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."

Thinking I am talking about Gov. Neil Abercrombie, the smile vanished, replaced with a tense grimace.

"Gov. Lingle is announcing her campaign for the U.S. Senate," I said.

Smile returned, and she beamed: "Wish her good luck."

The Pacific Club may not be where you go to find Democrats swooning over Abercrombie, but the reaction tells you all you need to know about what Abercrombie adds to the state Democratic ticket in 2012.

Former Gov. Linda Lingle’s return to the campaign trail was a textbook example of how a major campaign rolls out a kick-off.

Previously, Lingle has been much criticized for overly orchestrated and scripted media performances. This week it was pitch perfect.

In a matter of hours this week, Lingle softly blanketed the state with her announcement.

Political reporters got a nudge last week to wake up and charge their cell phones this week; Monday evening there was a "stay tuned" message; Tuesday morning a phone call from former communications czar Lenny Klompus; then the announcement on the "Perry & Price" radio show, followed by interviews and the Pacific Club speech.

Equally important but much less covered was a semi-quiet fundraiser Tuesday evening at the Kahala Hotel with about 200 guests and many more sending money. GOP sources pegged the take at $400,000 netted on the first night of the Lingle campaign.

Compared to the circular firing squad operating in Abercrombie’s state Capitol, the Lingle campaign rollout was a model of glitch-free execution.

In her opening speech, Lingle almost made her candidacy sound like Hawaii’s senior U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye was asking her to run as a Republican.

She argued that with a GOP takeover of Congress likely, Inouye would need help across the aisle, just like when the GOP controlled the Senate and Democrat Inouye relied on the late GOP Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska. They were a team and Lingle envisions an Inouye-Lingle team working in bipartisan splendor to help Hawaii.

Lingle’s vision may be Inouye’s nightmare, but there is nothing as successful as the audacious argument advanced softly, minus the bellicose tub-thumping.

The Lingle campaign will continue to invite comparisons with the Abercrombie administration and Democrats on the Capitol’s fifth floor will have to wonder if the public will see them as an improvement.

While fighting for the office, Abercrombie was almost biblical in his denouncement of the Lingle years in office. When he first mulled a run for governor, Abercrombie charged that Lingle was taking us in a "direction to lose our soul."

After 10 months in office, countless flubs, needless fights, a series of historic tax increases and a troubling list of departing state executives, Abercrombie may not be the manager to campaign against Lingle.

Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Reach him at rborreca@staradvertiser.com.