Saturday, September 18, 2010

Honolulu Election Reaffirms Support for Rail

This is a short election-focused post – something we’ve avoided in this space over the many months leading up to today’s special election to select a new mayor to lead Honolulu for the next two years.

For the benefit of those throughout the country who’ve been following Honolulu’s long slow slog toward building our own 21st century rail project, the victor in today’s vote is indeed the Honolulu rail project!

With 95 percent of the vote in at this hour, the two pro-rail candidates are polling 73 percent of the vote. The one anti-rail candidate who vowed to stop the project in its tracks if elected has 18 percent.

As local television journalist Howard Dicus (who some of you remember from his years covering national events from Washington, D.C.) said tonight of rail, “This looks like another referendum on it.”

Let there be no doubt, rail won today, and we now look forward to acceptance of rail’s Final Environmental Impact Statement by either the sitting governor or the next one. The seat switch will happen on December 6.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

As you mentioned, Panos was a distant third. It certainly looks like this one-issue candidate was terribly mistaken with the bet he placed.

The vast majority of citizens aren't against rail.