Musings: Sounds Like Politics

A sheet of gray blowing southwest offered a warning that rain was on its way, but by then, Koko and I were already on our way, headed mauka, where the clouds were darker still. Before I saw it or felt it, I heard it — that distinctive low rumbling of an approaching shower. But it was spring-like in its gentleness, dampening, but not drenching, and it accompanied us home as a red and gold glow filled a gap in the eastern sky.

There’s a notable gap in the list of three Democratic candidates sent to Gov. Abercrombie, who will choose one to fill the House seat vacated by Mina Morita when she became chair of the state Public Utilities Commission.

Yes, the name of Joel Guy — Mina’s former legislative aide and her personal top choice for the job — is glaringly absent.

Surely, Susan Wilson, Jay Furfaro and the other members of the committee knew that Mina wanted Joel to carry on her work. Surely they knew that Joel is a mirror-like reflection of Mina’s values and vision. Surely they knew she would have wanted Joel to at least be in the running.

Instead, they nominated Derek Kawakami. No surprise there. That was a given.

And Neil Clendennin, a North Shore physician who advises drug companies and proved his political hardiness by heading up JoAnn Yukimura’s last Council campaign. OK, fair enough.

And Foster Ducker.

“Who’s that?” I asked the person who told me the news. “What, are they just trying to make it easy for the governor to pick Derek?”

Not only is Foster Ducker a political unknown, he’s a Realtor with North Shore vacation rentals.

But far more troubling is the fact that Foster served on the committee that interviewed the candidates, which means he had unlimited time to promote himself to the other reviewers, while being privy to his competitors resumes and answers. Seems like all that gives him more than a leg up.

What’s more, he was also allowed to vote.

“Doesn’t that seem unethical, or at least questionable?” I asked my neighbor Andy when I encountered him on my walk this morning.

“It sounds like politics,” Andy said. “But it’s not the kind of politics we like to think of as being associated with the Democratic Party. We like to think that’s the sort of thing the other party does.”

Speaking of politics, I’m going to continue shamelessly promoting my new site, PIKO. In my first post, I illustrate how one clever developer — and unfortunately, he’s not the only one — transformed a simple beach cottage into a palatial mini resort under a building permit issued for “unsubstantial improvements.” And why? So he could skirt the requirements for elevating a structure in the flood zone, potentially putting the vacation rental guests at risk.

I’ll be getting into that issue, with its quirky twists, sobering ramifications and questions about why the county allowed it, in subsequent posts.

As one commenter astutely noted:

Corruption or incompetence, you decide.