Education K-12

There were more local Republican challengers than in a decade, and they were well informed, well qualified and had charisma, yet one by one they went down ....

To locate your assigned polling place, visit the online Polling Place Locator by clicking HERE.

I invite you to join us after the polls close for an Election Night Watch Party at the Dole Cannery Ballrooms. Click HERE for more information.

Click a link and find out what the rest of Hawaii media has not been telling you....

Duke Aiona and Lynn Finnegan today toured the Roberts Hawai`i office with President Robert Iwamoto where he met and talked story with Roberts Hawai`i employees. Duke and Lynn also visited Pioneer Plaza to meet and greet with supporters and walk through small businesses to connect with voters.  In addition, Duke and Lynn visited Island insurance Company, Bank of Hawai‘i, Matson, Alexander and Baldwin and a medical building in Kapahulu.

“You raise important concerns about the impact that the standards could have on Hawaii’s two refineries, and by extension, the State’s economy and the Pacific Command,” said Jackson in her October 25, 2010 response letter to Governor Lingle.  “Your letter effectively summarizes the primary ways in which the situation of the Tesoro and Chevron refineries in Hawaii differs from that of refineries located on the mainland of the United States.”

Colleen Hanabusa has used every opportunity to say that she “supports our kupuna.” Which makes her unabashed support of the $1 trillion government takeover of health care known as Obamacare that much more puzzling.

Recently, in a debate, she claimed that no seniors would see Medicare cuts – that it is guaranteed. Actually, that’s false. Here are the facts....

Duke Aiona is being blamed for everything the State Legislature and Judiciary has done wrong.

Generic Ballot

• Generic GOPer  46%
• Generic Dem    42%

Originally posted May 18, 2010.  Re-posted in honor of Dennis Mitsunaga's $25,000 contribution to pay for Hawaii Democratic Party "coordinated campaign" attack ads. 

In the past four years (at least), she did not encounter a single tax increase, government regulation or pay raise that she thought fell short of getting "the biggest bang" for Hawaii taxpayers' bucks.

Djou has now raised more than $362,000 in October alone and over the past two months has raised more than $752,000 - nearly $200,000 more than his opponent.

Honolulu, HI — Congressman Charles K. Djou (HI-01) released the following statement after attending Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s speech on America’s engagement in the Asia Pacific....

But Djou also isn't shy about emphasizing his Republican views on the economy: he views the stimulus as a failure, wants Congress to spend a lot less, supports a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution and supports the extension of all the Bush-era tax cuts.

Djou has "essentially been very candid and straightforward about his Republican principles. And, love 'em or hate 'em, they're out there pretty clear," said Neal Milner, a professor of political science at the University of Hawaii at Manoa....

1. Shall the B.O.E. be changed to a board appointed by the Governor, with the advice and consent of the Senate, as provided by law?

We recommend YES so that there will be accountability (resting on the governor's shoulders) within the B.O.E.

HONOLULU – Governor Linda Lingle has released a $1,500,000 capital improvement project grant that will go toward the building of a permanent Windward Clubhouse for the Boys and Girls Club of Hawai‘i.  Under a partnership between the Boys and Girls Club of Hawai‘i and the Department of Education, the facility will be located on the grounds of Kailua Intermediate School. 

He’s caring and courageous, taking on the political establishment to put working families first, fighting irresponsible spending that threatens our keiki’s future, creating new local jobs by opening overseas markets so Hawaii families can stay here together.

A poll released by the Honolulu Star-Advertiser and Hawaii News Now shows Colleen Hanabusa in trouble. Across the board, she is struggling not only to make inroads with independent voters and younger voters but also struggling to seal the deal with her own party and union members.

HONOLULU – Governor Linda Lingle has released $140 million to the University of Hawai‘i for the construction of the new University of Hawai‘i Cancer Center. The funds were released as preparations get underway for breaking ground on the new state-of-the-art facility on Thursday, Oct. 28. 

The telephone survey, conducted by ccAdvertising, showed Charles leading Hanabusa 44% to 35%, with a margin of error of +/-3%. The survey had 2,747 participants.

