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Issue 9.15: Cunning Lingle
What Governor Linda Lingle said in a Sept. 30, 2005 Associated Press story on Beverly Harbin, her recent appointee to the state Legislature:
October 06, 2005
"It was very disappointing to find out she wasn't the person I thought she was."
What she didn't say:
Apparently, those applying for a Maui County liquor license go through a more stringent background check than those seeking Lingle's appointment to the state Legislature. How else to explain why Lingle's staff somehow missed that in 1987 Harbin had been convicted of writing three bad checks (a misdemeanor, which actually doesn't prevent her from holding public office) and currently owes $125,000 in state income taxes? The Honolulu Star-Bulletin was able to discover these facts, and they're just a newspaper.