Antigay-Voting Former Governor To Announce Run For U.S. Senate

Hawaii’s former governor Linda Lingle, whose 2010 veto denied the Aloha state’s same-sex couples the same protections under the law that married couples have, is expected to announce her candidacy for U.S. Senate today.

The Honolulu Star Advertiser reports that the recruitment of Lingle, Hawaii's first female governor, will “widen the playing field for the GOP, which needs to net just four seats to overtake the Senate majority in 2012.”

After reports of her candidacy, Democrats began linking Lingle, 58, to her friend and fellow Repulican, Sarah Palin. Matt Canter, spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said in a statement, “Today marks Linda Lingle's biggest announcement since she nominated Sarah Palin for Vice President, an event that typified Lingle's partisan Republican approach to governing. Now Lingle wants to go to Washington to become a rubber-stamp for Mitch McConnell and the Republican party whose sole priority is to defeat President Obama at every turn.”

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