The Song Remains the Same

Stupid politics.

Yeah...we lost. By 500 votes. I went to the cable access party thing...everyone was impressed with the job we did, first time candidate, blah, blah, blah. I hate it when The Man wins. My line is that we made some mistakes but nothing that cost us votes...but god damn it...we could've gotten those votes. There was a 20% turnout. Did I mention that Maui county has the worst voter turnout in the country...there has to be one county in last and we're it.

We shouldn't have lost this. There's no f-ing way. I'm sorry to put y'all through this, but I need to get this over with.

*the campaign lit that I was saddled with for the campaign was horrible. The people who designed it are supposed to be experienced.

*I couldn't get the parents to pick it up a notch. Seriously...if they could have done just a little of what I asked, I think we could've gotten 500 more votes.

*There was this group of people at the end who discovered that they liked going door-to-door and took care of the town of Kula for us. They wanted more, so I told them to see what parts of Makawao Summer had - she was supposed to do Makawao and I was doing Pukalani. She had at least 5 pieces of the district that wasn't done. I don't think she did as much door-to-door as she said...I don't know this for a fact, but...

*The radio ad she made SUCKED. She did it without me. I said she should come to my place and we'll do it here. I do radio...I do podcasts...I know how to do audio. One of her poser local friends who talked all this shit, but wouldn't get off his ass and lift a finger for the campaign did the spot with Summer and it sounded like a pidgeon high school production. Our weakness was that she was young and that ad made her sound young and unprofessional.

*Summer also went on her own and changed some of the stations that the ads were to play on, I had it set...she went for the younger demographic...who on Maui don't vote!

*All these people busted their asses for the $100 a person fundraiser, but hardly shit was done for the "working-class" meet & greet. And that's why nobody showed for it. Honestly...there's some real snobbery around Summer...particularly with the women-folk.

*The secret weapon...the potholders, were supposed to have gone out almost 2 weeks earlier than they did. Why didn't they? Because Summer kept asking the designer to tweak things with the lit that went with it...I mean piddly stuff. So the printing was delayed. Then the special envelopes for the mailing turned out to be 1/4 an inch too small when we went with the same ones another campaign used (connected to campaign guru guy).

This isn't a blame thing. Every campaign has stuff like this...or their own version of it. But I was supposed to be the one to get people through this and I didn't do the job. It's really that simple. That's what the campaign manager does and I didn't.

Other quick observations...this guy who runs the cable access station. He took up a lot my time bitching about Kyle Yamashita. Telling me about how sleezy this guy is, how he tried to get the station shut down, blah, blah, blah. So I called him on it. I told him that here's his chance to help get rid of Kyle. He didn't do shit. And he knows it. He avoided me all night at the party tonight...and he should have.

There was another candidate who lost to an in-the-pocket-of-big-money incumbent tonight. Tasha Kama. In a poll done by some unions last week, Tasha was ahead of the incumbent and Summer was even with Kyle. Then the election happens and both lose to the two biggest corporate puppets. At the beginning of the campaign there were some people who were complaining about the new voting machines, that they could be easily hacked, etc. Just like in Ohio in 2004. But nothing was done. I hear how dirty politics are here...I'm wondering if Tasha & Summer had their elections stolen. I have no way of proving it, but to be honest, it just doesn't add up. We've had such overwhelming response from people we talked to...Kyle didn't do shit, but give out some recycled bags and give the Isaac to people from the road. Same with Tasha. And unless the poll done was completely unreliable, the margin of error couldn't have been this big.

Well, a couple of other people I know are running in the general election for County Council. I offered to give them a hand during school break. Hopefully, I won't be the kiss of death for them.

Stupid politics.