I hope I’m not speaking too soon, but I’m glad Hawai’i Republicans — especially U.S. Rep. Charles Djou, Lt. Gov. James “Duke” Aiona and state chairman Jonah Ka’auwai — haven’t joined in the GOP’s Muslim bashing over plans to build a mosque near the 9/11 ground zero in New York City. After President Barack Obama [...]
Archive for August 2010
Compare and Decide: Did Mufi blunder?
August 18, 2010A political candidate should be concerned about the effectiveness of his campaign mailers when his opponent is circulating them as heavily as he is. That’s the case with Mufi Hannemann’s “Compare and Decide” sheet that landed in local mailboxes over the weekend. I received three in the mail for each of the registered voters in [...]
Look before you LEP
August 17, 2010Do you know what a “LEP community” is? I didn’t know either until I received an invitation from the state Office of Language Access (which I didn’t know we had) and State Civil Defense to their 3rd Annual Conference — “Ho’omāukaukau: Emergency Preparedness & Hawai’i’s LEP communities.” It turns out that LEP stands for “Limited [...]
Legislators and their greasy palms
August 16, 2010To see what’s wrong with our campaign finance laws, a recent investigation by the Hawaii Tribune-Herald in Hilo was instructive. Reporter Peter Sur found that in the first six months in 2010, the seven Big Island House members up for re-election, all Democrats, raised $112,586.77 from O’ahu donors, political action committees and labor unions based [...]
flASHback alert
August 14, 2010Today’s “flASHback” column in the Star-Advertiser: “Gubernatorial candidates twisting up campaign trail.”
Hannemann still dogged by Pittsburgh
August 13, 2010Now that the Campaign Spending Commission has ruled on the infractions involved in Mufi Hannemann’s Pittsburgh fundraiser, fining the campaign $225 and a campaign worker $100, I’m still having trouble getting too bothered by what the commission said were relatively minor paperwork violations. While traveling to Washington on city business, the former mayor took a [...]
Lingle: “Mo’ Money Mo’ Problems”
August 12, 2010Gov. Linda Lingle appears to be campaigning for a job with the Republican National Committee with her comments denouncing legislation passed by Congress that could result in Hawai’i getting up to $86 million for extra Medicaid funding and $39 million for education. Following the line of Hawai’i U.S. Rep. Charles Djou and other Republicans in [...]
Alienation or ainokea?
August 11, 2010After reading in the news about all the unhappy campers out there, I assumed that alienation among the national populace was greater than ever. Not so, according to the Harris Alienation Index, which has been measuring the mood of Americans since 1966. The current Alienation Index stands at 52 under the Obama administration, down from [...]
Dare we see hope in Hawai’i schools?
August 10, 2010The Hawai’i team that’s in Washington, D.C., today pitching for up to $75 million in Race to the Top funds represents a promising commitment to improving our struggling public schools. The group includes top Department of Education officials and representatives of the Hawai’i State Teachers Association, Kamehameha Schools, and through the Hawai’i P-20 initiative, the [...]
Djou a true test for GOP
August 9, 2010Republicans have had little success in Hawai’i’s big political races in the last 50 years and the few who have succeeded, such as Pat Saiki and Linda Lingle, did it by downplaying party affiliation and stressing moderation. U.S. Rep. Charles Djou is trying a different way by wearing his conservatism on his sleeve in his [...]
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