Today, neither has delivered on that promise, because both would rather be liked by Democrat politicians at state cocktail parties than force real change. Arnie tried a series of half-ass "reforms" that didn't have a prayer of passing, including some really off the wall stuff, and so did Lingle (perhaps the silliest proposal being her plan to ship all criminals across the pacific ocean to prisons on the mainland in order to deal with the prison overcrowding issue on Hawaii without having to build new prisons). The "Republican Main Street Partnership" -- the premier RINO breeding ground in the U.S. -- has only two Governors who are card carrying members. Guess who? Yep, Arnie and Linda. Not even that annoying Conn. RINO is a member.
The hopes that Arnie and Linda had of campaigning across the state with like-minded "moderates" who would get elected on their celebrity coattails didn't work, because voters choose the real Democrat when their choices were Dem and Dem lite. So in both Hawaii and California, the situation is Dems control the legislature by lopsided margins for the foreseeable future, and every statewide office except the Governorship. As usual, RINOs deliver for no one but the left.
There are some differnces of course -- Arnie is a numbskull and Lingle is a bright speaker, Arnie is a showman and Lingle is an actual politican -- and of course Arnie PLAYS a tough and "manly" act, where Lingle has Charlie Crist syndrome (constantly being the subject of whisper campaign in her own party that she's a closet homosexual), but what it all boils down to at the end of the day is they are both ineffective RINOs.
The sole bright spot Hawaii might have is the Lt. Governor, James Aiona, had a reputation as a very conservative law and order judge and won the Lt. Governor GOP primary without the support of Lingle's faction of the party, but was elected to the office in November on her coattails. As a pacific islander, the average Hawaiian can identify with him more, and perhaps he can do a better job selling the GOP brand than the RINO Lingle. If Lingle is not term limited and doesn't retire in 2010, Aiona needs to step up to the plate and get the Governor's office from her.
I’m afraid that was some of my worries with Lingle (and now trying to ascertain what her game is with the alleged birth certificate). BTW, Aiona wasn’t elected “on her coattails”, the Lt Governor is elected as a package deal. At least the nice thing is that the Governor gets to appoint the other statewide officeholders. Although not my favorite, I’d let her take a shot at running for the Senate in ‘10, she might even win (although Bill Quinn tried it when Hiram Fong stepped down in ‘76, which I wish he hadn’t, since he could’ve conceivably lasted into this decade as the Chinese-American version of Strom. However, Quinn had lost reelection as Governor in ‘62 and had been out of office 14 years, and in ‘10, she can run straight from the Governorship. I see HI now has term limits of 2, since I recall some of the Governors served 12-year stretches).
Of course, one difference between the former HI Lt Gov vs. California’s is that Mazie Hirono wasn’t that unpopular, and she managed a comeback to Congress. Bustamante became literally toxic, and the only reason we won the State Insurance Commissioner’s office is because that happened to be the office he decided to run for in ‘06. Had he been eligible to run for a 3rd term as Leo McCarthy did, there’s a pretty good chance McClintock might’ve been able to beat him outright. Too bad he couldn’t. But, our gain in Congress now. Maybe we can dump Boehner for Tom sometime in the next session.
Aiona is already running it seems. Good news if he’s more conservative than Lingle.
Hopefully Hawaii won’t return to total union fiefdom status.
The first 2 rat governors did serve 12 years each.
“The “Republican Main Street Partnership” — the premier RINO breeding ground in the U.S. — has only two Governors who are card carrying members. Guess who? Yep, Arnie and Linda. Not even that annoying Conn. RINO is a member.”
Odd. She’s at least worse than Lingle.