i L i n d . n e t

Is this the shape of news to come?

Since we both get up early every morning to watch the sunrise, we tend to turn on 9 p.m. news on K5 (KFVE-TV), one of the stations in the three-way news mega-merger with KHNL and KGMB.

So last night K5 did a story on Senate President Colleen Hanabusa’s official announcement of a run for the 1st Congressional District seat against Ed Case.

Although they reported the story, they didn’t send a camera, instead running file footage of Hanabusa demonstrating an Ikebana flower arrangement, apparently dating back to her 2006 campaign.

And the story didn’t say much at all about Hanabusa or present even a sound bite from her announcement, but it had time to acknowledge all the other candidates expected to run for the seat.

And it wasn’t due to lack of time. The Hanabusa story was followed by a long blurb about the dental convention at the convention center, including a corporate rep from Proctor & Gamble plugging products. Later came the “Vegas Minute” plugging, yes, travel to Las Vegas.

Goodbye to news, hello to…what to call it?

Meanwhile, the Case-Hanabusa primary race is getting attention elsewhere.

CQ Politics did a story on the race a couple of weeks ago.

CQ noted that while Case pitched the need for a fresh new face in the Senate in his unsuccessful run against Dan Akaka, now the Fresh Face is taking a back seat to the voice of experience.

For Case, there’s both a new district to court and a new pitch to make and instead of billing himself as the fresh face, he’s asking voters to turn to him for, as his campaign flyer pledgees, “seniority, experience and commitment.”

In a recent campaign email, Case again stressed:

” I offer a proven track record in Congress, with over four years of seniority as a Member of Congress and seven years of experience on Capitol Hill.”

So that was then, this is now.

I was only a little surprised this week to see Rep. Lyla Berg’s name on the list of likely candidates for Lt. Governor, along with Sen. Norman Sakamoto (a high-school classmate of mine), Democratic Party chair Brian Schatz, and former Senate president Bobby Bunda. For the last four legislative sessions, I was a session worker in Berg’s office. She is an effective campaigner, and will stand out as a woman in a so-far all male field.

Although her campaign web site, LylaBerg.com, still asks voters to support her re-election to the House, a quick search located a “Lyla Berg for Lt. Governor of Hawaii” group on Facebook.

Let the games begin!

And, yes, it’s another Feline Friday. When I sat down to pull together the week’s photos, I realized that only seven of the eight cats make appearances. Where was Romeo?? I don’t know. But he made way for Mr. Toby to strut his stuff. Just click on the photo for more.