Combining the rural North Shore of Kaua’i with an urban slice of O’ahu in one state Senate district is, according to Kalaheo resident Betty Chandler, a silly idea. “I want what’s best for Kaua’i, and I don’t think we want
Combining the rural North Shore of Kaua’i with an urban slice of O’ahu in one state Senate district is, according to Kalaheo resident Betty Chandler, a silly idea.
“I want what’s best for Kaua’i, and I don’t think we want an urban senator,” said Chandler, a Republican member of the Kaua’i Apportionment Advisory Council.
The state Reapportionment Commission, which has no Kaua’i members, has redrawn the legislative districts with the help of 2000 Census figures in an effort to make districts nearly the same size in population.
In the process, the number of “canoe districts,” or districts which cross not only ocean but county lines, has doubled from two to four.
Two of the – one House and one Senate – include Kaua’i’s North Shore and portions of O’ahu. It is the only place in the state where the canoe districts of the House and Senate seats aren’t similar in geographic locations, Chandler said.
The current canoe districts involving north Kaua’i both include rural portions of east Maui.
The proposed new House district encompasses north Kaua’i and part of O’ahu that includes Schofield Barracks and rural north-central O’ahu.
The proposed Senate district includes north Kaua’i and a portion of urban Kailua, and is the only new Senate district which doesn’t come close to mirroring a canoe House seat, Chandler said.
Chandler, who like most of the Kaua’i population isn’t directly impacted by the redistricting, still wants what’s best for her island.
“Getting out of the canoe districts probably won’t happen,” she said, but Kauaians can have a voice in drawing of districts by attending the only Kaua’i meeting on the state reapportionment plan. It’s scheduled for Monday at 7 p.m. in the Kaua’i County Council chambers of the Historic County Building in LIhu’e.
The Reapportionment Commission has “canoed Kaua’i with a totally urban area,” she said of the new Senate seat, instead of making the Senate seat similar to the House seat that includes north Kaua’i and the Wahiawa area of O’ahu.
It was likely done that way to avoid putting the current Senate president, Democrat Robert Bunda, into the district including Kaua’i. Bunda now represents parts of O’ahu.
“They are supposed to look at similarities,” meaning the rural nature of north Kaua’i and the rural nature of the Wahiawa region of O’ahu, Chandler said. “The last thing that I think we want is a senator coming from an urban district, because that’s where he (or she) would put his emphasis, I would think.”
The numbers appear to support her argument. In the proposed House district including north Kaua’i and the Wahiawa area of O’ahu, the Kaua’i portion has 85 percent of the population. That means a Kaua’i resident should be elected to the new House canoe district.
State Rep. Mina Morita, a Democrat from Hanalei whose 12th District includes east Maui and north Kaua’i, currently holds that seat.
The reverse is true for the proposed Senate seat, where the Kaua’i portion of the district is much smaller in population than the Kailua portion. State Sen. Avery Chumbley (D-6th District, including east Maui and north Kaua’i) currently holds the Kaua’i portion of that proposed new Senate seat, and Sen. Fred Hemmings (R-25th District) holds the O’ahu portion.
That new Senate district, as drawn, would most likely be won by an O’ahu resident of the canoe district.
“We should be with a rural Senate district, not the urban. I think that is terrible for Hanalei,” said Chandler, who has been told about an alternative plan, but hasn’t yet seen the maps for it.
Staff Writer Paul C. Curtis can be reached at mailto:pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 224).
