You should be able to see a much more cleaner version of this site on your BlackBerry, iPhone or Droid.

Also, if you would like to post comments, registration is no longer necessary, in an effort to further reduce spam comments, there is captcha. A valid email address is required, however for comment posting.

Also, when the filing season officially opens, candidates for office will be permitted to purchase ad space. Please email rjmendoza(@) oshawaii . net for ad rates. All ads purchased by candidates will be labeled as “advertisement”.

And to that anonymous donor who contributed to this blog- Mahalo!

-rj mendoza

Hanabusa makes remarks on the hill.

Former Rep. Ed Case’s (D-Hawaii) primary opponent doesn’t believe Democrats have forgiven him for challenging Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii).

“I think that Ed should bow out,” said state Senate President Colleen Hanabusa (D). “And the main reason why is that contrary to what he told you, I don’t believe that Democrats have forgiven him for the race against Senator Akaka.”

She doesn’t stop there.

Moreover, his Senate run, which came after winning only one full term in the House, showed that he’s not a team player, Hanabusa said. “Ed has never been viewed as team player by the congressional delegation or by others in the state. He’s not a consensus builder.”

Hanabusa pointed to recent remarks from Abercrombie that she said hinted he wasn’t looking for Case to succeed him.

“My thought, and I’ve said it to other people, is if you don’t want to be a team player in the Hawaii congressional delegation, don’t run, because there are only four of us,” Abercrombie told the Honolulu Advertiser this week.

Hanabusa labeled Case a “maverick,” and implied he would operate independently of the rest of the state’s members.

“I don’t believe when we only have four in our congressional delegation that you can have somebody who runs maverick on ya,” she said. “It’s not that time.”

Or there.

Hanabusa is confident she’ll beat Case and Djou.

She pointed out Case is considered a Blue Dog Democrat while Djou is pitching himself as a pro-business, fiscal conservative. “I think they will pull more from the same vote base than I will,” Hanabusa said. “Ed and Djou in the race are going to cancel each other out.”

Or there.

“I think we will probably out raise Ed,” she said. “Realistically we should exceed two-hundred-something thousand [by the end of the quarter].”

The campaign has a goal of $300,000, which would match Djou’s expected fundraising haul. “We have commitments to that amount already. It’s just a matter of when we would report it,” Hanabusa said. “I don’t think that Charles would have an advantage over me in terms of ability to raise money.”

What Colleen Hanabusa should consider is that she is running to represent a district that she does not reside in. Despite her apparent funding, it won’t do anything if the residents of CD-1 realize that, and decide to vote for the candidate that does live in their district.

And obviously, there must be some sort of unspoken rules in the Hawaii Parties that no person should challenge the incumbent from the same party. This in itself will foster career politicians who, once win the seat will only have to squash opposition from the other party.

Although Hawaii has been an overwhelmingly Democratic State, the Democratic Party should not get too confident that can secure the seats in both Federal and State offices. The Legislature’s overrides of the Governor’s vetoes and the recent fiascos with the Superferry, Civil Unions Bill, Furlough Fridays, are all on the Democrat’s watch and dime.

A rebuttal from a commenter followed that article:

Colleen once again only thinking of herself… she wants to keep her senate seat AND run for congress… Shows she cannot focus! do we really want a self serving double minded career politician?

BY CASE FOR CONGRESS on 12/29/2009 at 04:58

Also, the three candidates all have their websites up. Go google them and you’ll find the sites. (Note: I am not linking to any campaign site unless there is a newsworthy reason.)

Special election? Game on!

Date: Not sure yet. And if Congressman Abercrombie doesn’t make one official within the next day or so, there’s no telling how this special election will work out.

The re-organization which effectively removed the Dominic Yagong from the Finance Committee Chair, Pete Hoffman from Vice-Chair of Council and Brenda Ford from Chair of the Public Works and Intergovernmental Relations committee was revoked upon Judge Ibarra issuing a TRO against the council. The re-organization did occur at a later date, much to the disappointment and chagrin of West Hawaii residents.

Brenda Ford, James Weatherford and West Hawaii Today filed a complaint with the Office of Information Practices some months ago, and the opinion of the OIP was released on Big Island Chronicle here. The opinion of the OIP was that there was indeed a violation of the sunshine law -although was it was unintentional.

However, ignorance of the law should be no reason to justify breaking it.

Council Chair J. Yoshimoto is an attorney, who graduated from the William S. Richardson school of law in Honolulu. Additionally, it was he and County Clerk Kenneth Goodenow who traveled to Kamuela to speak with Pete Hoffman with regards to the re-organization, which set off the chain of serial communications. Kenneth Goodenow, is also an attorney.

The reality of county politics- in any county is merely a popularity contest. Serious issues such as this are often forgotten or lost by a majority of voters when it comes down to election time. The voters that will remember these actions and any actions that have made citizens unhappy are actually the voters in the districts where the councillors were removed from power.

The one who might have the most to lose from this whole situation is Emily Naeole-Beason, current Vice-Chair of the council and District 5 representative. Puna residents have made their disapproval heard via Big Island Chronicle, Op-Ed letters to the Hawaii Tribune-Herald, comments on news articles, and various other mediums. In fact, ethics charges were brought against her by members of her own constituency- with regards to behaviors exhibited by Naeole-Beason during county council meetings. She has been considered for a long time the swing vote on the council when it comes to controversial legislation. However, she made herself quite unpopular with her vote in support of the re-org- justifying her vote with something along the lines of not having former district 5 councillor Gary Safarik having “anything over her”.

But the major question is- who was ultimately responsible for this re-organization, and will the voters in this person’s district remember?

Guy Enriques, freshman Councillor representing District 6 and Dennis “Fresh” Onishi, also a freshman Councillor representing a District 4.

As the sponsors of this legislation, it will be interesting to see if the residents of their districts remember what happened, the fallout, the loss of time, money and upset sent throughout the island. Should qualified candidates run in the election this would be useful in their campaigns- especially if opposing candidates were to run on “transparent government” platforms.