The Genius of Carol Philips
The North Shore's only real political race is a done deal. Toegee here thinks that Carol Philips has it in the bag. That girl is a genius, relentless and ruthless. I have seen her everywhere, at all hours of the day waving signs with her new found friends. She has been attacking Mike Mag relentlessly with vicious intensity.
Where is Mike anyway? It looks like surrender to me.
For the past two races, Carol soldiered on under the Republican banner. Towing the party line, losing by just a couple/few hundred votes.
Then in the most brilliant political move I have ever seen on the North Shore, Carol "The Republican" aligned her political future with the Union - Local 5 UNITE/HERE. The Unions in Hawaii have been the main organizational force that has enabled Democrats to stay in power for as long as they have. The boldness of her to claim that she is a member of the party of Ronald Reagan (who fired each and every member of a Union who participated in an illegal strike against the government) and get the Union vote is a strategy worthy of Hillary Clinton. Al Gore or John Kerry. Carol Philips and Eric Gill together, everyone hold hands and sing Kumbaya.
Carol has partnered with opponents of Turtle Bay - Union members, socialists, radical environmentalists, NIMBYs, and other anti business activists. As a Republican, she has done so simply and ruthlessly to get votes for office - awesome move. Her campaign has been superb, almost beyond description, political genius. She made a calculation and figured out that if the Union could take just a hundred votes away from Mike and send them her way she could win. That along with her take no prisoners, protest everything about Turtle Bay stance will win her the election.
If you look back at some of the shirts of the contests that Carol used to run, Turtle Bay was a sponsor. Carol was a partner with Turtle Bay, a supporter of Turtle Bay, a vocal proponent of the changes at Turtle Bay until she partnered with the Union. It takes courage and guts to turn on a dime like she did to get votes. WOW!!!
Carol Philips is going to represent the North Shore (oh yeah those other areas as well). This political wonderkind is going to be our face, voice and life line to the state government. Get used to the idea. I am going to start waving back when I see her everywhere during the next few days.
posted by Toegee-Jon Midpoint @ 9:55 AM
2 Comments:
At 11/03/2006 10:28 AM,
Anonymous said…
Who is Carol Philips? Besides running some body boarding contests, what does she represent? I noticed that in the recent Honolulu Advertiser's voters guide, she listed her "job" as CANDIDATE. Wouldn't it be nice to have that job? Well get ready because if she wins she'll be in government forever. Obviously she can't get a job anywhere else.
At 11/03/2006 2:42 PM,
Anonymous said…
Paving-Over Paradise
Land and Power in Hawai`i: 2006
Ira Rohter
Ira Rohter is a professor of Political Science at the University of Hawai`i at Manoa, and President of the Board of Hawai`i Clean Elections, a citizens’ advocacy group.
"THE PRO-DEVELOPMENT INDUSTRY'S FRIEND ON THE NORTH SHORE REPRESENTATIVE MICHAEL MAGAOAY.
In his first run for office, in 2002, Magaoay received campaign donations totaling $32,150, about the average for winners in that cycle. But in 2004, he received $93,655 for his campaign, and spent $105,068 the most expensive House race that year. For this year's campaign, Rep. Magaoay has received already for only the first half of the year $108,582 in donations.
The pro-building interests take care of their friends. During his three terms in office, Representative Magaoay has received 284 donations that we can identify from developers, trustees of land estates, builders and construction companies and unions, banks and financial institutions, tourism and time-sharing, and real estate agents. These donors will profit from construction projects on the North Shore. Most recently Magaoay being given donations from TBR PROPERTY LLC "DBA TURTLE BAY RESORT," and lobbyists and lawyers connected with the project. (Rep. Magaoay has been employed as a Senior Project Engineer at A-1 A-lectrician, Inc. since 1997, and also by Alii Glass & Metal Inc since at least 2002.)
With the North Shore hosting thousands of acres of prime farm land, agricultural interests including several corporations actively pursuing GMO research on genetically modified organisms (Monsanto, DOW chemical, and Dupont) add their donations to Rep. Magaoay campaign coffers. As a member of several important committees, Magaoay is also the regular recipient of large amounts from the tobacco (Altria, Philip Morris, RJ Reynolds) and health care industries, fundraising and PR firms, and eight of Hawaii's major lobbyists who represent a who's-who of special interests seeking favors at the Legislator.
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Number of Identified Special Interest Donations Rep. Magaoay has received since 2002 from –
Construction Industry & related unions.
126 Donations
$54,000
Estates, Land Owners, and Developers
76 Donations
$28,875
Real Estate Industry
15 Donations
$5,450
Tourism, Time Share Industry
21 Donations
$4,700
Banks and Finance Industry
15 Donations
$5,925
Lobbyists connected to development interests
31 Donations
$9,475
MAJOR DONORS TO MAGAOAY
Estates and Land Owners: Trustees and CEOs from Alexander & Baldwin; Castle & Cooke; Estate of Samuel Mills Damon; James Campbell Estate; Mark A. Robinson Trust; Maui Land & Pineapple Co; Pacific Northwest Ltd (Ko`Olina)
Other Developers: Cendant (resort management and time-shares; DKH Hawaii Leasing Llc; Imanaka Kudo & Fujimoto; Robert Midkiff; Kamehameha Schools (Bishop Estate).
Real Estate agents are another group of donors who will profit from urbanizing the North Shore.
Construction Industry and related unions. Magaoay collects donations from a long list of companies and individuals associated with builders, architects, engineers, electrical, plumbing, painting, air conditioning, glass & mental contractors, and construction unions.
Banks and Finance industry contributions come from First Hawaiian Bank, Bank of Hawaii, Mortgage bankers Association of Hawai`i, and several credit unions.
Resorts, Tourism and Time Sharing donors include direct contributions by the Turtle Bay Resort people, lobbyists and lawyers advocating for the project, and people and PACs (political action committees) from the industry.
Legion of lobbyists and law firms who represent many clients with links to land development, tourism, insurance and finance give large and frequent gifts to Magaoay. These "Masters of Influence" [ a report about them is coming soon] include: Watanabe Ing & Kawashima; Jon T. Okudara; G A (Red) Morris; Linda K Rosehill; R Brian Tsujimura; Goodsill Anderson Quinn & Stifel; and the top law firm of Mccoriston Miller Mukai Mackinnon LLP real estate lawyers whose clients include Oaktree Capital Management, owners of Turtle Bay Resorts.
The complete list of Magaoay’s special-interest donors is found on-line at
http://www.voterownedhawaii.org/cds.php ["Candidate Donors Lists"]
The Sierra Club Hawaii’s Scorecard on Representative Magaoay’s votes related to eight important environment and land use issues have gone down steadily over the years, in parallel with the increasing amount of donations he’s received from
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development interests. In 2002 he voted for 75% of significant environmental bills. His score fell to 71% for the 2003-2004 sessions, and dropped dramatically to only 58% pro-environment votes during 2005-2006. Noteworthy is Magaoay voting twice for versions of the "Hokulia Fix Bill," a measure that dramatically weakened land use law and essentially opens up vast swaths of farmland statewide to development.
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