The Honolulu Congressional District Is One Of America's Bluest-- But The Establishment Is Trying To Sneak An "Ex"-Republican Into The Seat

There's only one real Democrat running for the open seat in Honolulu

Sunday I sent Marianne Williamson, an old friend, a note introducing her to Hawaii state Rep. Kaniela Ing. I'm guessing most people on Maui think of him as the guy who writes legislation that's a step or three ahead of where the rest of the state-- and country-- are. He's working on things like tuition-free education, guaranteed minimum income (advocated in the past by Abu Bakr, Thomas Paine and Napoleon and, more recently, by Friedrich Hayek, Richard Nixon, John Kenneth Galbraith and Daniel Patrick Moynihan), 100% renewable energy (by 2035), scrapping the cap on Social Security and, of course, impeaching Trump. But when I introduced him to Marianne, what I brought up was his commitment to mandatory labeling of genetically engineered food, pesticide disclosure and bufferzones, common-sense regulation of harmful chemicals like Glysophate and regenerative, o‍‍‍rganic agriculture.‍‍‍ In Maui, Kaniela led the citizens' initiative campaign against Monsanto and won-- the first time a citizens initiative campaign won in the state's history.

Marianne has been traveling around the country introducing progressive congressional candidates like Jenny Marshall in North Carolina to her own supporters. I'm hoping she'll include Honolulu on her list of events. Kaniela, the most progressive Democrat in Hawaii's legislature is running for Congress. But what's really strange is that his 3 opponents in the Democratic primary are conservative Republicans pretending to be Democrats. You think I'm kidding? Let's start with the only other declared candidate, EMILY's List Special, Donna Kim, an anti-LGBQ fanatic. A few years ago when EMILY's List failed to foist Kim on Hawaiian voters I wrote that "Many elderly ladies who remember when EMILY's List was founded by Ellen Malcolm 30 years ago don't realize EMILY's List has swung from being a basically progressive organization to being one of the most conservative and untrustworthy elements in the Democratic coalition. 'We don't care about anything except electing pro-choice women to office,' they use as their excuse for backing absolutely horrible conservatives most of the time-- even when their conservative candidate, like Kim, isn't even really pro-Choice. It's identity politics at its ugliest. EMILY's List is backing Kim because Kim is a woman. Other candidates in the race are much more pro-choice than Kim but… well, that's EMILY's List 2014. Maybe EMILY's List should have consulted with the Patsy T. Mink PAC, which is Hawaii's progressive version of EMILY's List. They have never once endorsed the conservative Donna Kim in her 30 years of politics. There's a reason for that.

For one thing, Kim regularly campaigns at vehemently anti-Choice fundamentalist churches, and even partners with them in her official capacity. It hasn't been clear Kim is even pro-contraception. In 2012, when seeking the endorsement of the anti-choice Hawaii Family Forum, she described herself as undecided on whether rape victims should be entitled to emergency contraception. She very pointedly hasn’t commented on the Hobby Lobby decision.

EMILY's List head Schriock, who apparently knows as little about Hawaii politics as her organization knew about Memphis when they waded into an anti-semitic campaign there with their bulging wallets wide open, also described Kim as "pro-labor" and "pro-education," which was equally surprising to anyone watching this race for an open seat in Hawaii's First Congressional District. Kim is well known for railing against public-employee unions and what she regards as excess in social services and public education. In fact, that's probably what she's most known for (well, in addition to corruption, always a big turn-on for EMILY's List). Opposition to public investment is certainly what she wants to be known for, as she brings it up at every opportunity. It’s why she’s called “outspoken."

She regularly appears on right-wing media to argue for cuts in government programs with the type of impassioned outrage that would make a Tea Partier blush. As we once reported, when she appeared on the local Christian Coalition's TV show (as a "very, very special guest"), she exclaimed to the enraptured host that educators “getting paid huge dollars!” She complains to birther-friendly bloggers that educators’ salaries are “bloated.” Her campaign website notes that Kim supports a balanced-budget amendment, which of course would be ruinous.

On its website, the Christian Coalition describes Kim as "fantastic." She is the always that organization's favorite, as she's regarded as the only reliable anti-LGBT candidate of any party. So Hawaii is seeing a partnership of EMILY's List and the Christian Right for the first time. Donna Kim is the Nikki Tinker of the Pacific, the face of EMILY's List's downward trajectory. Kim’s unwavering loyalty to corporate interests and the Religious Right have helped turn her into a prodigious fundraiser. While the media can be expected to focus on the horse race and always lauds Kim for her prowess at generating campaign cash, her right-leaning record usually goes unexamined. She has always favored business over labor and consumers:

"My first priority to help businesses will be to work with the business community for their suggestions on ways that we can eliminate unnecessary regulations and requirements that make it difficult to run a business. On a long-term note, I will make a comprehensive review of existing laws, compare them with other more business-friendly states and come up with a comprehensive package to make Hawaii attractive to national and international businesses."

