Posted on: Friday, October 11, 2002

Short-term special election not worth it

While it is probably too late to change gears, it remains a shame that Hawai'i will be put through an expensive special election to fill out the remaining days of the late Patsy Mink's current congressional term.

Why can't cooler heads prevail?

That special election, now set for Nov. 30, will choose someone to serve as Mink's replacement until the new Congress is sworn in in January.

The list of candidates interested in this footnote honor is already long and growing longer by the day.

They are seeking a job that may not offer much in the way of work to do. There's a fair chance that Congress won't be in session over that period. If it is, it will be a lame-duck Congress clearing up remnants of business previously discussed.

The big debate over war and peace and the invasion of Iraq has already taken place and the House has voted. Mink's vote was absent, of course, but had she or a replacement been there, it would not have made any difference.

There is an abstract, philosophical argument that the people of the 2nd District deserve representation for every day it is possible to offer it. But except for floor votes — which might not even happen after Nov. 30 — that representation can continue through Mink's existing staff and office.

Against that abstract positive are some concrete negatives.

For starters, there is the $1 million to $2 million that will be spent to conduct the election. The short-term special election will also create a "quasi-incumbent" who will have a leg up on the next special election to fill Mink's new term, should she happen to win the Nov. 5 election posthumously.

Further, the rapid succession of special elections will surely confuse the voters, who are already staying away from the polls in droves.

What we will almost surely end up with is a relatively small number of voters (on the first shopping weekend after Thanksgiving, after all) selecting someone primarily on the basis of name recognition or some other factor for a job that will soon expire and will have little asked of it in the meantime.

Is that what we want?