There’s a good story in today’s New York Times describing the conflict within the national Democratic Party (“Democrats in Split-Screen: The Base Wants It All. The Party Wants to Win.“).

One the one side, the Bernie believers. One the other side, party leaders and candidates in more conservative districts, who say it is necessary to sometimes distance themselves from their more progressive counterparts in order to be competitive in districts that are only light blue or purple.

The growing tension between the party’s ascendant militant wing, and Democrats in conservative-leaning terrain, where the party must compete to win power in Congress, was on vivid, split-screen display over the weekend: in Chicago, where Senator Bernie Sanders led a revival-style meeting of his progressive devotees, and in Atlanta, where Democrats are spending colossal sums of money in hopes of seizing a traditionally Republican congressional district.

It may be essential for Democrats to reconcile the party’s two clashing impulses if they are to retake the House of Representatives in 2018. In a promising political environment, a drawn-out struggle over Democratic strategy and ideology could spill into primary elections and disrupt the party’s path to a majority.

It’s definitely worth a read.

And thanks to Kevin Dayton for a story focusing on a legislative grant-in-aid, usually targeted only to nonprofit organizations, that went to a tiny Big Island business run by a family friend of Senator Lorraine Inouye (“Legislators grant private firm $605K“).

What’s amazing is how unselfconscious Sen. Inouye seems to be, as if channeling hundreds of thousands of dollars of public funds to a company because it’s connected to a friend is perfectly okay. Other legislators apparently found it expedient to just look the other way as public resources were siphoned off in this way.

Each year lawmakers award grants in aid to help private nonprofit organizations with their operating costs and construction projects. This year about $30 million was approved for capital costs for organizations such as Habitat for Humanity, Bishop Museum, the YMCA of Honolulu and other groups that provide community benefits ranging from low-cost housing to youth programs and job training.

However, senators also included on the list a $605,000 grant for a for-profit company called Pacific Well Drilling and Pump Services on Hawaii island. According to the grant application, Pacific Well Drilling now engages in “very minimal operations” from the home of business owner Kihei Ahuna, and the money will be used to purchase used drilling equipment to expand Ahuna’s business.

Senate Transportation and Energy Committee Chairwoman Lorraine Inouye said she backed Ahuna’s grant application because it would help provide clean drinking water in rural areas, adding that “I did give a recommendation to Donovan (Dela Cruz) because I know the Ahunas personally as well. His mother used to work for me when I was managing the Orchid Island Hotel. She was one of our housekeepers.”

Inouye (D, Kaupulehu-­Waimea-North Hilo) said she is sure the Ahuna family supported her politically when she represented the Keaukaha area in the Senate, as Hawaii County mayor and when she served as a county councilwoman, but noted she no longer represents that area of Hawaii island.

Anyway, Dayton did a good job at shining the light on this one!