John Carroll
First, it was Alaska Republican Congressman Don Young, who’s been in the US House of Representatives as long as I’ve been alive. He endorsed 2nd District Congress Member Mazie Hirono during the primary race to see which Democrat would face off against Republican Linda Lingle (who, though facing four other challengers, was widely seen to have the race locked up.
Young and Hirono cut a cute ad together, and it mostly just slashed to pieces fellow Democratic Senate candidate Ed Case’s contention that Hirono was too lefty to be effective in the Senate. Case’s operative Caleb Rowe argued that Young’s endorsement was most likely just for the primary and had nothing to do with the general election, which, while possibly true, did nothing to diminish the power of watching Republican and Democratic members of the House sit together and praise each other.
Anyway, Hirono ended up cleaning Case’s clock and is now squared off against Lingle, who won her party’s nomination with 90 percent of the vote. Usually what happens in matters as this is that the respective parties hold “unity” meals after the results come in, and all the candidates kiss and make up. That apparently didn’t happen in the Hawaii Republican Party, because today, John Carroll, who ran against Lingle for the nomination, endorsed Hirono.
Here’s Carroll–who is extremely conservative, mind you–quoted in a press release from his campaign that was forwarded to me by one of Hirono’s campaign aides:
“I believe that Ms. Lingle is a clear and present danger to the economic and political health of this beloved State of Hawaii. Given her record as Hawaii’s Republican Party Chair from 1999-2002, she only helped to elect one Republican State Senator out of 25 and eight Republican State Representatives out of 51, which is simply abysmal. Her accomplishments and failures as Governor are equally depressing.”
Damn! Of course, Carroll’s endorsement really doesn’t bring much more than novelty, since he only won 2,900 votes in the primary contest (Lingle, by contrast, won over 44,000).
Photo courtesy of Carroll4senate.wordpress.com
Tags: Don Young, hawaii, John Carroll, linda lingle, Mazie Hirono, senate
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