Honolulu media pundit Howard Dicus, who seems to be everywhere, weighed in Sunday where he left off on election night. The “Howzit Howard” website expanded on his earlier assessment that the Honolulu mayoral election was a referendum on rail:
“Honolulu has again voted for rail, despite conditions that provided unique advantages to asphalt huggers, making it clearer than ever the electorate sees the advantage of rail transit.
“Rail foes had the advantage: a low-turnout election with two pro-rail candidates to split the pro-rail vote, and a series of televised debates to spotlight (the) rail critic….”
Dicus notes that Mayor-Elect Peter Carlisle had twice the votes of the anti-rail candidate. The election’s runner-up, Acting Mayor Kirk Caldwell, also outpolled the anti-railer by a large margin. Carlisle and Caldwell together pulled 77 percent of the vote, while the anti-rail candidate didn’t crack 20 percent.
“What happens to rail now?” Dicus wrote. “It still has strong support in Washington, and among most elected officials in Hawaii. It still constitutes the single best economic stimulus package Hawaii can power up right now, and still is the single most effective tool we can use to control development in the still-rural parts of Oahu.”
That assessment also couldn’t be clearer.
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