I was surprised by a phone message yesterday morning from Senate candidate and former Congressman Ed Case. He wanted to respond to my post here on February 13 concerning the endorsement of Case by the University of Hawaii Professional Assembly.
His response follows. Case also provided a copy of a letter addressed to Hawaii Democrats from his campaign coordinators presenting their summary of his record.
I ask that you share these comments and related information with your readers.
(1) UHPA’s endorsement process and the reasons for its decision are laid out at its public website, www.facultyvotes.org. Included there is a video of my responses to some of UHPA’s questions.
(2) You refer to me as a “conservative” and a “much more conservative Democrat than Hirono and at odds with the party mainstream”. My record does not bear any of that out.
(3) Specifically, please see the attached letter to fellow Hawaii Democrats and summary of my Congressional record as a Democrat. My record was rated at or close to 100% on key litmus test issues and constituencies of the Democratic Party and overall well within the mainstream of U. S. House Democrats.
(4) It is correct to say that, on balance, Mazie is more “liberal” than am I, especially on economic and budget issues. Progressive Punch, which ranks all Members of Congress against each other on how liberal their record is, currently ranks her as the 6th most liberal member of the U. S. House out of 435 total members (http://www.progressivepunch.org/members.htm?search=selectName&members=HI2&member=HI2&chamber=Senate&zip=). I do not have my own archived Progressive Punch rating from my own service, but recall it was similar to my National Journal rating at about 38% (0% being “most liberal” and 100% being “most conservative”). I believe this begs the question as to which of us actually represents our Democratic Party’s mainstream and, of course, for general election voters, the mainstream of all Hawaii voters.
(5) Interestingly, Sen. Inouye is ranked by Progressive Punch as the 36th most liberal out of 100 U. S. Senators, so just about at the same place ideologically among Senate members and Democrats as was I in the U. S. House. Would you similarly refer to him as “conservative” or “at odds with the party mainstream”?
(6) With respect to the polls you cited, your link to an “earlier March poll” which you stated showed Mazie with a significant lead in the primary was actually to an October 2011 PPP poll showing her up among Democrats only 45-40%, within the margin of error. (The March 2011 poll from the Honolulu Star-Advertiser showed me leading among then-potential Democratic candidates.) And, while you cited Hirono’s own poll, you did not cite mine also from last year and showing us with an equivalent lead over Hirono, nor did you cite the January 2012 Civil Beat polls showing us 41% to Hirono’s 39% in a Democratic primary (http://www.civilbeat.com/articles/2012/01/30/14720-civil-beat-poll-case-hirono-neck-and-neck-for-us-senate-nomination/) and 13 points over Lingle in the general 46% to 33% vs. Hirono’s 7 points 46% to 39% (http://www.civilbeat.com/articles/2012/01/31/14721-civil-beat-poll-lingle-trails-both-democratic-us-senate-candidates/).
The remaining information you cited on specific votes is a straight download from the Hirono oppo research on my 2,000-plus votes in Congress, and reflects standard DC campaign strategy to throw as much as possible against the wall and see what might stick. The bottom line is that, on balance, my overall past record and current positions do not reflect that of a “conservative”, and is in line with not only my party’s mainstream but the mainstream of Hawaii voters today.
Mahalo,
Ed Case
Note: Case has extended an invitation to sit down and talk about these issues, so stay tuned.
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Sit down with him and Mazie if possible and ask specific questions regarding environment, the economy, the war machine, earmarks, etc. That would be great Ian!
Regardless we must not allow a Republican to win this Senate seat or Mazie’s House seat.
I”m sick and tired of kings and pawns and politics as usual.
IMHO, Ed Case is the lesser of the many evils.
I think Case can out-debate Lingle. Not sure if Hirono can out-debate Lingle.
Mazie Hirono is more in the footsteps of Patsy Mink – someone who gets the job done rather than being all mouthy and blustery.
She can stand on her record.
Case and Lingle are both running away from their conservative records trying to paint themselves less right than they are.
