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Simon Phipps's personal commentary

Mink for Congress [PhotoTravel]

Hawai'i has always been known as a friendly place, but you can imagine my surprise in Hawai'i to see signs everywhere advocating "Mink for Congress". Not something I had actually prepared myself for, I investigated further to understand whether I needed to prepare for a move from the auditorium to the House.

I discovered that the Mink in question was actually Patsy Mink, the representative of 'northern O'ahu and the Neighbour Islands' in congress for 24 years and a Democrat to boot. However, my delight was tempered by the discovery that, just after the ballot list closed, Mrs Mink had tragically died of pneumonia. She was elected on a wave of sympathy in the US mid-term elections and this weekend is a lame-duck election to see which living person will take the title until a fresh election in January settles who the long-term representative for everyone-except-Honolulu will be. Her husband John is the somewhat reluctant favourite for the lame-duck term; there are 44 (yes, fourty-four) hopefuls for the real seat in January. In the UK I don't think the extra election would be happening as it would be up to the government to call for a ballot and they would see that it was a waste of money.

posted at 6:06 AM (UK) | |