Legislative campaigns competitive to the end

When the Kaua‘i voters go to the polls Tuesday to elect the island’s next state legislative team, they will side either with incumbent Democrats who tout they have experience from doing the job or with Republican challengers who are calling for change.

Either collectively, or individually, House Rep. Ezra Kanoho, D- East and South Kaua‘i (15th District), House Rep. Hermina Morita, D-North Kaua‘i (14th House District), and House Rep. Bertha Kawakami, D-West Kaua’i-Ni‘ihau (16th House District) unanimously supported passage of Act 51, which calls for major school reform, funded plans to improve highways to ease traffic congestion and supported funding for affordable housing.

On the Republican side:

• John Hoff, who hopes to unseat Kanoho, wants to revise Act 51 to bring more money into the classrooms.

• Mamo Cummings, the former president of the Kaua‘i Chamber of Commerce who hopes to unseat Morita, wants more emphasis on public safety and help for small businesses.

• JoAnne S. Georgi, who is running against Kawakami, said she wants the Legislature to stop “raiding” special funds so that more funds come back to Kaua‘i.

The outcome of the races will determine which political party will exert its influence on the island at the state level, and possibly influence the future path of Kaua‘i.

Morita said she believes she will be returned to office because she has successfully pushed through legislation to produce ethanol on Kaua’i to help save Gay & Robinson, Kauai’s last sugar plantation.

“It helps preserve existing agricultural jobs that pay a good living wage and provides health benefits,” Morita said. “I have put an emphasis on energy issues, because they effect everybody’s pocket book.”

She championed the “bottle bill” legislation, which puts a 6-cent redemption fee on the sale of beverage containers. Morita said the legislation will help keep Hawai‘i’s environment clean, as it will mean recyclable materials will be diverted away from landfills statewide, including the Kekaha landfill.

The Kaua‘i facility could be closed soon without state permits allowing for the expansion of the facility.

Morita also supports the war on crime, but not at the expense of what she sees as an erosion of civil liberties.

“It is making sure the police have probable cause, and making sure the use of ‘walk and talk’ (anti-crime programs) is not done randomly or indiscriminately,” she said.

Morita said she continually meets with constituents and has worked on issues that are of pressing concern to them, including traffic and crime.

At the same time, Morita said she has strived to work on issues that benefit the entire state. In turn, Kaua‘i benefits, she reasons.

“As a representative, there is an obligation of looking at the bigger picture,” she said. “By preserving what we have today, we are looking at how we can make things better for future generations.”

Morita has been credited with working with her peers in the Legislature to bring funding to Kaua‘i. Morita also is the chairwoman of the House Committee on Energy & Environmental Protection. Please go www.minamorita.com for more information on her candidacy.

Cummings said she feels she can do a better job than Morita because “I am in touch with constituents of (House) District 14. I am committed to serving them and feel deeply accountable to improve their futures.”

If elected, Cummings said she would work to stamp out drug use in her legislative district, because “that in itself would alleviate so many of our social problems.”

“We must stop the drugs from coming into our island and state,” she said. “And that means equipping law enforcement with the necessary tools.”

Cummings said not enough attention has been paid to finding solutions to traffic problems in her district.

“We need to be part of the solution and stop pointing fingers at agencies,” she said. “We need a stronger voice in the Legislature who will not be pushed around, and instead, I will speak up for the needs of the people.”

On the issue of education, Cummings said the public school system that has evolved while Democrats have held power in Hawai‘i for the past 40 years has not worked.

“Hawai‘i continues to be last in academic scores throughout the nation,” she said. Options to raise those scores have to be improved, including decentralization of the education system.”

She said small businesses need someone like her, who has business savvy, to be in public office.

“I, as president of the Kauai Chamber of Commerce, have been a strong advocate for Kaua‘i’s small business owners for the past five years at the Legislature,” she said.

The small business owners haven’t gotten much help from state legislators,” she said. “Our employers provide 80 percent of the jobs to our residents, and we must help them to be successful, to thrive and expand.”

Go to www.mamocummings.com for more information on her candidacy.

In the 15th House District race, Kanoho boasts 18 years on the job. He heads the Water, Land Use and Hawaiian Affairs Commission and is a member of three other powerful House committees.

Kanoho said he should be returned to another two-year term because he has done the job.

In the area of education, he said he vigorously supported Act 51, and has supported funding for capital improvement projects for the two schools in his legislative district, King Kaumuali‘i Elementary School and Chiefess Kamakahelei.

Before redistricting, Kapa‘a Middle School was in his district, and “we secured the funding for it,” Kanoho said.

On the issue of crime, “I have worked closely with the police and prosecuting attorney…supported the ice (crystal methamphetamine) abatement bill, which I vehemently supported.”

Kanoho said he supports the “walk and talk and knock and talk” anti-crime programs, and would favor a state constitutional amendment “to conform verbatim with the U.S. Constitution with respect to search and seizure.”

