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Former GOP leader joins Hannemann campaign

(Note: This was originally posted yesterday, but I somehow managed to delete it.)

Word is that veteran local pol D.G. “Andy” Anderson has joined the upper echelon of Mufi Hannemann’s campaign for governor for the stretch run.

Anderson, 80, is a former Hawai‘i Republican chief who was credited with engineering Frank Fasi’s comeback run for Honolulu mayor in the 1980s, but he hasn’t had success with other campaigns since.

A restaurant owner, developer and former legislator, Anderson has twice lost runs  for governor himself — in 1986 as a Republican and in 2002 as a Democrat. He also led Republican Pat Saiki’s unsuccessful run for governor in 1994.

Hannemann was slightly trailing Neil Abercrombie in a recent Star-Advertiser/Hawaii News Now poll and has been embroiled in a controversy over negative campaigning. It’ll be interesting to see if Anderson’s involvement brings strategic changes in the final two weeks before the Sept. 18 primary.

Update: I sent Anderson a note asking about his involvement and received this response:

While I have worked shoulder to shoulder for years in the Senate with Neil, even in the coalition, and respect him very much, at this time and in this economy I have to personally go with the person with the most administrative experience.

Neil’s legislative experience, while long and admirable, I just don’t think it is what we need to get things moving at this time.

Voters are going to have a hard choice for sure.

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This entry was posted on September 4, 2010 at 12:37 pm and is filed under Volcanic Ash. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.

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5 Comments on “Former GOP leader joins Hannemann campaign”

  1. David Shapiro Says:

    September 4, 2010 at 12:55 pm

    Note: The following comment by Eric Ryan was submitted before the original posting was inadvertently deleted:

    I led the fight in 1991 to oust Andy Anderson as GOP party chair after he “led” the party to losing seats in the legislature during the 1990 election. Fellow liberal and then Maui mayor Linda RINO Lingle came to his defense, since she doesn’t mind watching Republicans lose seats. In the end, Anderson bailed the post and the party. The next thing you know, he’s running a losing race for governor as a Democrat. A few years later, some no-name dude (Aiona) who contributed $$ to Mufi Hannemann’s campaign and was appointed by Democrats as a judge to the bench is Anderson-defender and RINO Lingle’s running mate in 2002. This year, all party resources are being directed to RINO Aiona’s losing campaign. It may seem convoluted, but the local GOP keeps embracing closet Democrats and keeps getting burned. After the 2010 elections are over, and the needless carnage of GOP candidates is removed from the battlefield, will fake Republicans still control the Hawaii GOP?

  2. Michael Says:

    September 4, 2010 at 2:16 pm

    Seems the addition to the original blog is an addtitional insight on what is going on.

    I gave up on aiona when I asked him some questions.
    No answer, no vote from me.
    Thinking hanneman has a waste backup problem,
    he can’t sit on his throne and think. Can’t flush
    what doesn’t go down. anderson is old. Maybe forgetfull?

    Politics always had mud slinging but this time stones are being thrown. Seems many are without sins to do so. Ryan best be carefull, stones can bounce back.
    “RINOS” are short of sight but keen on hearing and smell. In a past comment I made, don’t you think lingle was a democrat who changed party?

    Glad Dave, you are back on track. 🙂

  3. shaftalley Says:

    September 4, 2010 at 5:31 pm

    of the 6 republican house members in the 2010 state legislature,only half of them voted in favor of reduced taxes,reduced spending,non-raiding of special funds,and reduced size of gov’t. 55% of the time.the other 3 republicans voted in favor of the above mentioned 40% of the time on average.Lynn Finnegan had the best record for votes in favor of individual liberty at 100% of the votes. in the senate ,Sam slome

  4. Red Rover Says:

    September 5, 2010 at 7:15 am

    Just think, if Hawaii Republicans were all angry, intolerant ideologues who spent most of their time desperately trying to enforce their version of party line purity and attacking the herd’s elderly (but occasionally drawing funny cartoons and sending out rambling, self-obsessed press releases when owed money), the GOP could be even more powerless and irrelevant.

    But it would sure be fun to watch!

  5. Richard Gozinya Says:

    September 5, 2010 at 1:02 pm

    Perhaps this means we’ll have a Train to a Ferris Wheel?


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