Just 63 percent of registered voters cast their ballots in this general election, compared with 67 percent in the 2004 presidential election. That’s still a good turnout for Hawaii, (compared to the 37 percent primary election), which usually has the worst voting turnout record in the nation.

Even if it was overblown, there is little doubt that Hawaii state political races were in fact subject to the Obama factor, and the subsequent increased and energized Democratic vote.

The result here in a town dominated by the Democrat political machine for the last 50 years wasn’t “change” as Obama preached during his 21-month campaign, but “let’s get change on the mainland, but here, keep the status quo.”

Public Conned Out of a Con Con

The constitutional convention debate is the perfect example. Every 10 years, the public has the chance to vote on whether they want to convene a constitutional convention to consider fundamental changes that haven’t been acted upon by the Hawaii State Legislature. The last con con was 30 years ago in 1978; a great deal has changed since then but not political bureaucracy here. To change anything in the constitution now, two-thirds of both Houses, the governor and the public must vote to do so.

A constitutional convention could have facilitated debate on, among other issues, whether we should decentralize the public education system, update Hawaii’s energy policies, legalize recall, initiative and referendum on a statewide level, institute term limits for legislators and judges, elect our attorney general, or better balance our criminal justice system so it treats victims equally with the accused criminals.

But the Democratic central committee voted to oppose the con con during its convention and virtually every public union and many prominent Democrats opposed the con con.

The National Education Association, the national public school teachers’ union, spent at least $325,000 on an advertising campaign against the con con through the Hawaii Alliance, which spent more than $700,000 to flood the airwaves and print media in opposition. The alliance was made up of public unions and the state Office of the Hawaiian Affairs.

Teachers wearing HSTA union shirts sign waving asked the public to vote no on the con con. Several of them were told they’d lose their pensions if a con con convened – something Democratic Rep. Della Au Belatti called “fear mongering”, so teachers under this false assumption frantically campaigned against it.

Proponents, which included Lt. Gov. James ‘Duke’ Aiona, Attorney General Mark Bennett and Honolulu City Prosecutor Peter Carlisle, weren’t able to raise the funds needed to compete, although they did run some television commercials.

With a one-sided public message, the unions and major businesses lobbying their members in opposition, and both major dailies editorializing to keep the status quo, the public voted in opposition.

It will be another 10 years before the public has a chance to vote again on the issue.

By successfully halting debate and retaining control of the legislature, the Democratic Party machine has victoriously maintained its lockdown on Hawaii politics.

And for Aiona, this is bad news for his plan to run for governor in 2010. If he’d been able to get a con con convened, he would have a much stronger position going into the 2010 elections.

Hits Keep Coming for Hawaii GOP

In a town controlled by Democrats for the last 50 years, Republicans hoped to pick up three additional House seats and hold onto the 7 of 51 they already had. And possibly pick up two more Senate seats to bring their numbers up to 5 of 25 Senate seats.

Instead, Republicans lost two key conservative lawmakers: Rep. Colleen Meyer, R-Kaawa and Sen. Gordon Trimble. They picked up no additional seats. Now they are left with 2 Senators of 25 and 6 Representatives of 51.

Just for a comparison, when the Governor took office in 2002, there were 19 GOP members in the House and 5 in the Senate.

Some blame Gov. Linda Lingle, the titular head of the Hawaii GOP, for “abandoning” local candidates to campaign for Senator John McCain in mainland states. But she said this morning on KHVH Radio – and she’s told Hawaii Reporter – that she in fact did campaign for local candidates by canvassing and sign waving with them, speaking at their fundraisers and contributing the maximum she legally could to their campaigns. She says she’s committed to getting more Republicans in office before she leaves the governor’s office in 2010.

The party did send out some hit pieces that explained some very negative aspects of some of the candidates, but they were last minute and they apparently weren’t effective.

Rail Boost Came with A Lot of Cha Ching

Mayor Mufi Hannemann easily won re-election after outspending his opponent Ann Kobayashi by millions of dollars with a margin of 5 to 1.

But the mayor’s proposed steel wheel on steel rail system was barely approved by voters with just 0.06 percent over 50 percent of the vote.

