Hanabusa: Why The Republican Wing Of The Democratic Party Is Failing In Hawaii Again

Hanabusa’s conservative record comes back to haunt her in progressive Hawaii; electorate not supporting her efforts to cut earned benefits, increase militarism and fight the EPA

Congresswoman Colleen Hanabusa is badly trailing progressive Brian Schatz in her bid to oust him from the Senate in Hawaii’s August 9th primary. And she woke up on June 11th to read a headline in the state’s biggest newspaper (the Honolulu Star-Advertiser) that probably confirms her political career’s demise:

Group links Hanabusa to 'threat' against Medicare

Beltway pundits and consultants of course always tell Democrats it’s best to move to the middle and, above all else, embrace bipartisanship. For someone like Hanabusa, who craves campaign cash from banksters (including her campaign chair) and defense contractors, it’s been easy to accept the advice throughout her two terms in Congress. She even uses an inane Twitter hashtag: #bipartisanshipworks. But it’s clear voters in Hawaii-- one of the most Democratic states-- aren’t happy with her "centrist" record.

Hours after the Star-Advertiser article was published, her campaign sent out an email rebuttal that actually contained no facts or links-- just ad hominem attacks on Schatz and the well-respected National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, which has endorsed his candidacy. Hanabusa’s record is actually replete with threats to Social Security and Medicare.

She joined the Wall Street-friendly New Democrat Coalition shortly after first being elected to Congress in 2010.

In 2012, she appeared at a post-election press conference at which the New Dems gleefully announced that "everything" was on the table and they were eager to negotiate with John Boehner and Mitch McConnell on "a grand bargain." Obviously, that’s Washingtonspeak for cutting Social Security and Medicare.

She followed that up in 2013 with a vote endorsing the Simpson-Bowles benefit-cutting proposals, a letter commending a new Simpson-Bowles benefit-cutting proposal and an appearance at a PhRMA-sponsored "town hall" designed to showcase opposition to the Rockefeller-Schatz proposal to decrease Medicare drug costs.

Another noteworthy headline occurred earlier this month in the only daily newspaper on the island of Kauai (The Garden Island):

Colleen Hanabusa: War games can unite countries

Most reasonable people would be embarrassed to be cited for such an Orwellian view. Hanabusa, in contrast, linked to the story and quoted from it on her campaign’s Facebook page.

Increasing military spending has been a consistent cause for Hanabusa. She chairs the New Dems’ National Security Task Force and has joined mostly conservative Members of Congress on both the Congressional China Caucus (formed to combat China’s military “aggression”) and Buck McKeon's Unmanned Systems Caucus (also known as the "Drone Caucus," which touts increased utilization of weaponized drones and funnels cash from drone manufacturers into the campaign coffers of the members).

When the fiscal year 2015 budget proposal was announced this year, Hanabusa’s immediate reaction was to attack the Obama Administration for not proposing enough military spending. She’s apparently banking on the view that voters in Hawaii-– where the military is the second-biggest economic driver, trailing only tourism-– will reward her for her lavish Pentagon spending.

She must have missed the 2006 and 2012 Senate primaries in Hawaii; Blue Dog Ed Case ran both times on a hawkish platform (calling his respective opponents, Dan Akaka and Mazie Hirono, "extremist" for their pro-peace views) and was trounced both times. Hawaii’s multicultural populace-– which includes many with family members who have suffered in numerous ways in various American wars-– doesn’t worship at the Pentagon altar. Akaka and Hirono recognized this. Akaka brought Dennis Kucinich to Hawaii to campaign for him in ’06, while Hirono in ’12 touted endorsements from peace organizations like the Council for a Livable World (which has also endorsed Schatz). Indeed, many Hawaii residents are seeking ways to decrease dependence on military spending (including Schatz, who’s touting clean energy as the key to the state’s economic future).

Hanabusa’s congressional tenure has also been noteworthy for her frequent, outspoken opposition to Environmental Protection Agency efforts.

She told the Civil Beat website the proudest moment of her first term was joining with Republicans to oppose an EPA clean-air rule. She claimed she had to oppose the rule because its enactment would mean the closing of a coal-fueled sugar mill in Hawaii. The Senate blocked the legislation, the EPA rule went into effect-– and years later the sugar mill is still going strong. (So much for her analysis.)

In the current term, she went after a proposed EPA rule to update underground storage tank regulations via a letter, dated June 28, 2013, on behalf of the petroleum industry. She criticized the EPA for not accepting "industry’s cost estimates." Several of her House colleagues followed shortly thereafter with their own letter raising the same concerns. The letter was mostly signed by extremist Republicans such as Virginia Foxx and Jason Chaffetz, with corrupt Blue Dog Democrats Jim Matheson and John Barrow joining Hanabusa in the effort to give it a "bipartisan" flavor. Industry obviously raised its concerns with Representatives perceived as friendly; no one acted more swiftly and decisively than Hanabusa.

While most mainstream Democrats, including Senators Hirono and Schatz, reacted with gratification and optimism after Obama’s historic announcement on EPA greenhouse-gas regulation earlier this month, Hanabusa was dismissive. She claimed she’d already promoted similar initiatives with former Hawaii Republican Governor Linda Lingle, in what she described as, of course, "a good example of bipartisan cooperation." (Most environmentalists in Hawaii remember the Hanabusa-Lingle partnership more for the Hawaii Superferry disaster or their agreement to limit taxes on oil imports.)

Walk-in voting in the Hawaii primary starts next month.

You know what to do to help Schatz get out the vote and convert his polling lead to an actual victory.