On affordable housing, Kanoho said he supported increasing a government-sponsored housing trust fund by $300,000 to benefit the Housing and Community Development Corporation of Hawaii, whose mission is to build such housing in the state.

Kanoho said he also favors using more state lands to create that type of housing.

On traffic, he said he supported funding to plan and design the expansion of Kaumuali‘i Highway from Lihu‘e to Kipu, and the extension of the Kapa‘a Bypass Road. The project has been put out to bid and the work should be completed by summer 2006, Kanoho said.

Candidate Hoff acknowledged that Kanoho represents only one legislative district, but he blamed the senior legislator for the problems with the public school system and islandwide traffic and housing problems.

“He is part of the leadership,” Hoff said. “I look at his record, and nothing has been done. We still don’t have affordable housing, and traffic problems are still there.”

Hoff said he has come up with a proposal he feels will help solve affordable housing, crime and traffic problems in the 15h House district.

“Transfer the inmates out of the jail (the Kaua‘i Community Correctional Center in Wailua), build a new jail in a remote area, put in additional two to three lanes next (mauka of the existing highway) and build affordable housing toward the mountains (mauka of the existing) jail,” Hoff said.

Smaller housing units that could be built could be sold to senior citizens, who would move out of their existing homes.

Those homes could be put up for sale, increasing the inventory of homes and, thus, help to drive down the cost of home prices and make housing more affordable. Hoff said.

“There will be (matching) federal money for traffic, federal money for crime and federal money for affordable housing,” Hoff said.

Hoff said he believes his proposal and other proposals will see the light of day because he, as a fellow Republican, has the ear of Gov. Linda Lingle.

“I can talk to Lingle, and she will listen, because I have campaigned with her for two campaigns,” Hoff said.

On education, Hoff contends the State Department of Education will be in the “business of managing bureaucracy” through Act 51, and he doesn’t want that.

Any available fund should not be used for administrative purposes, and should instead be directed to the classroom to benefit teachers and students, Hoff said.

Hoff is a substitute teacher who has attempted to create Hawai‘i first collective bargaining unit for substitute teachers statewide.

In the 16th House District race, Kawakami, who has held her seat since 1987, said she also will continue efforts to improve education.

“Education is the cornerstone of our community,” she said.. “I chose it (the education field) as a profession, and I have been an educator, I would say, close to 30 years).

Teaching is her way of expressing herself and reaching out to the community, she said, adding “I feel I am building upon a legacy of competence and caring for people, young and old.”

Kawakami started as a public school teacher in 1954 and retired as deputy district superintendent of the state Department of Education, Kaua‘i district, in January 1987.

She said she supports “putting students first and improving achievement” and “making sure the schools work hand-in-hand with parents so they leave no child behind,” referring to the federal mandate to ensure student achievement nationwide.

Getting students interested in school starts early on, she said. “We must start smart with quality pre-schools, more reading. And getting children properly educated starts with readiness from k (kindergarten) to high school to college,” Kawakami said.

All students in the state should have the opportunity to go to college, Kawakami said.

“I have had bills to make sure they can get loans … and (I am) making sure the loans are recaptured so that the fund will keep going,” she said.

Teachers need to be of high-quality and should be properly compensated for their training and expertise, Kawakami said.

She has supported ongoing efforts by state legislators to address affordable housing, and on the subject of improving the economy, she said the agricultural industry has to be protected as it is the “backbone of our community.”

Kawakami is the vice-chairwoman of the House Committee on Finance. And as a member of the House Committee on Human Services and Housing, she said she has worked on improving long-term care programs and ensuring prescription drugs remain affordable.

Georgi, Kawakami’s Republican opponent, said if she is elected, she will work to bring back to Kaua‘i funds that were intended for the island.

Georgi said she will not “raid special (state) funds, which have been raided (by the Democratic Party-dominated Legislature) for who knows how many years?”

“The gasoline tax fund, they have taken $156 million for salary increases for government workers for eight years,” she said.

The Legislature also “took out $1 million per year out of the transit accommodation tax and used that on O‘ahu for a police station in Waikiki,” she said.

“They also took out $32 million from the state Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs fund, and I don’t know what they did with the money,” she said.

If the funds were available to Kaua‘i, the expansion of the state highway from Lihu‘e to Kipu wouldn’t be in the planing stages, but would be “completed by now,” Georgi said.

Funds also are needed to improve and maintain state parks, she said. “The parks have been sorely neglected. Bathrooms at Polihale (State Park) are disgusting. The barbecue pits have not been replaced since Hurricane ‘Iniki ( in 1992),” she said.

Georgi also said some boat slips at Port Allen are collapsing and that the main pier is crumbling. The state Department of Transportation has an existing master plan that calls for rehabilitation of the port.

Georgi also said state legislators have “not been paying attention to our infrastructure,” and that if she is elected, “I will absolutely pay attention to that.”

“I promise not to raid special funds and to make sure the (legislative) budget is balanced,” she said.

That could only happen through approval of a constitutional amendment by the voters.

Georgi is a vacation counselor and a volunteer interpreter at the National Tropical Botanical Garden.