This near defeat is quite remarkable because the mayor spent $2.6 plus million of taxpayers’ money to promote the rail over the last two years.

In addition, three private groups made up of businesses, unions and landowners including Campbell Estate, that will benefit from the rail construction or development, spent more than $700,000 in advertising for the so called benefits of the rail system.

Rail opponents waged an aggressive grassroots campaign that nearly derailed the mayor’s plans.

Honolulu City Prosecutor Peter Carlisle said money bought the no con con vote.

“When you have enough money for your campaign you can convince people that pigs can fly," Carlisle said.

Columnist Daniel Douglass points out in his letter today that the same can be said for the pro-rail vote.

Dirty Campaigning Boosted Rail’s Passage

Part of the problem for rail opponents was the mayor’s dirty campaigning that went above and beyond anything imaginable.

He used his office, his staff, his consultants and all his power and our resources to lobby for the rail. And frankly, he wasn’t honest with the voters.

Imagine the kind of chutzspa its takes to tell the public that the city spent $2.6 million of taxpayer money to promote the rail because of a Federal Transit Administration mandate when there isn’t such a mandate, according to the FTA.

Imagine the kind of chutzspa it takes to release the city’s Draft Environmental Impact Statement showing that the rail will cost another $1 billion than originally planned and will lead to the condemnation of 170 homes, businesses and a church, but releasing it just two days before the election so few have a chance to read it before voting.

Imagine telling the public that it wasn’t up to him to release the Draft EIS, and blaming the FTA again, when the city missed its deadlines in 2006 and 2007 and only got the Draft EIS to the FTA in August. And when the FTA released the draft Wednesday, the city took until Sunday to release the full report on its web site.

The mayor campaigned on integrity and leadership. Let’s hope he shows us he is capable of that in 2008 and beyond.

Blank Vote Gets Big Bite Out of Council District 5 Vote

Duke Bainum was unopposed in the District 5 council race, but that is exactly what caused angry voters to leave their ballots blank. Bainum, a former council member (1994 to 2002) received 58 percent of the vote, but 42 percent left their ballots blank.

A group of area residents were upset when Ann Kobayashi left her District 5 seat on the final filing deadline day to run for mayor - allowing Duke Bainum to enter the race and rent an apartment in the district keeping out his competition. They rallied and asked people in the Manoa and Ala Moana districts to cast a blank vote in his race. They also plan a recall campaign so they can have a new election, but will have to wait a year to make that official.

Change, Not Here, At Least for a While

Two major things need to happen for change to arrive on Hawaii shores.

Once the 83-year-old U.S. Senior Senator Daniel Inouye is out of office, Hawaii will no longer have pork galore coming into the state and there will be a major power shuffle to replace him. Inouye, who is reportedly going to be named the head of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, personally campaigned for the rail vote, he made sure the Democrats retained control and no Republicans made progress, he advocated for Mayor Mufi Hannemann and Barack Obama and other Democrats and stood by while the con con was killed.

Change will also come when two daily newspapers either die off as others have across the country or when its editors start editorializing for change. Right now, they are both just mouthpieces for the Democrat status quo. Any doubt, look at their political endorsements. They were largely identical with the Hawaii Democratic Party. Frankly, their editors are largely responsible for keeping Hawaii’s problems intact because they almost always side with the political powers that have controlled this town for five decades.

Unfortunately before that, we are likely to see more damage in Hawaii. President Elect Barack Obama says he will cut the military by 20 to 25 percent, something that will devastate Hawaii's economy should those kinds of heavy cuts reach here.

He says he will raise taxes on those making $92,000 or more, which many small businesses do. More regulations and costly employer mandates are expected to follow. That will hurt many of the already struggling 26,000 small businesses in Hawaii.

And finally, Obama supports the Akaka Bill's passage, which will establish a Hawaiian nation with separate laws, land rights and tax codes based on race. That in itself will divide Hawaii racially and economically in ways that we likely can't even yet imagine.

Reach Malia Zimmerman, editor of Hawaii Reporter, at mailto:Malia@hawaiireporter.com

ELECTIONS 2008...