Rep. Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawai‘i, said he attended the county’s inauguration ceremony as part of a “double mission,” Monday at the War Memorial Convention Hall. “Obviously, I wanted to congratulate Mayor Carvalho and be here for his swearing-in,” he said in
Rep. Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawai‘i, said he attended the county’s inauguration ceremony as part of a “double mission,” Monday at the War Memorial Convention Hall.
“Obviously, I wanted to congratulate Mayor Carvalho and be here for his swearing-in,” he said in an interview. “But the second thing is the governor continues to kind of stiff arm the new president of the United States by not going to the governors’ summit that’s going to construct … the stimulus program for the recession.”
Gov. Linda Lingle opted to skip a trip to Philadelphia yesterday for a National Governors Association meeting with President-elect Barack Obama on the nation’s economy. (See page A3 for a complete story on the conference.)
Hawai‘i’s Republican chief executive said last week that politics played no role in her decision to not attend. She said her primary responsibilities were at home where she planned to meet with department heads on challenges facing the local economy.
Yesterday, Lingle and Shai Agassi, founder and CEO of Better Place, unveiled a plan to bring an electric-car network to Hawai‘i, creating a model for the adoption of electric cars in the U.S. The move — only the second of its kind announced in the nation — will help fuel Hawai‘i’s drive to lead the nation in renewable energy use, create jobs locally, while also helping to secure the state’s energy future, according to a news release from the governor’s office.
Despite the news, Democrats objected to her absence at the conference which more than 40 governors attended.
“If she doesn’t want the state to participate in the recovery program, I don’t know where it’s going to go,” Abercrombie said. “I guess we’ll have to pick up the slack.”
The representative said he has met with Kaua‘i County Council members and department heads to ascertain their project needs. Hawai‘i’s congressional delegation is trying to put together a state and county package that it will take to Congress for a recovery bill that will be in “the hundreds of billions of dollars,” he said.
“Everyone’s been very cooperative and open,” Abercrombie said. “We don’t want Kaua‘i and Hawai‘i left out.”
Fortunately, the representative said, the nation has elected a president who knows Hawai‘i is more than an “exotic outpost.”
Obama knows Hawai‘i is a full-fledged tax-paying state, Abercrombie said, but it will not receive special treatment.
Lingle was an active supporter of GOP presidential nominee John McCain.
The Arizona senator’s running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, attended the conference along with Republican wunderkind Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana. Both are considered likely presidential candidates in 2012, although neither have declared such intentions.
• The Garden Island staff writer Luke Shanahan contributed to this report.
