By Richard Borreca The Republicans are channeling Teddy Roosevelt and the Democrats are high on Gordon Gekko.
By Richard Borreca In his prime, Roberto Duran was quite the fighter, winning fights in five separate decades. But for all his fame, he is remembered for saying “No mas” (no more) as he sat down and quit a title fight after being pummeled by Sugar Ray Leonard.
By Richard Borreca Let us celebrate May by worrying about the calendar. In many ways this election year will be a peculiar one, because it will be driven by a new calendar.
By Richard Borreca On one side there is Kirk Caldwell, collecting union endorsements like they were baseball cards.
By Richard Borreca It was like old times, but no old times you have seen with any former Hawaii governor.
By Richard Borreca There it sits, a lone entry in the huge Washington, D. It is the only listing for Hawaii in the Citizens Against Government Waste annual "Pig Book."
By Richard Borreca If you don't ask, you never find out who are your friends. In order to find out whom to endorse, unions and other groups send out questionnaires, asking candidates to put on the record their views about their union and its issues.
By Richard Borreca If you were a white Republican looking for a district to win an election, the 25th Senate District in Windward Oahu would be a likely pick.
By Richard Borreca Sports news: Two University of Hawaii sand volleyball teams are going to the nationals in Gulf Shores, Ala.
By Richard Borreca In an act that supporters call "historic," Kakaako Makai now belongs to the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. The state gave OHA about 25 acres of contiguous parcels in Kakaako valued at about $200 million in partial payment for a long-standing debt.
By Richard Borreca How close are Hawaii's Democrats coming to a tipping point? Journalist and author Malcolm Gladwell, in his book of the same name, defines a "tipping point" as "the moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point."
By Richard Borreca It is about time to count the money and see how much we have left. No, not the family bank account that is already busted, but the state treasury. How is it doing?
By Richard Borreca Congratulations, Hawaii, we are Number Three. Unfortunately our ranking is as the third-meanest state in the nation in terms of taxing the poor.
By Richard Borreca A new round of national political polls shows a growing gender gap between Republican and Democratic candidates.
By Richard Borreca Honolulu's battle for rail is becoming the Afghanistan moment for local Democrats. The once politically popular incursion into Afghanistan is now a questionable invasion. The decade-long American war is seen as a bad decision.
By Richard Borreca The numbers are in. Hawaii, you look marvelous. You feel great, you are healthy, you are living right; you are a happy, happy camper. Two thumbs, way up.
By Richard Borreca It was about seven months ago that Gov. Neil Abercrombie alerted us to what he called “an undeniable storm gathering.”
By Richard Borreca It is spring, Easter is coming, but what we are really entering is the season of fine print. State taxes, federal taxes — they are all due next month.
By Richard Borreca After Gov. George Ariyoshi left office, I made a matrix of his State of the State speeches, searching for his common themes.
By Richard Borreca The first "all in" Democratic primary Senate candidate is former U.S. Rep. Ed Case, who formally filed papers Thursday to replace the retiring U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Akaka.
By Richard Borreca "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There's no use being a damn fool about it," advised W.C. Fields.
By Richard Borreca "I hope you're all Republicans," former President Ronald Reagan is reputed to have said to the doctors as he was wheeled into the operating room following a 1981 assassination attempt.
By Richard Borreca The people of Honolulu, former Gov. Ben Cayetano says, "don't like being conned." Claiming that the city has not explained either the true cost or real impact of its heavy-rail transit program, Cayetano is running for mayor to stop the program.
By Richard Borreca Gov. Neil Abercrombie is weaving his way through the entanglements of local Democratic party politics as he rallies Democratic troops against former GOP Gov. Linda Lingle's U.S. Senate bid.
By Richard Borreca More money. The state this year is taking in more money, wants more and has about 50 new ideas to get more. The election-year cliché of no new taxes is a promise the Legislature will keep, but it does not mean the state won't be doing some wallet-diving.
By Richard Borreca News this week is all about the weather and predicting how much more wet stuff we face. May I offer a political prediction for Aug. 11, 2012?
