Gloves Come Off As Hawaii Senate Race Gets Going

[ellisonz]

By Nanea Kalani and Chad Blair 12/08/2011
Civil Beat

In a political tit for tat that foreshadows Hawaii's U.S. Senate race next year, Gov. Neil Abercrombie and his predecessor Linda Lingle are clashing over who's done the better job managing the state's finances.

The dust-up continued Thursday as Lingle's people downplayed the significance of a recent state bond sale that Abercrombie says show's the state's in great shape under his tenure.

Fiscal management is the key issue in Hawaii's Senate race, which is considered one of the most competitive in the country and could help decide which party controls the Senate.

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Democrat Abercrombie, who will need federal help to implement his New Day vision for the state, will support the winner of his party's primary, either Mazie Hirono or Ed Case. He is also using the state's improved finances to defend himself against critics following a rough first year in office.

http://www.civilbeat.com/articles/2011/12/08/14168-gloves-come-off-as-hawaii-senate-race-gets-going/

What do people think, Hirono or Case ? I trust Mazie to do a bang-up job way more than I trust Ed to get much done for Hawaii. Ed is married to my step-mothers second cousin though

Also: Linda Lingle, you inspire deep feelings of loathing from within this former resident of Hawaii.

[opihimoimoi]

1. Lingle is a GOPer who screwed Hawaii for 8 years as CEO GOV...came in on Bushies 2nd year

when GOPers were riding high...she help ruin our Islands with poor governance....she was a psuedo politician...more of a grifter with crew.

Mazie is a better choice than Case

[ellisonz]

2. Aloha!

I think I'll take this as an opportunity from my why I loathe Linda Lingle thread I put up when she announced this most recent charade:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x2102087

Some Background on why she is awful for Hawaii:

In Hawaii, an imbroglio over an investment gone bad
By Jake Grovum, Special to Stateline

Just as the economy was beginning its nosedive, the state of Hawaii doubled down on its investment in an exotic financial instrument known as auction-rate securities. Between July 2007 and February 2008, the state’s holdings in these investments more than doubled, from $427 million to nearly $1.1 billion. At the time, it seemed like a safe bet. Many other institutional investors, including other state and local governments, had placed their money in these long-term, high-yield securities.

Then, things went wrong. In the spring of 2008, the market for auction-rate securities froze up, and the regular dividends that had made the investments an attractive place to park cash stopped being paid. Hawaii, which was among the most heavily invested in the securities, is now left with the one-third of its more than $3 billion treasury locked up in 30-year investments that are essentially illiquid.

Nobody in Hawaii disputes that the investment didn’t go as planned. The state already has written down the value of the securities by $250 million. What’s less clear — and is one of the hottest political debates in Honolulu at the moment — is how big of a problem this represents.

Marion Higa, the state’s longtime auditor, thinks it’s a crisis. In March, she issued a report faulting Hawaii’s Department of Budget and Finance for prioritizing investment yield above safety. She says buying the securities, which were backed by long-term student loans, violated a law requiring investments to mature within five years. According to the report, the department suffered from a “lack of proper leadership and accountability.”

http://www.stateline.org/live/details/story?contentId=4...

The short change resulted in this result:

How Hawaii's Budget Led to Furloughed Kids
By Suzanne Roig / Honolulu Saturday, Oct. 24, 2009

At Noelani Elementary, the small school near Honolulu where President Obama learned to read and write, the next generation of Hawaii's leaders learned a new word this week: "furlough."

The Noelani students joined nearly 170,000 other children across Hawaii whose teachers on Friday began an unprecedented state furlough program that will close classrooms 34 days over the next two years. The "furlough Fridays" are part of a controversial effort by Gov. Linda Lingle to deal with a projected budget deficit of nearly $1 billion. The cost-cutting measure has angered parents, lawmakers and children. Popular musician and Hawaii public school graduate Jack Johnson sang at a rally Friday morning at the state Capitol to protest the furloughs. During the rally, parents handed a petition bearing thousands of signatures protesting the furloughs to the governor, whose office is on the fifth floor of the state Capitol. (See the top 10 things you didn't know about Hawaii.)