Mazie is the real deal. She’s consistent. Her positions are the same today as they’ve always been – standing up for working people, education, healthy communities.
Ii am an increasingly liberal man in his 70s. I regarded Case with some trepidation when he first ran for Governor and thereafter for Patsy Mink’s seat. I met him through friends and changed my view completely.
He is an independent thinker who is not wedded to any political camp. After my retirement, he is the only candidate I decided to publicly campaign for. He may have made a personally strategic error by running against Akaka when he could have won re-election easily.
But he is no “conservative” nor is he connected at the hip to any single union or liberal block. He believes firmly in Hawaii’s diversity and understands the native Hawaiian issues better than most.
I realize he lost some support by leaving his leadership post in state house but that was not based on conservative-liberal divisions but just independence. I have come to trust Case unlike others I liked who eventually developed warts and flaws.
If given a free choice, I think Hawaii has a chance to choose a fair man. Despite the dumb Hawaii Tribune-Herad reporting him to be a Republican last year, he is a real Democrat and maybe more like his mentor Sparky Matsunaga, who also had his maverick tag as an independent thinker.
Case sort of marches to his own drummer and I like that. Danny Inouye cannot control Ed as he has Akaka. I do not feel that is bad.
Ed Case “not wedded to any political camp” ???!!!!
He makes no secret that he is a “Blue Dog”. That he doesn’t want cuts to war. That he was pro-Iraq war. That he is a “fiscal conservative” which these days means he’ll keep our military contractors flush with taxpayer dollars while cutting things like:
Title 10 funding for family planning (which he voted on a resolution to defund)
Public TV (again voted to defund) Bye bye Big Bird
Legal Aid (again defund vote)
Please look at what the “Blue Dogs” did in Congress – they sided with the GOP on social issues and sided with the GOP when it came to cutting funding for PEOPLE.
No matter your preferred flavor of politician, the phrase ” key litmus test issues” should make your skin crawl.
A lot of what is labeled “liberal” in Hawaii is in fact “conservative” in the sense of continuing to empower entrenched self-interests like government employee unions or the Bishop Estate. So who is more liberal: 1) the politician who indiscriminately bends to the will of the government unions or the one who thoughtfully realizes that the current system is in need of reform to ensure its sustainability or 2) the one who protects the entrenched, corrupt power of the Bishop Estate or the one who seeks its reform to better serve its beneficiaries? In both examples, Case was the liberal agent of change and Hirono the conservative defender of the dysfunctional status quo.
It would be useful, rather than broad characterizations like this, to provide specific examples. Bills, actions, etc., to support your viewpoint.
“entrenched self-interests like government employee unions”
Excuse me, but what primary are you arguing Case is the best candidate? Republican?
Case’s independence became apparent in the 1990s when he was a rep in the state House. he has little fear in disagreeing with Hawaii’s modern kings.
as such, it is no so surprise that some people in Hawaii seem stunned that such a person can even exist in the year 2012 and have a chance at getting elected. Case is akin to a Hawaii plantation worker who actually tells the luna they are acting like fools who are going bankrupt.
and then they whip him.
and he still keeps speaking out.
it’s almost like he doesn’t belong here.
Case had little fear of disagreeing with his CONSTITUENTS!!!
Like when we kept telling him not to vote in favor of attacking Iraq. Like when we begged him to end the Iraq war. Like when we pointed out that the Iraq war was bankrupting us.
LOL Come ON! Ed Case a plantation worker??? This guy was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and is cousin to Steve Case AOL zillionaire, went to private school and worked for the big law firm, Carlsmith Ball.
Plantation worker?!!! Nice try.
I am quite pleased to disagree with someone who explodes and misses the point at the same time.
I don’t Case needs to be sorry that he disagrees with you either, since you act like your point of view is shared by every “constituent.”
t,
I can’t speak for PaiaGirl, but I heard the same thing a lot of 2nd CD constituents. When Ed held his “Talk Story” sessions and would hear comments from constituents opposed to the war on Iraq, he had a stock answer. He told them they “did not represent the feelings of the district.” And that he was more in touch with voter sentiment on the issue than they were.