By Richard Borreca Legislative rhetoric always runs to the extreme, so in this election year almost every bill is either walking us off a cliff or preventing Armageddon.
By Richard Borreca The announced retirement of Maine's GOP Sen. Olympia Snowe will have repercussions all the way to Hawaii.
By Richard Borreca Four years ago it was Hawaii's time to shine. On February 2008, local Democrats trooped down to school cafeterias and gymnasiums to cast a record-setting 37,000 votes in the presidential caucus.
By Richard Borreca After winning his first election, one of the first things former Honolulu Mayor Frank Fasi put on his office wall was a framed quote, urging all to remember that "If you would make your city loved, you must first make her lovable.
By Richard Borreca This is how three governors handled the issue of the moment: same-sex marriage. Social and cultural commentators predict that by 2016, same-sex marriage will lose its white-hot intensity.
By Richard Borreca A frustrated legislator, veteran Democrat, last week confessed: "When we meet with the governor, we just never know which Neil Abercrombie will show up."
By Richard Borreca If we did not have Marion Higa, the state auditor, I don't know if we could invent someone with so much organized persistence. So let's just appreciate the work of the auditor and her staff.
By Richard Borreca As you might have noticed, we are all getting "a little fluffy." Or as our vet used to say about the family pooches: "They're not fat, they just have loose muscles."
By Richard Borreca Repeat after me: The only poll that matters is the one taken on Election Day. Now that the caution is out of the way, let's start rolling around in the numbers.
By Richard Borreca Honolulu's traffic problems are getting worse, but Honolulu residents remain deeply skeptical of the city's solution.
By Richard Borreca
Just chill.
This is going to be a contentious election year. Everyone is already picking sides on whether or not we like rail, Linda Lingle, the economy or the Republican Party.
By Richard Borreca It was former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo who advised, "You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose." In this campaign season we have not yet been visited by the bard.
By Richard Borreca Two years ago, Garner Shimizu ran and lost his race to be the new Republican representing the Moanalua Valley-Salt Lake state House district. Now Shimizu, 52, wants to run again, but he doesn't know where. Shimizu isn't lost -- he, like the rest of the state's possible political candidates, waits on the Reapportionment Commission and the courts to redraw the election maps.
By Richard Borreca Maybe we are reaching the tipping point. Can it be that state government, both legislative and executive, is coming down on the side of "less is more" in terms of regulation?
By Richard Borreca If Hawaii Democrats are already sweating this election year, they have good reason. Democrats are going to chew through some of their best and brightest before the August primary is done.
By Richard Borreca Here are three big things we have not done. First, we have not yet built the rail system. Almost every week, Mayor Peter Carlisle announces that we are "a-fixing" to build it, but so far, not yet.
By Richard Borreca
At any given moment and with little prompting, Gov. Neil Abercrombie can deliver an uninterruptable 15-minute riff on why our medical system is in a chaotic mess and why we need big changes to cure it.
By Richard Borreca Call this the forgotten speech: The State of the State speech that was left behind.
By Richard Borreca If Hawaii is ever to legalize gambling, there has to be a reason and need for it. Our legislators will never just say, "This sounds like fun, let's try it." Gaming would only come if it does something: pays teachers, builds hospitals, cuts your taxes -- something more than just making some people rich and some people presumably happy, but poorer.
By Richard Borreca Now in his seventh decade, Ben Cayetano remains Hawaii's most complicated political leader. Some may hear the beat of a different drummer, but, at times, Cayetano hears an entirely different orchestra.
By Richard Borreca Hawaii's top Democrat, Gov. Neil Abercrombie, is starting to assume his role as cheerleader-in-chief for the party faithful in this election year.
By Richard Borreca Finally, a race both interesting and important. As former Gov. Ben Cayetano edges toward his expected declaration, the Honolulu mayor's race is shaping up to be the locus of political interest.
By Richard Borreca Your state Legislature slips into town next Wednesday. It is expected to meet without the usual public spectacle of chow fun-gobbling lobbyists, well-rewarded influence brokers and T-shirt-wearing community activists all clogging the Capitol's interior lanais and hallways.
