Playing politics with Mink

Honolulu Advertiser ^ | 10/1/02 | Lee Cataluna

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

It's a delicate subject, to say the least. But the ones handling it most indelicately are the ones who are crying foul the loudest.

Hawai'i Democratic party leaders have reacted with shock and indignation at questions that suggest political maneuvering played a part in the timing of the announcement of Patsy Mink's death.

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

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[dfwgator]

Coming to a theater near you, "Weekend at Patsy's."

[2banana]

Patsy Mink was, by all accounts, a person of principle who had little tolerance for game-playing within her party. Patsy Mink was a straight-shooter. She was an independent thinker. It's hard to imagine that she would approve of the Democrats' handling and mishandling of information about her ability to serve in the hopes of controlling an election. Instead of worrying so much about holding on to Patsy Mink's seat in Congress, Democrats should try harder to hold on to Patsy Mink's values.

She was a marxist/socialist - nuff said

[The Electrician]

She was an independent thinker.

I'm having trouble reconciling that with the fact that she seemingly was a lifelong Democrat.

[headsonpikes]

It's hard to imagine that an appeal to common decency would work on the Democrats.

[Troy J Mathews]

Due to the nature of the district, deceased Rep. Mink could win the election, then what happens?

[rmmcdaniell]

Why don't we see the RATS demanding the deadline laws be broken so that they can run another candidate? You won't see it because that would upset democratic hopes of capitalizing on the sympathy vote.

[Restorer]

Why not? A dead man was elected to the Senate from MO in 2000.

[alloysteel]

This is like giving the Democrats the right to draft a player to fill the position, to be named later. (Generic Democrat) wins the vote, substitute at any time as needed. There is no problem with any unreliable "independent thought" creeping into the equation, because the moment that situation arises, the maverick is reined in, and sent packing, while the surrogate takes over and performs the necessary vote padding, depending on the margin required.

[Cobra Scott]

Due to the nature of the district, deceased Rep. Mink could win the election, then what happens?

Then her wife is appointed in her place, of course.

[caisson71]

A special election is already being scheduled to elect a replacement for the rest of Mink's term, with the assumption that she will win the General election on Nov 5th. In addition, another "special election" is also being scheduled, in December, to elect a new Representative. The DemocRATS, led by Senator Inouye, have all this mapped out. They have asked the "people" to vote for Mink on Nov 5 in "sympathy" for her - and the race, class driven voters will likely vote for this dead person. The odd thing about this is that there was no word about her condition while she was in the hospital during the primary election, except for the mouthpieces of the Democratic party. The Democrats announced she was dead, coincidentally, two days after the time limit to declare her ineligible. My contention is that she was already clinically dead and kept on life support in order for the Democrats to pull this off in time to keep conrtol of the situation and devise a plan to retain control.

[etcetera]

"Due to the nature of the district, deceased Rep. Mink could win the election, then what happen?"

The plan is to have possibly 2 special elections. The first on Nov. 30 to see who fills the remainder of Mrs. Mink's current term.

If Mrs. Mink is the re-elected in the general election early this Nov., there will be another special election on Jan. 4, 2003 to see who replaces her for that 2-year term.

Each special election is estimated to cost the taxpayers $2 million.

[GnuHere]

http://www.strangecosmos.com/view.asp?PicID=255

[RippleFire]

BUMP

[Liberals are Evil Socialists!]

Special elections. First one to fill the final weeks of her term that would occur at end of November. The second special election to replace her if she wins the genral in early November. This will give a leg up to the person who wants to win race #2. This is all party Demonrat politics. Probably either Ed Case or Matt Matsunagae would be front runners in any such campaign. Both would be better than Mink, but Case is less a flaming liberal than Matsunaga, who is the son of former Senator Spark Matsunaga.

[WOSG]

Good editorial but not strong enough.

You dont honor Patsy Mink by voting for a dead person,
if you want to do that send flowers.
By voting for a dead person you dishonor the electoral process, by forcing another election to be held
and disorting the point of the election in the first place: to pick someone who will represent you IN THE NEXT TWO YEARS.

But distorting and subverting the electoral process seems
less of a problem to Democrats than (gasp!) letting Republican win.

[Diddle E. Squat]

LOL

[Brytani]

Am I the only one who see's the hilarity in all of this. The dems are trying to remove the name of a crooked senator in NJ while trying to keep the name of a dead house member on the ballot in Hawaii.

And they say Republicans are confused.

[WOSG]

I think this factoid I culled from a different linked article just about says it all ... they CAN withdraw her, but wont... in NJ they CANT legally widthdraw him, but WILL ...

Under state law, Mink has until Oct. 16 to withdraw from the election for medical reasons. However, that would leave the Democrats without a candidate to face Republican state Rep. Bob McDermott ( news, bio, voting record) in the general election.