Few foes so far for House incumbents
All three of Kaua’i’s members of the state House of Representatives are up for
re-election this fall, and so far two of them have opponents.
Through
yesterday, as the candidate filing period continued, incumbents Hermina Morita
and Bertha Kawakami had drawn opposition from a Natural Law Party entrant and a
businessman, respectively.
The third incumbent, Ezra Kanoho, was
unopposed.
The Kaua’i representatives and the rest of the 51 state House
members are seeking two-year terms.
Here is a look at each of the Kaua’i
candidates who have filed papers to run for the offices:
* 12th
District (east Maui, north Kaua’i)
Hanalei resident Hermina M. “Mina”
Morita, a Democrat, is the married mother of two daughters. She is a full-time
legislator, chairwoman of the House Energy and Environmental Protection
Committee, and an assistant Majority Floor Leader.
Morita also sits on the
House committees on Consumer Protection and Commerce, Judiciary and Hawaiian
Affairs, Ocean Recreation and Marine Resources, and Water and Land Use. It is
her focus on environmental and energy issues in her chair committee that she is
most proud of, she said.
Getting cultural impacts recognized as important
for environmental review of proposed projects is one of her biggest
accomplishments, she said. Also, though Gov. Ben Cayetano vetoed a bill that
would have established statewide standards for rural roads, the state
Department of Transportation Highways Division will still include those
standards, she continued.
Also not passed during the last legislative
session was a bill establishing renewable energy portfolio standards for the
state. Morita said that debate will continue in the 2001 and 2002 legislative
sessions, as it is a crucial component for both economic development and
economic recovery.
“That’s what I want to accomplish in the next two years:
A strong energy policy, and developing the energy vision for the next 10 to 20
years,” Morita said.
Kilauea resident Ann E. West-Trickle is the only other
person who has filed papers to seek the 12th District state House seat. The
Natural Law Party candidate was unavailable for comment.
To date, there are
no Maui residents in this race. The majority of registered voters in the
district are Kaua’i residents.
* 13th District (Puhi, Lihu’e,
Waipouli)
Democrat incumbent Ezra Kanoho is to date the only candidate for
this seat. A member of the House Finance Committee all 14 of his years in the
House, he is an assistant Majority Floor Leader, has chaired the House
Legislative Management Committee for the last eight years, and is vice chairman
of the Water and Land Use Committee.
Also a member of the Energy and
Environmental Protection and Ocean Recreation and Marine Resources Committee,
Kanoho, 72, lives in Lihue with his wife Pauline.
They have four grown
sons and six grandchildren.
A full-time legislator who worked for GTE
Hawaiian Telephone for nearly 40 years, Kanoho said he is most proud of the
amount of money for projects he has been able to secure for the island.
“We did quite a bit for education,” he said, including securing $34.5
million in funding for the Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle School opening next
month in Puhi.
He also points to economic initiatives, including lots of
tax credits, he said he helped pass during 1999-2000.
Kanoho is confident
that a bill can pass the 2001 Legislature granting counties and state immunity
from lawsuits arising from accidents occurring at public facilities. Mainly,
this legislation would allow county lifeguards to patrol state beaches without
exposing the counties or state to lawsuits in case of drownings or injuries at
beaches offering lifeguard protection.
Juan Lugo, a Lihue resident and
Republican, has taken out papers to run against Kanoho. At presstime, however,
he had not filed papers.
* 14th District (Koloa, Waimea, Ni’ihau)
The
Democratic incumbent in this district is Hanapepe resident Bertha Kawakami,
seeking her seventh consecutive term after being appointed to the seat held
previously by her late husband, Richard Kawakami.
Bertha Kawakami, a
full-time legislator, worked in education before entering the House.
Educational issues remain key for her, she said.
Vice chairwoman of the
House Finance Committee, she has secured funds for educational facilities,
libraries, personnel and technological infrastructure for schools across the
state.
She is also a member of House committees on Health and Human
Services and Housing, and has been in support of legislative initiatives to
strengthen the Kaua’i economy, promote tourism and diversified agriculture and
the island’s construction industry.
Kawakami supports Native Hawaiian
sovereignty and is a member of the state House Hawaiian Caucus.
Once
again challenging Kawakami is John Hoff, 60, of Lawa’i.
“I am a family
candidate,” versus Kawakami the special-interest candidate, said Hoff, a
Republican, father, small-business owner and community volunteer active in the
Adopt-A-Teacher program and other initiatives.
He ran against Kawakami two
years ago, angered by a $48 million non-bid contract awarded by Gov. Ben
Cayetano on O’ahu.
Hoff is married with three sons and a daughter, is a
Coast Guard and Peace Corps veteran. He has been on Kaua’i for 37 years.
He
expressed disappointment that Kawakami turned down the prestigious and powerful
position of chairwoman of the House Finance Committee. He said the committee
chairman, Rep. Dwight Takamine, secured $57 million for public school
improvements on the Big Island, while Kawakami brought home only $3.8
million.
The Big Island got around 20 percent of all state Department of
Education capital improvement project funding, while Kaua’i received about 1.5
percent, Hoff said. Where colleges are concerned, the Big Island received $11
million for the University of Hawai’i at Hilo, while Kaua’i Community College
got zero, he added.
Hoff said he wants former sugar cane fields to once
again be productive (he has governmental permission to grow industrial hemp for
rope, clothing and other items), and he wants to get overpasses installed
between Puhi and Lihue to eliminate traffic signals that he said contributes to
the daily bumper-to-bumper traffic on that stretch of Kaumuali’i
Highway.
He also said he questions why the state’s public hospital system
is in such financial trouble.
Staff writer Paul C. Curtis can be
reached at 245-3681 (ext. 224) or pcurtis@pulitzer.net