By Richard Borreca The Twitisphere is just irresistible for politicians. It was two years ago when then-U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie first alerted me to Twitter, the Internet-based messaging service that limits communications to burst of 140 characters.
By Richard Borreca There is nothing like losing $75 million to focus one's attention. Just last week, Star-Advertiser education reporter Mary Vorsino wrote how even after being warned by the feds to get moving, the state and the teachers union had still not brokered an agreement putting the state back on track.
By Richard Borreca Former Gov. Ben Cayetano ended his best-selling autobiography noting that he always made his decisions "without fear of the political consequences." The decade since Cayetano left office has not dulled his capacity to charge full bore into the political dilemma of the day.
By Richard Borreca After the departure of Rod Tam, a great pall settled over the Honolulu City Council.
By Richard Borreca It used to be the president announces he is going on vacation and that was that. The president goes on vacation to Texas or California and the issue is pau.
By Richard Borreca After months of being gnawed on by the budget bears, Gov. Neil Abercrombie finally had some good news last week when Standard & Poors gave him a thumbs up.
By Richard Borreca Democratic Gov. Neil Abercrombie is running for re-election. He has held two fundraisers, including a $2,000-per-ticket event last week. He is looking at a second term in 2014.
By Richard Borreca It is time to check in with former Gov. Linda Lingle and her campaign for the U.S. Senate seat from Hawaii. Lingle faces token primary opposition from former legislator John Carroll. She then is expected to battle the Democratic primary winner, either U.S. Rep. Mazie Hirono or former U.S. Rep. Ed Case, through August, September, October and into November of 2012.
By Richard Borreca The answer is 12.3. The question is, "What is the latest congressional job approval rating?"
By Richard Borreca If you think that was a lot of turkey to digest, just wait -- before we know it, the 2012 state Legislature will arrive. Next year will be the zombie session. No, I'm not making fun of the legislators -- it's all those bills that are coming back from the dead to haunt lawmakers.
By Richard Borreca If government does something big, moves mountains, changes the landscape, there is always a debate: Build it now, study it and then build it, or talk about it and don't build it.
By Richard Borreca After years of being something of a rag-doll toy for whatever political machine was in power, the Hawaii Judicial Selection Commission is showing both real independence and real smarts.
By Richard Borreca Gov. Neil Abercrombie must be giving thanks that people don't always listen to him.
By Richard Borreca The son of Korean immigrants, a West Point graduate who is now an accomplished businessman, David S. Chang, a bright and energetic 31-year old, is writing America's success story.
By Richard Borreca The good news is that over the weekend, the world's attention was not riveted on Hawaii.
By Richard Borreca It must feel good to be president of the United States and be in Honolulu. Welcome home, Mr. President -- we got your back. Hawaii still leads the nation in President Obama approval ratings.
By Richard Borreca When even your political foes say they will miss you, it says a lot.
By Richard Borreca It is the one symbol of Hawaii that hardly anyone in Honolulu knows.
By Richard Borreca It turns out that Gov. Neil Abercrombie's fate may just be "Outliers" in reverse. The brilliant Malcom Gladwell book, "Outliers: The Story of Success," explains how many of the outstanding, successful people became that way with a lot of help.
By Richard Borreca The projectors are warming up, the reels are threaded on the sprockets and we are almost ready to start screening our once-a-decade home movie: "Gambling in Hawaii."
By Richard Borreca With a knowing smile, Hawaii's Sen. Daniel K. Inouye leans back in his chair and says: "As has been said since the time of Adam, there are many different ways to skin a cat."
By Richard Borreca U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta is telling America's allies in Asia that we are watching China with an increasingly critical eye.
By Richard Borreca This is an ICYMI column. Actually, I'm not saying you missed, I missed it.
By Richard Borreca Gov. Neil Abercrombie told us that he was the governor and not your pal; last week we learned that most of us are not his pal either.
By Richard Borreca Much like the song's warning not to tug on Superman's cape or spit into the wind, there should be some simple warning for politicians who complain about ethics laws being too tough on them.
By Richard Borreca In political time, November 2012 is eons away. If you measured political time the way geologists do, then one year would make Mauna Kea just a glowing red spot on the Pacific Ocean’s floor.