Lingle's two-year contract with the teachers union and its 13,000 members amounts to a 7.9% pay cut. The bulk of the union's teachers will have 17 furlough days a year, giving Hawaii the shortest school year in the nation. "It's completely Draconian," says Vernadette Gonzalez, whose 5-year-old daughter, Inez Anderson, is a kindergartner at Noelani. "People are shocked when they hear that this was allowed, or even considered as a sane solution to the budget crisis." Gonzalez fears that students will not be able to make up for the lost school time, noting that teachers are struggling to adapt their lesson plans. "It's not only passing on the cost to the parents but to the kids," she said. "They're getting a second-rate education."

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1932079,...

She also blew the inter-island Superferry project and let Aloha Airlines go under after encouraging a price-war with Go! Airlines - ignored environmental protection - Hawaii State Parks receive the same amount of funding they did in 1992, and has failed to stop the bleeding of Hawaii's hard earned dollars to the hotel industry and gambling (only Hawaii and Utah do not have any form of gaming), and has presided over the biggest economic downturn in what should be a wealthy state while unlicensed vacation rentals boomed and average Hawaii residents saw wages and economic opportunity stagnate amid rising prices. The Rick Perry of the Pacific!

At a 2007 Hawaii Sustainability Conference at the Hilton Hawaiian Village in Waikiki, a panel of select high school students were asked if they thought they would be living in Hawaii in 2035 - not a single one raised their hand. Shame on you Linda Lingle! You will not take a Democratic Senate Seat and you will not be allowed back into our politics, period. Auwe!

For a write up on the conference, see:
Future plans must focus on Hawaii's youth
By Dean Uchida, Vice President of for D.R. Horton Schuler Homes
The Honolulu Advertiser
November 29, 2007

http://www.hawaii2050.org/index.php/site/news /

[mahina]

3. I agree Opihi.

Did you ever see James Roche of the Braddahs play Lingle? Priceless!

[IMG][/IMG]

Lingle campaigning to an empty room in Las Vegas for the McCain campaign.

Linda is a closeted gay woman who hides her truth from her winger supporters.

[IMG][/IMG][IMG][/IMG]

We've seen this matchup before, Case, Hirono and Lingle. She is vile. Oh, and for what it's worth, I think Dustin Hoffman looks better in a dress and in a pantsuit.

[IMG][/IMG]

[opihimoimoi]

4. Love the pic of Dustin....Lingle also fucked with the DLNR with a pol hack...cut off funds to Anuenu

fisheries,,,the States one and only aquaculture research facility.....she was a disaster

[mahina]

5. Yep, Tootsie was a nightmare.

Some more of her greatest hits- cutting funds for ag inspectors needed to get local crops exported, lost jobs that brought lots of research money and more than paid for themselves, and cutting school days. Bitch, stay gone!

[opihimoimoi]

6. Mazie gonna wipe the floor

[mahina]

9. Here's hoping

if it's a contest between Ed and Tootsie, I don't know.

Boy did he ever blow it when he quit Congress.

[mahina]

12. Your lips to Akua's ears Opihi

[ellisonz]

7. I was an intern at DLNR during the final year of Lingle...

Laura Thielen actually walked into the quarterly meeting of the State Parks division meeting before the legislature was going to get down to brass tacks and starts the meeting: some people there say State Parks should be extinct, then details how she is going to do absolutely nothing for State Parks. She continued with how they all need to shut-up and fall in line with the Recreational Renaissance plan that was never going to happen. She had no supporters in the room. She told the administrator in charge of Kahana Valley that her time might be better spent on getting camping facilities cleaned up at Malaekahana instead of fighting to make the Kahana Valley population mo bettah.

State Parks is funded at almost the same level it was in 1992

[mahina]

10. Whoa.

wowowowow.

Wow.

Ouch.

[opihimoimoi]

14. That idiot THeilen killed off Anuenue Fisheries and 44 years of priceless research....aquaculture is

one of the bright spots in terms of growing massive food requirements in short period of time

[ellisonz]

8. Da Braddahs and Friends Linda Lingle

Some whole episodes if anybody like: http://www.oc16.tv/shows/42

One day I will assemble the entire collection of Da Braddahs and Friends DVDs!

[mahina]

11. Oh my word!

Too funny, James Roche!

One day Code Pink was marching down Kapi'olani blvd and we passed Lingle HQ by the old Francis Camera. James Roche was standing in front of LL HQ in a hot pink pantsuit, and we were all wearing our hot pink Code Pink t's. The look on his face, oh my goodness!

He looks pretty good in drag!

[ellisonz]

13. Hawaii Tourism Authority should make Da Braddahs their spokesmen.

That must have been something special to him