10 Must Read Stories From The Week Of Oct. 22 – 26
The Honolulu mayor’s race is proving to be the hottest of the 2012 election season and this past week saw the three major players fighting for political dominance.
That’s right — three. Former Gov. Ben Cayetano and former city managing director Kirk Caldwell are the two names on the ballot. But the Pacific Resource Partnership, a carpenters union trade group, might as well be the third contender in the race. In fact, it looks like PRP will have spent more money trying to defeat Cayetano and elect Caldwell than both of the two candidates put together by the time the election’s over.
PRP wants to make sure rail stays on track. At $5.26 billion, the Honolulu rail project is the biggest construction project to hit this city, meaning lots of jobs for carpenters and other trades.
Cayetano wants to kill rail, and a majority of voters agree with him, polls are showing.
So it’s no wonder that, with so much at stake, the three are stepping up their political games two weeks before the election. Cayetano filed a slander and libel lawsuit against PRP and its contributors. PRP responded with a new round of ads attacking Cayetano. Caldwell said he was just trying to stay positive.
What voters think of all this remains to be seen. Watch for new independent polls to be released soon that should give some clues as to where voters are putting their trust. The Hawaii Poll (commissioned by the Honolulu Star-Advertiser and Hawaii News Now) should be on the front page of the daily paper on Sunday morning and we anticipate publishing a series of Civil Beat polls early next week.
If you need to get caught up, here are 10 stories that will help:
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Keep the City City — Honolulu Mayoral Candidates Talk Vision
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Tom Berg vs. Kymberly Pine: A Honolulu Council Match Gone Sour
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Candidates for Honolulu Prosecutor Attack Each Other’s Motives
