Sunday, September 7, 2008

‘Stop Mufi’ Effort Comes Down to Stopping Rail

The unbidden email arrived yesterday with garish graphics and an “Anybody But Mufi” message surrounding unflattering photos of the Honolulu mayor.

“Paid for by Hope for Hawaii” it said – so we searched the ‘net for that organization. You can find plenty of “hope for Hawaii” references online -- everything from virus-resistant papaya to volleyball to health insurance premiums and dozens of other hits. But there’s nothing about an organization with that name.

So we went to the “Anybody But Mufi” website to learn who’s behind the group that’s out to stop Mufi Hannemann, but again we came up empty. The website looks exactly like what showed up in our inbox with only one clickable link to Donate Now.

The last clue was the address on the website – 345 Queen Street, Suite 607 – and that’s where we found the Stop Rail Now connection. That's the office location of Attorney John Carroll, who until a few weeks ago was a highly visible spokesperson for SRN. (Earle Partington seems to be the group’s lead attorney now.)

That fact doesn’t “prove” a definitive SRN connection with “Hope for Hawaii,” but it’s good enough for us. What’s not so good is the non-transparency of this new group that's out to derail the mayor, who was endorsed by the Honolulu Advertiser and Honolulu Star-Bulletin today.

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