No plans for county offices State Sen. Jonathan Chun has been off-island a lot recently preparing for the special legislative session dealing with Hawaii’s economic troubles, so he hasn’t been privy to rumors of late about his political future on
No plans for county offices
State Sen. Jonathan Chun has been off-island a lot recently preparing for the special legislative session dealing with Hawaii’s economic troubles, so he hasn’t been privy to rumors of late about his political future on Kaua’i.
But he wants the rumors to stop.
“I have no interest in running for (the Kaua’i County )council. And I do not intend to run for mayor,” he said, debunking those two rumors.
He said Ron Kouchi and Bryan Baptiste, who’ve announced their campaigns for mayor, are “good candidates,” and Kaua’i “does not need more qualified candidates.” He said “there will probably be more,” however.
Chun said he likes the Senate and plans to stay there if the voters agree.
“I intend to run for the Senate in 2002. I have many projects and things I want to see get done,” he said.
Chun has been working at his legislative job a little harder than is usually required in October. He said the special session, which began Monday and was called by Governor Ben Cayetano after the terrorist strikes on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon led to a slumping tourist industry, has been a mixed experience thus far.
Of 17 emergency bills introduced, 15 have been approved by legislative committees. They now go to the full House and Senate for debate.
“Each of them addresses specific issues. Possibly the most positive is the bill approving the funding for a (combined University of Hawai’i) medical and cancer research center at Kakaako” on Oahu, Chun said. “There are two aspects to this. One is the educational aspect of having a medical and cancer research center. The second is the possible increased revenue to the state.”
The center could become “a great economic engine that will bring in not just the (grant and research) money, but also the people,” he said. “This is a long-term project, not an immediate fix, although the short-term benefit will be the construction jobs” related to building the center.
Chun voiced discomfor with a proposal for granting the governor special powers during a state of emergency that might emerge from terrorist activity. The powers would last until June 30, 2002, halfway through Cayetano’s final year in office.
The powers would include allowing the governor to suspend laws.
The proposal “is dangerous” because it could lead to suspended rules “and even contracts during times of emergency. You could do a lot of damage in six months, depending on what your bent is,” said Chun, a Democrat, as is Cayetano.
But he said the bill wouldn’t give Cayetano any authority that governors in other states don’t also have.
Senate President Robert Bunda, an Oahu Democrat, minimized concerns about the special powers bill.
“We didn’t give him all that much power. Our concern was that there would be no finality to emergency powers,” Bunda said.
Republican legislators have opposed the emergency powers bill.
Staff writer Dennis Wilken can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 252) and mailto:dwilken@pulitzer.net
