So you are meaning to tell me that the reason we had a republican governor within the last 30 years was because then Governor Cayetano made a massive f@#% up in endorsing an active mayor who had no business running for governor, at that time, in the first place? And here I thought the people of Maui had rallied together and chose the route of sanity that year to override the electorate of Oahu's blue zombies.
So our only path to sanity in this state is counting on our governors to f@#% themselves up royally and endorse the wrong people?
If Harris had not dropped out, Cayetano would not have been put in the position of changing his endorsement, and Harris would have probably beat Lingle.
Thanks to Hirono being a worse candidate than Harris, and thanks to Harris not resigning as mayor earlier, Lingle won. The endorsement was what it was -- Cayetano was put in an awkward position when Harris dropped out of the race. i think if Hirono had been the better candidate, the endorsement would not have been a problem. So, it was a combination of factors.
Actually 3 factors as I see it:
1. We had a Republican president: GW Bush. Some might believe the state can benefit by having our governor able to work better with the federal administration, and being in the same party is a plus. We can see how Green disrespects Trump every chance he gets. Not conducive to a great relationship.
2. Hirono was a disaster to start with. She was a do-nothing LtGov. Cayetano was probably elated that he had someone else to endorse, so he went with the Honolulu Mayor. Can't fault him for that. Hindsight is 20/20.
3. As far as Mayor Harris not resigning from office before his campaign began, I think that was both Cayetano's and Harris' screw-up. Somebody between their combined staffs should have looked at the rules early on.
