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.
Normally, the news would be if a sitting governor announced that he or she were not running for re-election, but for Abercrombie the reverse is true.
In a recent interview to discuss his first year in office, the veteran politician leaned heavily on the football analogies.
He talked about this year being the "first quarter and next year (2012 elections) will be time for the half-time review," he said.
"And you have been flushed out of the pocket on more than one occasion," I suggested.
After 40 years in elected office, Abercrombie has gone through a rough first year as governor. Successful terms in the state House, state Senate, City Council and Congress apparently didn’t smooth out all the edges. Nothing speaks louder than his 30 percent favorable job performance rating, lowest in the nation at the time of the October poll.
I asked Abercrombie about one of his political missteps: wandering off into the weeds in the middle of a news conference on early childhood education, to attack the state money spent on luring the Pro Bowl to Hawaii.
"It was a source of great regret … I made a comparison and I wish I hadn’t made the comparison, not because I don’t think that it is a real issue — what do you spend your money on, especially in tough times?
"An entertainment venue or small children? It seems to be the children have a claim ahead of everything else, certainly ahead of entertainment," Abercrombie said, adding that the ensuing uproar overshadowed his concern for preschool education.
As for the Pro Bowl, which is scheduled to leave Hawaii and perhaps never return, Abercrombie’s reaction was the political version of "Meh," indifference or a shoulder shrug.
"The Pro Bowl is a backburner issue for me. It has less to do with us than the desires of the National Football League; when the time comes we will deal with it, I am sure," Abercrombie stated.
The governor stressed that he has his priorities straight and as voters realize that, everything else will fall into place. Re-election in 2014, Abercrombie said, is the "continuation of my New Day Plan."
He is most proud of the state’s successful floating of nearly $1.3 billion in new bonds.
"As this new fiscal day unfolds and (with) the solid game plans we have been following, we will do even better," Abercrombie said.
When asked about being on the lowest rung of the national gubernatorial job approval ladder, Abercrombie admitted he doesn’t like it, but said it is because he’s been making the tough decisions. Then he shared the Abercrombie political maxim.
"People may not agree with me on every issue, but they know I am straight with them, I tell them what I am going to do, how I am going to do it and why I am going to do it, and then I carry through on it," Abercrombie said of himself.
Here’s the second part of Abercrombie’s theory of macho politics.
"Who knows, a day may come when you want me to be on your side. I may not be on your side today, or with you today, but if I agree with you and even if you are the only one on that issue, you don’t have to look twice to see whether I am there," Abercrombie said.
It worked for Clint Eastwood.
Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Reach him at rborreca@staradvertiser.com.
