BJ Penn has been enjoying the support he’s received from MMA fans, Hawaii voters and UFC personalities lately. But it’s not all smooth sailing for Penn who is trailing behind former governor in the ratings.
Penn has being doing great in fundraising even outraising former governor Duke Aiona in the GOP Fundraising.
BJ Penn raised $225,000 during the first half of this year. This placed him at #1 among the leading Republican contenders for governor.
Penn continues to be in the best financial position among the GOP candidates as we enter the final month before votes are deposited in mailboxes. At the beginning of July, his campaign said that it had $140,000 on hand.
A month before the election day, people are still unsure on who they’d choose to be their governor.
Duke Aiona, a former lieutenant governor who unsuccessfully ran twice for the seat is currently edging ahead of Penn by a few percent, 27% to 24%. With a margin of error of 6 percent from the 269 voters, the competition is far more competitive than what it seems.
Despite running as a republican Penn insists that he’s being pressured by the Democratic Party. In a video he released he explains:
“All right. What’s up Hawaii? The Democrat Party is shaking in their boots right now. The Democrat establishment is crying to the Republican establishment telling them please you guys, don’t let BJ Penn run. These guys are these guys are so scared.”
” We’re going to win the primary and we’re going to win the general. They know we’re going to run the general they’ve tried everything they could. ”
“They sent people to my house to talk to me. They realized that was a bad idea. They tried to buy me off they realized that’s never gonna happen.”
It’s certainly interesting to have such a high profile celebrity running for office in Hawaii. However BJ’s policies are somewhat of a mess. He has expressed a number of strategies he plans to utilize – which often contradict each other.
He had the following exchange when he wen on the Joe Rogan experience:
Rogan: When you say anti business like, how are they anti business?
Penn: As far as with the regulations, it takes so long, you know, you go to the planning department, and they hold you up for another eight months. And it’s just, you know, the taxes are so high, we got the highest, the highest state income tax…
Rogan: And what is the state income tax in Hawaii?
Penn: I don’t, I don’t got the exact number right now.
Rogan: We’ll get Jamie to pull that up that.
Penn: We talk about that often.
Rogan: So what would you do differently in terms of like, what are they doing? Like, are you saying like planning and regulations like what is that about? Is that about concerns for the environment? Because you’re on an island, like, what is that?
Penn: I don’t know why they’re just so slow. They’re just so slow with that stuff.
Still those pesky policy questions didn’t prevent former Democtratic Governer of Hawaii to endorse Penn.