by Andrew Walden

"Don't mean a hill of beans."  That's the response from Lingle Campaign Spokesperson Lenny Klompus after Larry Mehau associate John Carroll announced his support of Larry Mehau associate Mazie Hirono in the US Senate race today.

 Hirono campaigns at Mehau home in Honokaa, 2006.

Carroll styled himself as the 'true conservative' in the recent Republican primary.  Hirono is consistently rated one of the most liberal members of the US House.  

Carroll's failed Republican Senate campaign was managed by Mufi Hannemann operative Keith Rollman.  But in spite of the high-level Democrat effort on his behalf, Carroll drew only 2900 votes statewide in the August 11 GOP Primary.

Prior to joining Carroll's campaign team, Rollman authored a 2011 post on his AtomicMonkey website in which he describes a falling out between Carroll and alleged cyber-trickster Eric Ryan:

 One of (Eric) Ryan’s previous clients, the fringe Republican candidate, John Carroll, got the “treatment” a couple of years ago. Carroll’s website, administrated by Ryan, mysteriously morphed into an anti-Carroll hate screed after an apparent falling out between the two. “CitizensForCarroll.com” (now removed) became a pseudo-official-looking, campaign spending commission complaint portal listing Mr. Carroll’s crimes (real and imagined). The motivation was a combination of unpaid invoices owed to Ryan and that pesky little matter of Carroll’s office being investigated by the police and FBI for cyber crimes involving forged email. Seems that someone inside Carroll’s office, then the hub of the Anti-Mufi, Anti-Rail faction that had been banished by Cliff Slater, was running a dirty tricks operation. Inflammatory emails purported to originate from Hannemann appointees were traced back to Carroll’s office and his “tenant” Eric Ryan.

In his statement today, Klompus elaborates:

Most endorsements are special and meaningful, while others don't mean a hill of beans. John Carroll falls into the latter group by trying to once again put himself in the limelight by standing with a candidate with the most liberal voting record, after working hard and failing to be the grandfather of a conservative group of party faithful.

In what has become a personal vendetta, he has embarrassed those in the party that once supported him. Finally, in his last three races (2002, 2010, 2012) he didn't garnish more than 10 percent of the vote. Carroll has not been a serious candidate and this is not a serious endorsement.

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Photos: Mazie Hirono Campaigns at Home of Larry Mehau

John Carroll: I believe Larry Mehau supports me for Governor

CB: GOP’s Carroll Backs Hirono Over Lingle

KITV: Republican Carroll endorses Democrat Hirono for U.S. Senate   

Slom: Carroll Endorsement of Lingle a ‘Bad Joke and a Bad Dream’

Dan Douglass: August 27th, 2012 “This is a significant blow to Lingle. Not for the 2900 votes Carroll earned in the primary, but because the endorsement affirms and builds on the Hirono campaign’s narrative of bi-partisanship, now locally. This is the coveted message both campaigns want to be the champion of to earn the independent/less-partisan votes. Lingle’s camp can minimalize and ridicule Carroll’s endorsement all they want, but they have yet to put a single recognizable liberal/democratic face to substantiate the governor as “bi-partisan.” Those who’ve been around, know Carroll’s background in service and the principle’s he holds to. The Carroll endorsement is a trophy for the Hirono camp, that could serve to further cripple Lingle’s campaign if Carroll is made a work-horse to support Hirono and criticize Lingle in events targeting undecided independents. And he has the energy.”