I spent yesterday at Olelo moderating three panels featuring candidates for Lt. Governor, so read Richard Borreca’s latest column about the job with interest (Lieutenant governor’s job has potential — for irrelevancy).

He did a good job rounding up former lt. governors John Waihee and Ben Cayetano for perspective on the job. And his first two paragraphs unintentionally underscore his overall point.

Borreca writes:

How do you decide?

There are six Democrats running for lieutenant governor. I bet you will see every one of the candidates’ signs as you drive to work and by the time you arrive, you will not be able to recall any of them.

I guess they really are hard to recall because although Borreca says there are six Dems running, there actually are seven in the race: Lyla Berg, Bobby Bunda, Steve Hirakami, Gary Hooser, Jon Riki Karamatsu, Norman Sakamoto, and Brian Schatz.

The League’s three candidate forums included six of the Democrats (along with nonpartisan Leo Kama and Republican Adrienne King), and will be broadcast on Olelo several times next week. They will will be available online after they air for the first time.

Insights on PBS Hawaii had all seven of the Democrats on its broadcast last night.

…each week’s episode is rebroadcast on Fridays at 9:30pm and Sundays at 3:00pm, and you can also listen to an audio rebroadcast each Sunday morning at 6:00AM on KUMU 94.7 FM. Insights on PBS Hawaii is also available on demand to Oceanic Time Warner digital subscribers by tuning to channel 110.

The program should also show up soon for online viewing on the stations “On Demand” service.

Former Mayor Mufi Hannemann also has some decades old history making the rounds again this year. Several readers have called it to my attention in recent days.

It stems from an incident during a afternoon matinee showing of the blaxploitation film, “Willie Dynamite: Pimp Counsel“, at Honolulu’s old Liberty Theater on July 31, 1974.

According to news stories at the time, Hannemann and his older brother, Nephi, were arrested for allegedly harassing an off-duty police officer, who was at the movie with his wife.

The incident allegedly started when the Hannemann’s sat in front of the officer and his wife, blocking her view of the screen. Words were exchanged. The officer claimed he was threatened several times, and when the movie ended there was a confrontation in the theater lobby that resulted in the officer holding the Hannemann brothers at gunpoint and placing them under arrest.

The officer filed his own police report describing the incident, which is also part of the record.

The case went to trial, where the Hannemann’s were defended by the late attorney David Schutter.

According to a 2005 Honolulu Advertiser obituary:

Schutter’s reputation started growing in the 1970s, when his clients included reputed underworld figures, victims of police misconduct and brutality and some of Hawai’i’s most infamous violent criminal defendants.

With Schutter’s assistance, the Hannemann’s were found innocent. The brothers also filed a false arrest suit against the city. The case was settled, with Mufi receiving $11,000. Nephi Hannemann did not get a pay out from the case, according to published accounts.

Although the Liberty Theater apparently had a murky reputation at the time, and the “Willie Dynamite” movie might have offended some, it actually now gets okay reviews as an example of the blaxploitation genre. A clip from the movie can be found here.

“Willie Dynamite” was shown as part of a double feature. I didn’t see the other movie mentioned in the clips.

Information about the incident surfaced during the 2008 campaign season on “The Liberty Chronicles”, a web site created by Dan Douglass, a Ron Paul supporter, anti-rail activist, who described himself as “neck deep in Hawaii Republican Party controversy”.

The chronicles website lists attorney John Carroll and Libertarian Ken Schoolland as “columnists” who “share a similar philosophy.”

Carroll is a candidate for the Republican gubernatorial nomination this year.

Although the political bias of the source is obvious, the links to new stories and documents are helpful.

Some readers have suggested that, despite being found innocent at trial, the incident raises real questions about Hannemann’s judgement and behavior.

It’s possible, although, like Neil Abercrombie’s letter written 33 years ago (described here yesterday), a lot of time has passed since then and I’m wary of drawing any current implications from it.

On the other hand, Douglas also reported an incident right before the 2008 mayoral election in which Gus and Nephi Hannemann allegedly harassed a group holding signs supporting candidate Ann Kobayashi in front of Honolulu Hale.