She has a well-earned reputation for trying to humiliate public employees and fight public projects during legislative hearings. Her incessant attacks on the public sector, which often include allegations of unethical conduct, have been praised in conservative media outlets. (Meanwhile, Kim occasionally gets called out on her own ethics.) And while long a foe of environmentalists (dating back to her days as a pro-development Honolulu City Councilmember), Kim has been lauded by the Hawaii Christian Coalition (for introducing a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage) and New Hope Honolulu (a Christian fundamentalist church where she’s been received as a VIP attendee).

OK, two more arch-conservatives are running against Kaniela as well. Remember Beth Fukumoto? Earlier this year Republicans in the state House fired her as GOP minority leader after she criticized Trump. As far back as 2013, national media was lauding her as one of the new breed of conservative Republican women remaking the right. She was lumped in-- rightfully-- with hardcore Republican politicians like drunken New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez (NM), Scott Walker's extremist Lt. Governor Rebecca Kleefisch, corrupt Trumpist Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, Alabama Congresswoman and current Roy Moore supporter Martha Roby, Utah rightist Mia Love and Nicole Malliotakis, the female Michael Grimm, a corrupt Staten Island wing nut who went with Grimm to Cyprus to visit a Putin-owned bank. Of Fukumoto they wrote that after she had been in office for just a year she was "selected by the RNC in Washington to showcase its Women on the Right Unite program to elect more conservative women to office."

After she was dumped for calling Trump a bully, she didn't change her bigoted right wing positions on issues-- she's anti-Choice, an incredibly homophobic asshole and has always opposed all legislation meant to give Hawaii's working families a break. She just changed the "R" next to her name to a "D." That's pure opportunism, not a Saul on the Road to Damascus conversion. Instead, she told HKON2 that "If you followed what happened at the state convention, I got booed for about 10 minutes straight for raising concerns about President Trump... [T]here have been many calls for my resignation, and my caucus members have raised concerns about whether or not that means I’m a Republican, whether or not that means I’m fit for leadership, whether or not that means I should even be an elected official. My caucus has asked me to stop speaking out about Trump and to make a commitment. They’ve said they’ll keep me as minority leader if I make a commitment not to speak out against Trump for the remainder of his term." Although Fukumoto backs every single reactionary Republican policy she couldn't make a deal and the other 5 GOP legislators in the state House fired her as Minority Leader.

Democrats let her join their party, even though she hasn't indicated she would ever vote with Democrats. Example: when the House voted to require gun owners to register in a database, she supported her NRA allies and voted NO. Similarly, when the Dems voted to end the sale of tobacco products to people under the age of 21, she was one of 7 votes in opposition. And, of course, when the House passed a bill legalizing same sex marriage, she voted against it-- and lead the opposition against it (as did Donna Kim, who had also voted against Civil Unions twice in 2011 and once in 2010).

Meanwhile, Hawaii's Democratic political establishment-- basically the folks who pushed Clinton during the primary and were rebuffed by Hawaii's voters 70-30%-- want to see Attorney General Doug Chin win the seat. Before being appointed AG, he was a sleazy Republican lobbyist. The party feels it has an anti-Trump candidate and they hope they can confuse voters into thinking anti-Trump= progressive. It doesn't. Chin challenged the Trump travel ban-- he was chosen to do it by the Association of Democratic Attorneys General because the Muslim ban isn't a big issue in Hawaii-- and got tons of press for it. Chin has never run for office before. A not very sterling former lobbyist, if he runs, you can count on lots of heretofore hidden baggage emerging. He was a lobbyist for Wasserman Schultz's favorite private prison racket, Corrections Corporation of America and he worked under Honolulu's throw-away-the-key Republican Mayor Peter Carlisle for years as deputy prosecutor, where he opposed criminal justice reform and added to Hawaii's overcrowded prisons, eventually authorizing a deal to send Hawaii prisoners to a Corrections Corporation of America prison in Arizona. Cozy! As a corporate lawyer for Carlsmith Ball, Chin worked for Wall Street banksters against the legitimate interests of Hawaii's working families, reason enough to oppose his attempt to get into Congress.

In September Karen from Maui wrote at Daily Kos that Chin has "been defending business interests who have violated the law and quite rightly the courts have smacked him down. Don't let his one good act (suing over the Muslim Ban) mislead you into thinking he is not the ultimate corporate tool. He is no progressive. Not even close." While other states and cities have stood up to ICE, Chin has been more than compliant. in fact, under Chin Hawaii's per capita deportation rate has been the highest in the nation. Meanwhile, he has a well-earned reputation for approving lots and lots of pay-to play sweetheart deals with millionaire developers and contractors. Chin isn't a progressive, just an anti-Trump Democrat, with more in common with Fukumoto than with an actual Democrat. And, yes, he's a crazy anti-LGBT nutcase too, a gay-hating pastor of a gay-hating church. The church supports ignorant homophobic conversion therapy. And Doug Chin wasn't just attending this anti-gay, anti-marriage equality, conservative, "cult-like" church-- he was the preacher who helped build it, and led his congregation to oppose gay-rights and support gay-conversion therapy for over 20 years. And he's still there! This resistance stuff is opportunistic and inauthentic. If Hawaii was a red state, he'd be running as a Republican.

2 anti-progressive crackpot gay-haters, Chin and Kim