We all, at times, have difficulty hearing what others are telling us or believing that MAYBE their sense of community sentiment is wrong and everybody else agrees with us. Ed was particularly tone-deaf on the war(s) and dismissive to the point of being rude.
While running for the Senate (and sometimes now), Ed frequently said a senator is not only a leader of the state, but a leader of the entire nation. It had a disturbing (to me) edge to it. I think Ed saw developed his position on the war in the context of influences “within the Beltway” and within the “respectable” mainstream “national security establishment” with little (or no) regard for the “low level” understanding of the regular Hawaii resident.
One of Ed’s greatest weaknesses is his sense he is a great thinker. (Perhaps it comes from an inferiority complex of having attended HPA rather than Punahou like his Honolulu cousins?) He videotaped an extremely awkward series of talks called something like “the Great Challenges Facing the Country,” which, if they could find them, his opponents could use to embarrass him.
Ed was locked into a Neo-Con versus appeasement mindset which had much less influence over Senators Akaka and Inouye, who had seen war up close and were not about to allow the chickenhawk “grand strategists” around Rumsfeld and Cheney inflame war lust (or paranoia) in their minds. Ed, as a Blue Dog eager to prove himself “tough on national security,” totally bought into what they were selling. And because of this, was sure he knew better than faint of heart “peaceniks” in his district.
It turns out the rest of Hawaii’s delegation: Akaka, Inouye, Abercrombie and Mink, were correct to be skeptical–as were the constituents Ed had dissed at so many “Talk Story” sessions, and the cocksure Case, along with his mentor Joe Lieberman and “Commander-in-Chief” Bush, were deadly wrong.
There are some interesting sections on his Wikipedia page,esp. his U.S. House tenure and his
2006 campaign against Sen. Akaka. Plus he was a member of the Blue Dog Coalition. Can’t vote for him.
Some observations:
1. Two weeks for a response. Really! What assurances can we have he’ll do anything in Congress in a timely manner? Congress is s-l-o-w enough now as it is (though some might regard it as “measured”).
2. He can talk the talk he’s never – ever – walked the talk and really performed and delivered anything productive for us. He’s fooled at least some of us before and has justly earned our distrust.
So…in effect – if not outright – is Edward Espenett “Ed” Case an agent provocateur for Lingle, the grand oil party (“GOP”), and them rape-public-cans?
Maybe our party’s tent is too large when we include dinos (democrat in name only) like Case.
“In Case you haven’t heard the truth.”
As I recall Ed Case blindly voted to support the invasion of Iraq by the U.S. for false intelligence over the objections of knowledgable constitutents. Would he do the same about Iran? Iraq involvement along with Afghanistan has proved disastrous for human rights as has America’s blind support of Israel, an Apartheid, racist state. I can not support any further stupidity.
Sorry Ed.
You’re two weeks late and not fooling anyone. You are a conservative Democrat more suited to a Red state like Idaho not Hawaii.
You can be “independent” if it flatters your ego. But, don’t expect to win Democratic Primaries in Hawaii.
Any political faction that thinks being “independent” is a bad thing is dangerous.
I don’t think anyone said an independent was bad. The point was being made that Ed Case ascribes more to the Republican platform than the Democratic one so he shouldn’t be runnning as a Democrat.
We have SEVERAL Democrats who are “in name only” probably because they’re too chicken to run as Republicans (not much chance of winning in Hawaii) and also the GOP has gone so looney-tunes lately that the old-style Republicans (which Ed is one) are leaving the party.
Doesn’t seem to be any place in the Republican party these days for what used to be a moderate Republican so they all flock to the Democratic Party but they don’t believe in the platform.
Another of these DINOs being anti-gay, anti-choice, anti-contraception, anti-environment, Mufi Hannemann.
