Volcanic Ash

A question from the election night mailbag:

Charles Djou vs. Colleen Hanabusa was a winnable race for the Republicans. How did they blow it so badly?

Three reasons that stood out to me:

• The Democrats did a much better job with their get-out-the-vote effort. The Democratic appeal led by Barack Obama himself seemed to resonate while the Republicans’ reliance on too many poorly targeted robo-calls seemed to annoy.

This was reflected in victory margins by Hanabusa and Neil Abercrombie that far exceeded the projections of even the most optimistic Democratic polls.

• Djou made a serious mistake by mostly campaigning straight out of the anti-Obama national Republican playbook that just doesn’t put points on the board in Hawai‘i, where two-thirds of voters still think the local-born president is doing a good job.

Djou would have scored better by focusing his campaign more effectively on the local issues where Hanabusa was vulnerable with voters, such as Bishop Estate, the legislative pay raises and her ties to Ko Olina developer Jeff Stone.

• While both campaigns were viewed as overly negative, the Republicans were seen as dirtier in the end.

The TV spot with the unauthorized, doctored photo making Hanabusa look like Darth Vader backfired on the Djou campaign. The cheesy “Big Spender” ad by the Karl Rove group cost Djou votes every time it ran. When the Republicans finally hit Hanabusa on Ko Olina, they turned off voters by dragging her spouse into it and throwing around the word “corruption” without laying a proper foundation.

Hanabusa, on the other hand, did a good job of mixing in some soothing ads with positive messages about values.

Hawai‘i is getting its first taste of mainland style political campaigning with the spate of national ads pouring into the 1st Congressional District race between Charles Djou and Colleen Hanabusa, and it’s not easy on the stomach.

The third-party TV spots are done independently of the campaigns and display little understanding of local sensibilities; you have to wonder if they do the campaigns more harm than good.

There have been bad and misleading ads on both sides, but a spot that stands out to me as one of the worst of the breed is the latest attack ad on Hanabusa by American Crossroads, a group led by Karl Rove that is dumping more than $100,000 into the race in the final weeks.

It’s an amateurish, generic cartoon presentation barely tailored for Hawai‘i, showing a poorly drawn and stereotypical figure of an Asian female sitting on a yacht called the “Big Spender” and tossing around greenbacks.

There’s no mention of local issues as it attacks Hanabusa with GOP buzzwords about “Nancy Pelosiʻs tsunami of spending,” the “trillion-dollar health care program” and “cap and trade.”

These preach to the converted and do nothing to speak to voters who still may be undecided. I wouldn’t be surprised of the cheesy come-on costs Djou a couple of points in the polls.

Rove, who was the chief political adviser to President George W. Bush, is supposed to be one of the smartest GOP strategists in the fight to regain control of Congress. If this bush-league production is an example of his work, I don’t get it.

The race in the 1st Congressional District is sinking fast with Democrat Colleen Hanabusa and Republican Charles Djou exchanging accusations that the other side is “smearing” them with negative ads.

Hanabusa called a news conference yesterday to condemn a Djou ad predicting a storm of GOP negative advertising against him in the final weeks of the campaign, which she called “one of the worst negative ads that I have ever seen.”

I’m sorry, but not even close.

Equally disingenuous was the Djou camp’s response through the state Republican Party to the effect of “she started it first.”

If this contest is to be decided by which side has the most pilau ads, it’ll be a tie. Between the two campaigns, the state parties and the Democratic and Republican congressional campaign committees, my e-mail inbox is filled with new loads of fresh garbage every day.

The “storm” spot that Hanabusa found offensive was actually quite similar in its formula to an earlier Democratic ad attacking Djou as a Republican lackey because he voted with his party most of the time.

The tried-and-true formula of negative political advertising, which both sides employed, is to get the most unflattering photo of the opponent you can find, edit it to look as dark and sinister as possible, and then massage a few sketchy elements of the opponent’s record to appear similarly sinister.

This race, which has been going on and on and on since Neil Abercrombie announced he was stepping down in the winter, long ago ceased producing any new or useful information for voters.

Blessed are the early absentee voters, who will soon be to hold their noses, mail in their choices and put the unpleasantness in the rear-view mirror.

***

My column in today’s Star-Advertiser: “Few votes in primary show appointed BOE is necessary.”

U.S. Rep. Charles Djou has gotten a “return to sender” on his proposal to name the Makiki Post Office after one of his predecessors, the late U.S. Rep. Cec Heftel.

Heftel’s widow, Rebecca Glass Heftel, objected to the idea in a sharply worded letter to Djou:

News of your initiative to name the Makiki Post Office building after my late husband, Congressman Cecil Heftel, came as a complete surprise, inasmuch as you have never communicated with me.

It would seem to be common courtesy to consult a widow on issues pertaining to her husband, and since you have chosen not to do so, I must ask you to refrain from any additional efforts in this matter.

Mrs. Heftel is said to be puzzled as to why Djou chose the Makiki Post Office, located under H-1 at Pensacola and Lunalilo, as the late congressman had no particular ties to the area; he lived mostly in Kahala and along Kalanianaole Highway in East O’ahu.

She also feels her Democratic husband and the Republican Djou are polar opposites politically and doesn’t care for any suggestion of an affinity between the two.

In a story in the Star-Advertiser Sunday, Djou said he chose Makiki because some of Heftel’s family still live in the area and that Heftel lived in the neighborhood while serving in Congress.

He said there’s a tradition of naming post offices after former members of Congress, and that the resolution is usually offered by a successor in the same district.

For instance, Djou said former U.S. Rep. Ed Case introduced a resolution to rename the Paia, Maui, post office after Patsy Mink, and Democratic U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka introduced the measure naming the Kapalama post office for Republican Hiram Fong.

Mrs. Heftel copied her letter to Hawai’i’s senior U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye, who is expected to be sure House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is made aware of it. Don’t expect to buy stamps anytime soon at the Cecil L. Heftel Post Office Building.

Meantime, a day after the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee ripped Djou for trying to raise funds off of a little attention he’s gotten from the national media, his Democratic opponent Colleen Hanabusa is in Washington trying to do the same thing.

In a communication to supporters, she said she’s met with the Huffington Post and is trying to line up interviews with other media to counter Djou’s views on the Jones Act and other issues.

All tied to a solicitation for donations, of course.

Update: Word is that Djou’s office had contacted the Heftel children regarding his resolution and received their approval for naming the Makiki Post Office after their father and their thanks for the honor.

Mrs. Heftel issued a further statement to the effect that a wife knows her husband’s wishes best, but these appear to be family issues that need to be resolved there.