Some quick impressions of the Mufi Hannemann/Neil Abercrombie debate: The “showdown” hype, razzmatazz and cheering that Hawaii News Now favors in its debates is distracting and creates an annoying WWE atmosphere. Allowing booing and jeering by partisans in the audience without trying to control it until it was too late was unconscionable. Hannemann’s delivery was [...]
Archive for August 2010
Mufi and Neil make their case
August 30, 2010Governor’s race goes to church
August 29, 2010Republican Chairman Jonah Ka’auwai has launched an aggressive push to counter Mufi Hannemann’s courtship of Christian conservatives who support Republican James “Duke” Aiona. In a lengthy message to the Hawai’i Christian Coalition, endorsed by coalition state chairman Garret Hashimoto, Ka’auwai accused the Hannemann campaign of acting “unethically, immorally, and far below reproach” in its efforts [...]
flASHback alert
August 28, 2010My flASHback column in today’s Star-Advertiser: “2010 campaign’s characters spice up political potpourri.”
Carlisle and GOP agree: He’s not a Republican
August 27, 2010There’s a strange feud going on between the Hawaii Republican Party and mayoral candidate Peter Carlisle, a former Republican who quit the party when he began looking at the nonpartisan race for mayor. After Carlisle made passing reference in a Midweek interview to a supposed GOP poll that showed him well ahead of Kirk Caldwell [...]
Abercrombie enters mailer wars
August 26, 2010Neil Abercrombie’s latest campaign mailer landed in the box yesterday and it couldn’t be more different from opponent Mufi Hannemann’s controversial “Compare and Decide” shot at Abercrombie’s mainland birth, haole wife, UH degrees and record in Congress. Abercrombie’s piece makes no mention of his opponent. It features a picture of him in a nice suit [...]
Inouye vs. Case — George Lucas style
August 25, 2010If coherence is lacking in Hawai’i politics, it’s more than made up for with entertaining theatrics. The latest little drama: ACT I Hawai’i U.S. Rep. Ed Case runs against U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka without the blessing of senior Sen. Daniel Inouye and is trounced after a furious Inouye rallies the state’s Democratic establishment against him. [...]
Caldwell, Hannemann smarting from Kalihi tax flap
August 24, 2010Acting Mayor Kirk Caldwell is struggling to get on top of the stealth rezonings that have raised the property taxes of 250 O’ahu residents, mostly in Kalihi, by more than 300 percent. The outcry could affect the Sept. 18 election chances of both Caldwell and former Mayor Mufi Hannemann, who handed his former managing director [...]
The LG candidates: From bright beacons to space cadets
August 23, 2010The latest fundraising letter for Norman Sakamoto declares that he’s not running for lieutenant governor to get in line to become governor, but to be “focused on the job he’s running for — lieutenant governor.” It raises the question of what the heck the LG’s job is, with few real responsibilities other than to be [...]
Compare and Decide II
August 20, 2010A couple of days ago I raised the question of whether Mufi Hannemann blundered with his “Compare and Decide” mailer that denigrated Neil Abercrombie’s mainland birth, haole wife, UH education and congresstional record — and the answer appears to be a clear yes. Hannemann spent much of tonight’s televised debate, which may be the most [...]
Anonymity doesn’t have to mean deceit
August 20, 2010My column in Wednesday’s Star-Advertiser, “Politicians need to get over the plantation-era bigotry,” set off a spirited discussion of race and politics, with nearly 150 comments posted on the newspaper website. I was skimming through them and came across this comment by somebody going by the alias of publius808, a localization of the name associated [...]
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