Wednesday night's surprise American Idol ouster of supposed shoo-in La Toya London is being credited to a grassroots campaign for Jasmine Trias.
Though most critics found the 17-year-old Trias's performance to have been mediocre this week, she was championed by voters in her native Hawaii, from radio hosts and a TV news anchor to a newspaper and even congressman Ed Case, the Associated Press reports.
On Thursday, the day after Jasmine made the finals (along with Fantasia Barrino and Diana DeGarmo), she was greeted by fans at the Honolulu airport before she received an official proclamation declaring it "Jasmine Trias Day."
In the words of Lt. Gov. James "Duke" Aiona, Jasmine has galvanized the 50th state. "You represent us very well," he said.
Trias told the crowd that she thought she was going to be eliminated Wednesday. Executive producer Simon Fuller said she had given farewell gifts to the staff.
But out of the 29 states in phone company Verizon's local territory, only New York and California logged more calls on its network than Hawaii after the show, according to a Verizon spokesman. (California and New York are among the most populous states in the nation; Hawaii, among the least.)
"We hear people say they have voted much more than 100 times," said Michael W. Perry, co-host of the top-rated morning radio show in Honolulu, which has taken up Jasmine's cause. "For a lot of people it's a Tuesday night habit to see how many times they can get through."
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