[Apologies for a broken link in the initial version of this post. I has been fixed.]
“Well, Mufi is running for mayor…again. How quickly we forget.”
That was the message of an email received this morning from Hawaii’s talented cartoonist and noted caricaturist John Pritchett, who then invited us all to “[t]ake a walk down memory lane and visit ‘Mufi Toons’ at: https://www.pritchettcartoons.com/mufitoons.htm.”
What you’ll find there: A collection of political cartoons about Mufi Hannemann by John Pritchett.
All the cartoons were published in Honolulu Weekly from 1993 to 2010.
Here’s a sample first published in April 2007, when Mufi was, as Pritchett observed, “preoccupied with rail.”
So don’t be shy. There’s definitely a lot of grist for Prichett’s mill in this year’s election!
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Pritchett link is wrong.
Thanks. It’s fixed.
Has Mr. Hannemann taken leave from his position as head of the Hawaii Lodging & Hotel Association while he campaigns, or has he retained his position? His hunger for public office is truly astonishing as is, for that matter, Colleen Hanabusa’s. Both are tainted by rail, but they obviously think that people won’t notice or perhaps their senses of shame are so evanescent that it doesn’t even occur to them. Either way, one wonders how many times they have to be defeated before they get the message that the public is no longer interested in what they have to say.
So Pritchett thought
Mufi was ambitious (Oh my goodness! Finding that a politician is ambitious and might want to run for governor is almost as shocking as finding that gambling was going on in Rick’s bar in Casablanca!)
By running for the City Council as his first elected position Mufi would start shoveling our tax dollars into the toilet (which is ironic humor, I guess, because the City and County is under a consent decree to pour tax dollars into fixing Honolulu’s aging sewer system, and Mufi spent years as Mayor leading efforts fixing the sewer system failures in Waikiki and East Honolulu caused by the failures of previous administrations to maintain the system!!)
In 1998, it was a bad thing when Mufi was joined by six other councilmembers who elected him Council Chair to replace John DeSoto and rearrange committee assignments in ways that took power away from Duke Bainum and Steve Holmes (The cartoon portrays the six who joined Mufi as six white, rather dumb looking sheep which probably comes as a shock to those who have had the experience of dealing with three of the sheep: Donna Kim, John Henry Felix, and John DeSoto. Perhaps Rene Mansho and Andy Mirikitani might have been more accurately portrayed as black sheep, however, given their subsequent histories. Also, of the nine councilmembers, only Bainum and Holmes were white.
Mufi gave too much attention to the rail project, wanted a rail alternative different than Pritchett favored, chose to listen to experts who favored the alternative that Mufi wanted, and didn’t listen to groups that Pritchett thought were the true voice of “the people” (Sorry, John, we’ll just have to agree to disagree. I think Honolulu picked the best system for Honolulu conditions, and the process was fair, open to dissent, and guided by people who wanted to create a useful and efficient system based on the experience of other cities and Honolulu’s unique conditions. Given the long history of failure to create the rapid transit system for the corridor between Ewa/Central Oahu and the central city, I don’t think the rail system would ever have been approved and funded by the City, State, and Federal Government without the strong effort made by the Hannemann administration. That would have been a betrayal of the promises long made to residents of Ewa and Central Oahu that there would be an alternative to commuting by auto to Honolulu jobs, promises upon which the Land Use Commission and City Council had approved the residential development that was needed to keep the Country country.)
Mufi is a bully who would try to physically intimidate Ann Kobayashi (As if?! Mr. Pritchett, you have obviously never appeared as a witness before Ms. Kobayashi. And I think you are playing the Samoan race card in a way that most kama’aina recognize is unfair. )
Mufi is a dictator like Chairman Mao. (I think that is a gross exageration of what happened on his watch. Mufi has a temper, and he did make some mistakes, but I sincerely believe Honolulu is better because of his service as Mayor. Mufi had the votes, and he stuck to what he believed in because he had seen how previous projects in Hawaii had failed.)
I think we have learned much more about John Pritchett from reviewing his cartoons than we have learned about Mufi Hannemann.
Happy you took the time Lopaka43 to review the cute but inaccurate Pritchett history of Mufi’s accomplishments. I’m glad he’s back. He’s effective, he’s colorful and adds excitement to an otherwise bland Mayoral race.
The featured cartoon is egregiously misleading (and pretty lame), and the ad hominem Mufi-bashing is rather tedious at this point.
He’s certainly not for everyone, but one really wonders if some of the Democratic Party machine ghosts and delusional “progressive” zealots who have supported certain of his opponents with laughable naivete in recent years are at this point smart enough to feel stupid about it.
Truth of Mufi is “Never tedious…nor pretty lame” there “Yawner” we will be paying for His Steal Wheel RAIL FOR GENERATIONS!
The original “Machine Ghost” Governor George Ariyoshi is still alive and operating!
INTERESTING IAN, looking back at the Pritchett cartoons through today’s cultural lens focused on racial justice, I’m left wondering if these cartoons of Mufi–dark skinned Samoan– would ever be printed today?
Maybe “only in Hawaii” would Bainum and Harris, both “haoles” (is that term still in use?), be the victims.
The only Pritchett cartoons of Mufi that still resonate with me are about rail and Mufi’s controlling temperament and leadership style–two sticking points that Mufi needs to address. The other cartoons seem a bit petty and somewhat mean and unfair.
So yeah, will be interesting to see what kind of campaign Mufi runs–as well as his opponents, in today’s socio, political, and cultural climate.
PS: when Pritchett’s cartoons of Mufi were being published, there were two daily newspapers and a formidable alternative weekly. Today’s political climate sure is different as a result–boring Zzzzzzzzzzzz.
Mr. Hannemann is fond of complaining that people think he is a bully because they’re indulging in stereotypes of Polynesian males. To the contrary, any projected stereotypical “bully” aspect of his personality could be attributed instead to his German ancestry. That seems far more likely, stereotypically speaking.