth out of twelve candidates.

State legislature

House

On August 17, 1970, Carroll announced that he would seek the Republican nomination for one of three 12th state house district seats and later came in first out of six candidates. He was almost ruled as ineligible to run due to a residency challenge that argued he was currently living in the 13th district, but it was rejected by Lieutenant Governor Thomas Gill and Carroll was allowed to run.

On July 24, 1972, he announced that he would seek reelection and came second out of six candidates. He was redistricted into the 11th House District which only had two seats and on July 31, 1974, he announced that he would seek a third term and placed first out of four candidates. On July 29, 1976, he announced that he would seek a fourth term and placed second out of five candidates.

Carroll proposed a bill that would create the procedure for the state constitution's impeachment provisions for a governor or lieutenant governor as the state constitution only specified that the state legislature could do it, but not how to do it, the ability to recall elected officials, and also proposed a constitutional amendment for an environmental bill of rights.

In 1971, the state legislature was rewriting the state's penal code with the possibility of repealing its sodomy laws. Carroll supported repealing the laws and he read a letter written by students from the University of Hawaii Gay Students Union asking for the state legislature to legalize homosexual sex between consenting adults.

In 1973, he introduced a bill that would prevent marijuana possession from appearing on arrest records and would reduce the penalty for possession to a $25 fine. He and three other Republicans also supported a minimum wage bill that increased it from $1.80 to $2.40 later that year.

In 1975, he proposed multiple bills that would create a voter initiative and referendum system with the referendum allowing voters to decide whether or not a bill would pass while an initiative would be proposed legislation that voters would choose whether or not to pass. He also proposed another bill that would allow for the recalling of elected officials and a Castle doctrine amendment to Hawaii's penal code although it was defeated.

During his tenure in the House he served on the Judiciary and Environmental Protection committees.

Senate

In late 1977 Carroll stated at a fundraiser that he was considering running for a seat in the Hawaii Senate. On July 6, 1978 he announced that he would run for one of Hawaii's 6th Senate district four seats and came second out of seven candidates.

During his tenure he served on the Judiciary, Agriculture, Consumer Protection and Commerce, Economic Development, and the Government, Operations and Efficiency committees

He also introduced legislation that would ban public employees from striking and would result in their firing if they did strike, was against Hawaii expanding its fishing and asked Governor George Ariyoshi to ban lobster harvesting along the Leeward Islands, and voted against a resolution supporting the District of Columbia Delegate Act.

The 6th district was redistricted from having four seats to two seats and in the 1980 election both of the incumbents, John Carroll and Anson Chong, narrowly lost reelection.

Post-legislature

In June 1981, he was elected as chairman of the Hawaii Republican Party with 341 out of 572 votes. During his tenure as chairman he attempted to change the party's Caucasian image and to organize the party in every precinct. On November 5, 1982, two party officers resigned in protest after Carroll refused to resign after the party's poor performance in the 1982 elections although he later chose not to seek reelection in 1983.

In 1979, he invested in a diamond mine that later caused trouble between him and the IRS and in 1994 he filed for bankruptcy claiming that two business partners attempted to take over his company. In 1998, Carroll ran for Hawaii's 1st Senate district, but was defeated in the general election by Lorraine Inouye.

On May 25, 2000, he announced that he would run in the Senate election against Senator Daniel Akaka and easily won the Republican nomination. When he announced in May he stated that he would need $1.5 million to launch a viable campaign against Akaka, but by late October had only raised less than $2,000 while Akaka had raised $430,000. During the campaign he made advertisements that started with "Aloha, I'm John Carroll, and in no way am I a racist" and in the general election he was easily defeated by Akaka.

On November 10, 2001, he announced that he would challenge Linda Lingle for the Republican nomination for governor in the 2002 election and attacked Lingle as unelectable with her support in 1998 coming from anti-Cayetano voters that would remain Democratic in the 2002 election. However, he was defeated in a landslide in the primary and received less than 10% while Lingle received almost 90% and went on to win the general election. Carroll ran unsuccessfully for the United States House of Representatives in 2002. On May 27, 2009, he announced that he would challenge Lieutenant Governor Duke Aiona in the Republican gubernatorial primary, but received less than 5% of the vote.

On September 21, 2011, he announced that he would run for the Republican nomination for Senate against Linda Lingle and campaigned against the Jones Act and a Native Hawaiian federal recognition bill. In the primary he was easily defeated by Lingle with her taking over 90% of the vote and Carroll later endorsed Democratic Representative Mazie Hirono in the general election. In 2016, he announced that he would run in the Senate election and eaisly won the Republican nomination against other perennial candidates, but was defeated in a landslide by incumbent Senator Brian Schatz.

In 2017, he faced potential disbarment over two 2015 complaints of professional misconduct and agreed to give up his law license.

Following the 2018 Hawaii false missile alert message sent by the State of Hawaii's Emergency Management Agency to hundreds of thousands of Hawaii residents via their phones on 13 January 2018, Carroll dubbed the incumbent Democratic governor David Ige "Doomsday David" and called on him to resign.

In 2018, he announced that he would seek the Republican nomination for governor. In mid-March, Carroll was leading state House Minority Leader Andria Tupola in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser's statewide poll of likely 2018 Republican voters by a double-digit margin of 12 percentage points with 40% of potential Republican voters supporting Carroll as opposed to 28% supporting Tupola. Carroll was defeated by Tupola by a 20% margin in the August 11 primary.

On June 14, 2019, he announced his candidacy for the 2020 Honolulu mayoral election.