Independence Day

If you've been following along lately, you may have noticed that we've been pushing in a direction that diverges from what I like referring to as the two corrupt Beltway parties and reminding people that the lesser of two evils is still… evil. That has been manifesting itself as a lot of positive coverage of recovering-Democrat/now independent progressive Marianne Williamson in her CA-33 congressional race out in Santa Monica/Beverly Hills. I would never say anything negative about state Senator Ted Lieu and I imagine he and Marianne would vote pretty much identically. But she would be a far more interesting Member of Congress because she isn't beholden to either of the two corrupt political parties. There's a similar dynamic-- though not identical-- working in VA-08, where the two best candidates are Patrick Hope and Mark Levin. Levin is running as a Democrat put he appears, at least to me, to be pretty far from the party Establishment in every way people need him to be.

Even when we support Democrats, we support independent-minded Democrats, not party hacks and bots. Next month in IL-13 there's a primary between a Steve Israel garden variety recruit, Ann Callis, and a much better Democrat, a real progressive, George Gollin. In the open Honolulu seat, there are God-knows how many candidates-- but only one, Stanley Chang is both progressive and independent-- and we're backing him. In the PA-13 House primary the Establishment is pushing two hackish conservatives, Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky and and Brendan Boyle. We're backing the independent-minded progressive, state Senator Daylin Leach. In fact, the DCCC isn't backing-- at least not yet-- a single candidate on the Blue America endorsement list, probably not as much because they are progressive and anti-corruption as because they are independent-minded men and women who think for themselves.

A moment ago we mentioned the Honolulu race. There's another kind of independent theme suddenly rearing its head there-- and not in a good sense of the word. The Hawaii Democratic Party is probably most loved for progressive stalwarts like Patsy Mink, Mazie Hirono, Tom Gill, Jean King and Dan Akaka. But there have always been dreadful conservatives grasping for power there as well, people who would be Republicans except that there are no viable paths to power for Republican careerists in Hawaii, folks like Ed Case, Colleen Hanabusa and, worst of all, Mufi Hannemann. Well, Hannemann, by any reasonable definition, a small-minded, bigoted Republican, has been a Democrat-- until yesterday. Yesterday he seemed to indicate he's now part of the new Hawaii Independent Party. The good news: he's not running for Congress. The bad news is that he will probably run for governor.

For the newly-formed Hawaii Independent Party, it was a close call. Less than 10 minutes before closing time, the party, which wants Mufi Hannemann to consider carrying its banner in this year’s race for Governor, turned in enough signatures to certify the Independents as a political party.

What usually takes at least two weeks to certify signatures took less than four hours to place the party on this year’s ballot.

The Hawaii Independent Party is led by co-chair Charmaine Tavares, the former Mayor of Maui, and Maui realtor Michelle del Rosario.

KHON2 news spoke to Hannemann just minutes before the last batch of petitions with signatures was turned into the State Office of Elections, and he said that three days ago, he did state that he would seriously consider running for Governor for the Hawaii Independent Party, if it had enough certified signatures on its petition.

A Samoan-American Mormon, Hannemann began his less-than-illustrious career working for Reagan and George H.W. Bush. Later, as mayor of Honolulu is fostered a corrupt pay-to-play culture with respect to city contracts. His "my way or the highway" approach to governing left him with an ugly reputation as a bully, which is why he's been absolutely crushed in every Democratic primary he's run in since. But he keeps running and seems sure to run against Governor Abercrombie this year. Ironically, by getting his conservative followers-- he's a well-known homophobe and anti-Choice nut-- to participate in the primary, it will help cleanse the Democratic primary vote giving Chang-- the real progressive in the congressional race-- the opportunity he needs to cobble together the 30-35% he needs to win in the crowded Democratic field.