A November ‘beyond a lot of our imaginations’

The election hogged the headlines as we “flASHback” on November’s news that amused and confused:

>> Mayor Kirk Caldwell defeated Charles Djou for reelection and said rail is his top priority because it’s “not just for today but for 100 years from now.” Well, we’ll be paying for it that long, anyhow.

>> Caldwell couldn’t contain himself in victory, telling supporters, “I feel the love, I feel the happiness, I feel the joy.” Blissful is the man who gets to keep his $164,929-a-year city job AND his $200,000+ bank job.

>> Hawaii’s state Senate became the nation’s only one-party state legislative body after Democrat Stanley Chang defeated lone GOP Sen. Sam Slom. Our Legislature has so many little blue look-alikes that it gets mistaken for Smurf Village.

>> Chang had three times more campaign money than Slom, with organized labor alone giving him more than $50,000. What a relief it’ll be for the unions when votes in their favor are 25-0 instead of 24-1.

>> Democrat Colleen Hanabusa won two elections to the U.S. House, to fill the remainder of the late Rep. Mark Takai’s term and a full term of her own. With the Republican sweep in Washington, she’s wishing there were a third election — a recall.

>> Hawaii leaders are worried about the impact of a Donald Trump presidency on rail, the environment and medical marijuana. We’re such small thinkers; the rest of the world is worried about nuclear annihilation.

>> Rumored to be up for a job in the new administration, Hawaii U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard was the first Democrat invited to meet with Trump. It was like Dorothy meeting who my friend Les Peetz calls the Lizard of Id.

>> Gabbard said she and the president-elect discussed Syria and the Middle East. After days of meeting experts, Trump was relieved to talk to somebody who shared his remedial understanding of foreign policy.

>> In non-election news, Gov. David Ige promised relief from stifling heat in 1,000 public school classrooms this year, but only 42 have air conditioning so far. As the kids would say, how uncool of him.

>> Baird Fleming resigned as Honolulu Zoo director, leaving the city looking for its sixth director in seven years. The zoo can handle Rusti the orangutan, but not his competition from Honolulu Hale.

>> In a three-day span, the city had sewage spills totaling 8,000 gallons at Mayor Wright Homes, in Wahiawa and downtown. With Oahu’s ban on fireworks, Caldwell had to find another way to celebrate his reelection.

And the quote of the month … from U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz on Trump’s victory: “It’s fair to say that what happened tonight is kind of beyond a lot of our imaginations.” If Democrats had recognized their lack of imagination sooner, they might have won.