Honolulu Lite
A few (scattered) thoughts, (barely decipherable) notes and (mostly silly) comments on Saturday's primary: Ghost of Spark puts
spirit into election>> After what can only be called a lackluster primary campaign season caused by a severe money drought (that dern El Niño!), the combatants for the governor's office in the general election are finally apparent. And they are (drum roll): Republican Linda Lingle and Democrat Matt Matsunaga!
Political pundits (meaning, retired, washed-up or merely unelectable politicians) spent a lot of time arguing over whom Lingle would have a harder time beating in the general: Ed Case, Mazie Hirono or Andy Anderson. They blew it. Lingle's real opponent in the general -- despite Mazie's squeaker win over Case as the "official" candidate for governor -- will be Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor Matt Matsunaga.
Matsunaga got more votes than anybody in the primary -- 97,000-plus -- showing that there's still plenty of musubi muscle in the Matsunaga name. A subdued Clayton Hee, who ran against Matsunaga in the primary, lamented that he actually was running against the ghost of the late Spark Matsunaga, Matt's father. It wasn't sour grapes, but an astute observation that Lingle will do well to consider. As a U.S. senator, Spark was one of Hawaii's most loved and respected public figures and one whose memory defines that belabored phrase "traditional Hawaii Democratic values." What that means is that Spark was local to the max.
Matt Matsunaga might want to think that there are 97,000 people out there who just think he's done a swell job at the state Legislature. But when you consider that Congresswoman Patsy Mink, who even with a sympathy vote from people concerned about her current serious health problems -- combined with a long record of public service that Matsunaga II can't touch with a "10-foot Poll" -- got less than 67,000 votes, you can see that M2 enjoyed a lot of residual aloha from his old man's posthumous reservoir of good will.
Lingle might have been able to vanquish Hirono with ease in a one-on-one, WWF mud-wrestling election extravaganza, but Matsunaga changes the match. Now Lingle has to ask herself, Who you gonna call? Ghostbusters?
>> I was one of those idiots who went to the wrong polling place. Like a lemming, I migrated to my usual place only to find my name not on the list. Luckily, I had some wheels, and I knew where Benjamin Parker Elementary School was. Elderly voters without transportation or who may not have been sure where their new polling place was probably just gave up. Because of redistricting, a lot of voters didn't know their polling place had been changed. Sure, we all received the little yellow card from the elections people telling us exactly where to go, but that card looks too much like all the other junk mail we get these days, and mine, like many others, I suspect, went into the trash. That was my fault. I mean, we can't have election officials come take us by the hand and lead us to the voting place, can we? Hmmm.
>> Only four out of 10 registered voters turned out to vote. That's pathetic, even when you consider the geographically challenged idiots like myself who first went to the wrong polling place. I'm revising my call to turn voting into a free million-dollar lottery. If you vote, you have a chance to get rich.
>> My favorite election day statistic: The person who got the fewest votes. The winner is Dottie Naluai, running for the state House seat in the 47th district. She got nine votes. Second place goes to Paul J. Mattes, nonpartisan candidate for governor, who got 13 votes. In my book, these folks are heroes of the democratic process. Against all odds -- and probably a few choice comments from family and friends -- they ran for public office. God bless 'em.
>> If I ever run for office, I'm first going to legally change my name to "Blank Votes." That bugga got plenty of support.
Charles Memminger, winner of National Society of Newspaper Columnists awards, appears Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. E-mail cmemminger@starbulletin.com