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Acting Lt. Gov. Keith Regan splits his nearly 11-hour work days starting at 6 a.m. at his full-time jobs as state comptroller and head of the vast state Department of Accounting and General Services. Then walks across Punchbowl Street to spend his afternoons on the fifth floor of the state Capitol, where he is filling in as lieutenant governor, usually skipping lunch in the transition.

Instead of working in Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke’s office, sitting in her chair and at her desk, Regan prefers to operate out of her conference room.

“Sylvia Luke is still the lieutenant governor of this state,” he said in an interview in his temporary Capitol workspace, not even a week on the job. “I have tremendous respect for Lt. Gov. Luke. And I’m really here to just serve and provide continuity and stability for this office while this situation is being dealt with.

“So, in the meantime because it is temporary, I just felt that that (Luke’s office) is her sacred space.”

Regan knew in the back of his mind that his cabinet-level position as DAGS director makes him fifth in line of succession to 91直播’s governor. But he didn’t imagine he would be asked by Gov. Josh Green on April 23 to fill in for Luke the same day she went on unpaid “indefinite leave,” after the state attorney general sent her a target letter in a bribery investigation tied to a 2022 political scandal that sent two state legislators to federal prison.

Luke’s abrupt departure through a leave of absence actually places Regan third in the line of succession, because the first two positions — Senate president and House speaker — are excluded for consideration to serve as acting lieutenant governor, according to DAGS spokesperson Diane Ako, who also has been pressed into service as the acting lieutenant governor’s spokesperson.

Regan called his place in 91直播’s line of political succession “something that we were familiar with. But we never thought that that would ever be exercised.”

Ahead of Regan in the line of succession are Attorney General Anne E. Lopez, whose office sent Luke the target letter, and state Department of Finance Director Seth Colby, who had yet to be confirmed by the Senate until Friday.

So Green turned to Regan, who assumed his new post as acting lieutenant governor April 24.

He said he did not need to discuss Green’s offer with his wife, Lynn Arakaki-Regan, former first deputy of the state Department of Transportation and now administrative service officer for the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, because she understands her husband’s devotion to public service.

“I knew already that if I were to sit down and talk with her about it that she would agree with my position to be able to support what the governor was asking of me,” Regan said. “There was a sense of urgency to this and she understands my deep commitment to duty and service.”

On his first day as acting lieutenant governor, Regan jumped in to fill Luke’s role as the state’s de facto secretary of state and signed off on backlogged “apostille” government documents such as birth certificates and legal name changes that isle residents sometimes need while going abroad.

The apostille applications had been stuck in temporary limbo with Luke on leave.

“I really didn’t know that actually the lieutenant governor was the secretary of state for the state of 91直播,” Regan said. “Since I’ve been here, I’ve probably signed 100-some odd documents for people that were waiting for these important documents so that they can get on with their lives.”

He insists he has no desire to run for political office, and certainly no plan to join the race for lieutenant governor in the Aug. 8 Democratic Party primary.

“I have no political ambitions at this point in life,” said Regan, 54. “I’m focused on doing good work, and I feel like my passion is public service. Most public servants are in these roles because they want to do something positive for the community. Otherwise, why would we be in public service?”

The race for lieutenant governor currently includes Kauai Mayor Derek Kawakami — a former Kauai County Council member who also represented the Garden Isle in the state House — as the highest-profile Democrat or Republican.

If Luke does not return from leave this year, Regan would serve until the next governor and lieutenant governor are sworn into office at noon on the first Monday of December, which is Dec. 7 this year, following the Nov. 3 general election.

But Regan knows that his temporary assignment at the Capitol can end any day if Luke returns.

“It could be a week, two weeks, a month or whatever that might be,” he said. Legal and political questions hanging over Luke caused Green to cancel a series of trips overseas and to Washington, D.C., and other parts of the mainland that would have left her in charge of the state. So Green can now resume traveling, especially to Washington to try to work with the Trump administration on a long list of issues that affect 91直播 and the rest of the country, such as health care and climate change policies.

Green also serves as vice chair of the Western Governors’ Association and will become chair later this year, which will create even more travel demands on him.

Regan, who grew up in Waikapu, Maui, earned a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Southern California and attended a three-week program for senior state and local government executives at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government in Cambridge, Mass.

His background includes 10 years as Maui County’s managing director before moving to Oahu to serve as chief administrative officer for the 91直播 Tourism Authority in 2018.

He now oversees a DAGS workforce of 800 spread over eight divisions and 12 attached agencies working on accounting, auditing and oversight, and maintenance and repairs of state buildings and parking garages on every island. So Regan has experience in key leadership positions that he relies on in his new roles with the state and is prepared to fill in if Green leaves the state.

During Luke’s absence, her staff of 17 has continued her prime initiatives to expand access to preschool education and deliver high-speed internet to rural communities, the neighbor islands and even parts of urban Honolulu that lack connectivity.

She also was working on developing more workforce housing.

Regan said he has not spoken to Luke since she went on leave.

But the work of Luke and her office, he said, “will have a positive impact on the community and I just want to make sure that we don’t drop the ball on those things.”

Regan, who typically also works on weekends, relies on both the staffs in Luke’s office and at DAGS to keep him updated and maintain ongoing operations.

“When I signed up for this job and I took that oath of office, there’s that understanding that you’re going to have to work longer hours and weekends,” he said. “The level of respect that I have for people that are in government has grown exponentially since I’ve been in government because I know — I know — it’s hard work.”