{"id":459,"date":"2010-01-09T20:54:50","date_gmt":"2010-01-09T20:54:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/apagansblog\/2010\/01\/hawaii-cannot-afford-a-special-election.html"},"modified":"2010-01-09T20:54:50","modified_gmt":"2010-01-09T20:54:50","slug":"hawaii-cannot-afford-a-special-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2010\/01\/hawaii-cannot-afford-a-special-election.html","title":{"rendered":"Hawaii Cannot Afford a Special Election"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

The cost of one combat soldier in Afghanistan or Iraq is
\ncurrently reliably estimated at about $775,000 per year<\/a>.  <\/span>Needless to say that doesn’t go to the
\nguy on the ground.   <\/span><\/p>\n

The cost of a special election to fill Hawaii’s
\nsoon-to-be-vacated Congressional seat when incumbent Neil Ambercrombie steps down to run for governor, is almost $1
\nmillion. At Huffpost Mark Niesse reports<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Budget cuts have left the state Office of Elections with about $5,000
\nto last until July, with a special election costing nearly $1 million, interim
\nChief Elections Officer Scott Nago said.<\/span>
Until the state finds money
\nor this fall’s regularly scheduled elections occur, one of Hawaii’s two seats
\nin the House of Representatives will remain vacant. <\/span><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n


<\/font><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Unless a recently discovered
\naccounting error in the budget turns out to be the needed savior, Hawaii simply cannot
\nafford to have an election.  <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

To put this in context, as of 2005 $9
\nbillion in cash allocated for Iraqi reconstruction is missing<\/a>.   <\/span>In addition, as of 2007 $1
\nbillion in tractor trailers, tank recovery vehicles, machine guns,
\nrocket-propelled grenades and other equipment and services provided to the
\nIraqi security forces is also missing<\/a>. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Nothing better symbolizes
\nthe priorities of democracy and imperialism in America<\/span> today.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The cost of one combat soldier in Afghanistan or Iraq is currently reliably estimated at about $775,000 per year.  Needless to say that doesn’t go to the guy on the ground.    The cost of a special election to fill Hawaii’s soon-to-be-vacated Congressional seat when incumbent Neil Ambercrombie steps down to run for governor, is almost…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[111],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events"],"yoast_head":"\nHawaii Cannot Afford a Special Election - A Pagan's Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2010\/01\/hawaii-cannot-afford-a-special-election.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hawaii Cannot Afford a Special Election - 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