Let me see if I understand this correctly. Former Honolulu politico and mainland transplant, Duke Bainum, ran for mayor against Mufi Hannemann and lost. So bitter in defeat was Bainum that he fled the state.
Meanwhile, Mayor Mufi has an approval rating of about 80-percent or so, which prompts city council person Anne Kobayashi to run for mayor. Why? She doesn’t like Mufi’s rail transit plan.
17 seconds later, the Duke arrives in Honolulu from exile in Arkansas, rents an apartment in Kobayashi’s district, and files papers to run for her soon-to-be-vacant city council seat.
How am I doing so far?
Kobayashi picked Hannemann over Bainum in the mayor’s race a few years ago. Meanwhile, Bainum has had a change of heart from his self-imposed exile, has returned to Hawaii, and is now a Kobayashi supporter.
Politics makes for strange bedfellows, no?