By Richard Borreca Spending for political campaigns is expected to go up. Observers and good- government types usually decry this. At the same time, raising money for a political campaign has become a way to measure the success of a campaign.
By Richard Borreca When John A. Burns was governor, the door to his press secretary's office was always open and the political reporters would stop by once or twice a day. It was more a sign of a less-security-conscious time rather than the information flowing from the Governor's Office.
By Richard Borreca The woman was walking up the steps to the entrance to the Pacific Club when she spotted me. With a smile of recognition, she asked what I was doing there. I explained that I was waiting "for the governor to come and deliver a speech."
By Richard Borreca George Ariyoshi comes from a different time, and today he is probably moving a step ahead of all of us.
By Richard Borreca In politics, transformations and metamorphoses will carry you only so far. Eventually you either stand and deliver or leave.
By Richard Borreca Gov. Neil Abercrombie is telling lawmakers he is willing to consider gambling next year. At the same time, he is again considering a state income tax on pensions and taxing soft drinks with sugar.
By Richard Borreca Somewhere hidden in the oath of office for Honolulu mayor is this line: "I solemnly swear to postpone, prevaricate and generally diddle around with the Waikiki Natatorium until my term of office ends."
By Richard Borreca Seriously? That's all we have — two and a half interesting races for 2012? What happened to the race for mayor of Honolulu? Why isn't that an office worth fighting over?
By Richard Borreca It has been less than two weeks since the repeal of the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, officially freeing gays to serve openly in its ranks.
By Richard Borreca With something approaching the glide ratio of that six-ton, big-as-a-bus satellite falling back to Earth last week, the global economy looks grim.
By Richard Borreca One of the reasons for the Hawaii Democratic Party's continued success is its ability to vigorously debate, scheme and fight amongst its own members.
By Richard Borreca Ask any five Hawaii Democrats to describe Neil Abercrombie's politics and I am willing to bet all five will say "Neil is a liberal." Then ask any five Hawaii Republicans to describe "a liberal" and three will say "Liberals want to pass more laws."
By Richard Borreca That great alliance between Gov. Neil Abercrombie and organized labor is just not happening. Instead of growing closer, the gap between Abercrombie and the state's public employee unions appears to be widening.
By Richard Borreca Every day appears to be another good day for Republicans as they prepare for the decisive 2012 elections.
By Richard Borreca We live in a time of emergencies. You can pull the emergency brake on your car, you may need an emergency bathroom break, your pilot can announce an in-flight emergency, or your governor can very, very quietly declare a state of emergency.
By Richard Borreca Just like the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson doesn’t just “drop by,” Hawaii’s senior U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye doesn’t just decide to poke his head into fundraisers for Hawaii politicians.
By Richard Borreca Like most people in Hawaii, former Gov. Ben Cayetano was alerted to the horrific World Trade Center attacks in New York City with a phone call.
By Richard Borreca We have reached an important milestone in Hawaii economic history. Much like the perpetual motion machine, cold fusion and turning lead into gold, we have apparently discovered economic alchemy.
By Richard Borreca Back in the days when Neil Abercrombie was eating humble pie on the City Council and plotting a return to Washington, he used to say his favorite movie quote was delivered by Burt Lancaster in the movie "Atlantic City.
By Richard Borreca As much as this will sound like heresy to his supporters and blasphemy to his detractors, Gov. Neil Abercrombie wants to run state government like a business.
By Richard Borreca Hawaii’s political glass ceiling is set so low it shatters at the slightest vibration.
The thing is, hardly anything ever vibrates.
By Richard Borreca How precisely does Ed Case win the Senate? What does Linda Lingle do to win? And what is the formula Mazie Hirono must employ to win next year?
By Richard Borreca State Sen. Clayton Hee walks like he wishes he were on a horse. Just bowlegged enough to let you know he's not going to his first rodeo.
By Richard Borreca With just about a week to go before Labor Day, Hawaii's major public worker unions have tied themselves into an amazingly dangerous knot.
By Richard Borreca The 2011 state Land and Natural Resources calendar on Gov. Neil Abercrombie's desk is something of a talisman.