Geez, reading PaiaGirl’s post’s it would seem she is to the Dems what the Tea Party is to the Republicans…..extreme. Lighten up….your Mazie will get elected, no worries. But I would ask for some specifics on what she has accomplished the last year or so. I just don’t seem to find anything. BTW, Hawaii elected a Republican, TWICE, for guv not too long ago so be careful about counting your chickens too fast my dear.
“Independent” is a silly marketing term which often conceals more than it reveals. “Independent” from whom?
Ed believes what he believes for his own reasons. Mazie believes what she believes for her own reasons. Neither of them takes order from anyone. And anyone who claims they do is downright ignorant and not worthy to participate in a discussion among adults.
Ed’s “independence” led him to join the Blue Dog Coalition in Congress. He did not sacrifice his independent judgment by doing this. He was like-minded with them on many issues, particularly on military and business-friendly economic policies. They shared policy ideas and figured how to leverage their small number of members into having significant influence over legislation, disproportionate to their numbers.
Mazie’s “independence” led her to join the “Progressive Caucus,” with whom she agrees on a broad range of policies, from a less-interventionist foreign policy to economic justice at home. The Progressive Caucus tries to provide its members similar “leveraging” advantages. But because they are more consistently anti-corporate in their views, they do not serve as a source for corporate campaign donations like the Blue Dogs. And the Blue Dogs, midway between the Democrats and Republicans, were able to switch back and forth between the two camps, compelling the House Democrats to move to the center and undermining many of Obama’s policy initiatives. (The Blue Dogs played a powerful role in defeating “the public option” in the healthcare debate, for example). The Progressives, being to the left of the debate cannot threaten to defect to the Republicans on key bills. So they are not in a position to blackmail either the House Democrats or the White House the way the Blue Dogs do.
Ed is trying to re-package himself for this campaign, trying to convince Democrats he is more liberal than they remember.
He reports on rankings which place him on the conservative edge of the Democratic caucus while serving in Congress. We need to remember, these are COMPOSITE scores. Ed’s voting record was VERY liberal on environmental and social issues, like reproductive and gay rights. He was right int the center on economic issues (to the right of most Democrats, but in the center, when Republicans are included. But Ed was very “conservative” or, more accurately, “NEO-CONSERVATIVE on foreign policy issues, uncritically endorsing Bush’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and vouching for the wonderful treatment detainees were receiving in Guatanamo Bay. During the 2006 campaign, he attacked critics of the war for being “fringe” and “extremist.” When he denounced Senator Akaka as an “extremist”, he went way too far.
Democrats might also remember when the national Chamber of Commerce, the same organization which is trying to help the Republicans seize control of the US Senate this year, poured money into Case’s campaign in 2006. Ed also became a board member of Sam Slom’s Small Business Hawaii.
Since Ed is basing his campaign on his value as a “bi-partisan,” I strongly recommend people read Gleen Greenwald’s commentary on “What ‘Bipartisanship’ in Washington Means”:
http://www.salon.com/2008/01/30/bipartisanship/
It is exactly appropriate for those considering voting for Ed.
Ed Case is Hawaii’s local Joe Lieberman wannabee.
I’ve been thinking that once when I visited a Coca Cola bottling plant in Kakaako, riding on a Gomes bus with Mrs. Mitchell’s 6th grade class in 1955, that if I had been effectively briefed then in all of the relevancies of the decimals and fractions back in class at Kailua Elementary toward getting these wheels turning that I would have been in listening mode ever since.
It would have been as if I’d been using an i-phone 4 each day since the Eisenhower years.
My idea is that a genuine, studied, mode of independence in such an i-senate candidate as Ed Case requires this electorate to devolve more than anything from now into a listening mode.
Far more interesting than whether Ed Case is or is not conservative is why he has suddenly found the need to deny that he is. Why not ask him to see THAT poll Ian…
the bottom line…. ed case can beat lingle… mazie did not (i voted for her) for gov and will not for senator. so what do we want? in addition, lingle would not represent hawaii’s majority. she proved that when she ran around chasing mccain and palin in 2008.