Groups and individuals backing Democrat Rep Neil Abercrombie for Governor and Democrat State Senator Colleen Hanabusa for Congress are holding a “Use Your Voice, Use Your Vote” rally on the University of Hawaii Manoa campus Tuesday.  The event is being promoted with UH resources including an official UH Manoa news release. 

Hawaii Revised Statutes Chapter 84 clearly prohibits “using state time, equipment, supplies, or state premises for campaign activities or campaign purposes.”  Use of state computers and email accounts is specifically prohibited.

According to the non-partisan Tax Foundation, the tax burden for the average working family in Hawaii’s First Congressional District where Charles Djou lives would be $1,784 higher if tax rates are allowed to increase at the close of this year—if Congress does nothing, as it is currently poised to do.

Hawaii's first congressional district, former home to President Barack Obama, longtime Democratic district, but the GOP has a great shot at keeping this seat. Why? Well – a couple reasons: foremost being that this year seems to be the year where the impossible becomes possible in Hawaii politics: a Republican, Charles Djou, won the special election for former Democratic Rep. Neil Abercrombie's seat and now, when Democrat Colleen Hanabusa is trying to take it back, Djou is well-positioned to keep the seat.

The Hawaii Republican Party has released its endorsements and recommendations for non-partisan County Council and Mayor races, County-level charter initiatives, and the two proposed Amendments to the State Constitution.

Two weeks ago the Hill released a poll in which Djou led his once and current opponent, Hanabusa, 45 to 41 percent — within a margin of error of 4.9 percent. The poll also found 61 percent of respondents had a favorable opinion of the congressman, while 56 percent did of his adversary. Fortune, it seems, is smiling on Djou.

Hanabusa believes that more government is the answer to every problem, even though the massive stimulus and government expansion into virtually every sector of our economy have failed.

"As if the lies from mainland special interests weren't enough, the local establishment has launched a smear campaign of its own. The group, called 'Working Family for Hawaii,' is really the Hawaii Government Employees Union, which is apparently too ashamed of its false ads to run them under its own name."

HONOLULU-- In her recent ad, Colleen Hanabusa boasts that she would have voted for the $26 billion state bailout bill that put Hawaii taxpayers on the hook for bailing out fiscally irresponsible state and municipal governments.

More arrogance from the nation's only molester-employing Legislator.

“Inouye backed Colleen Hanabusa in May’s special election for Hawaii’s first congressional district.  She came in second place and is still defying political analysts who believed the seat was a safe Democrat seat by polling behind Republican Charles Djou in recent polls.  Inouye also backed Mufi Hannemann for governor and Kirk Caldwell for mayor, both of whom lost their election."

This is the first American Crossroads independent expenditure campaign ad.

"Tonight she was unable to articulate anything the Congress had done in the past year that she would have voted against, she was unable to describe how she would encourage job creation and she continued to tout the success of the so-called 'stimulus' bill which has failed by the very standard its proponents set. The people of Hawaii deserve independent, fiscally responsible leadership, not a rubber stamp."

UK Daily Mail, National Journal, Atlanta Journal Constitution, MSNBC First Read, Washington Examiner, The Hill, Daily KOS . . . .   

The Milken Institute rankings of 200 largest US metro areas shows that Honolulu has risen from 100th to 55th overall in the combined rankings based on eight measures of job growth used by Milken.  The brightest spot for Honolulu is its ranking of 30th in “short term job growth” comparing employment numbers for April 2009 with April 2010. 

The Taxpayer’s Perspective highlights two ballot measures in Hawaii, including a statewide measure that would give the legislature discretion to use property tax rebates intended for taxpayers and a local measure in Oahu that would create a transit authority to oversee a rail project.

"I do not believe the future of our economy is going to come from a bureaucrat," Djou said. "The future of our economy is going to come from an individual, an individual American who takes a chance, goes into the marketplace and creates a job."

Wall Street Journal, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Hill

The Democratic Governors Association is fighting back with a new ad framing a vote for Mr. Aiona as a vote against President Obama. The ad quotes Mr. Aiona himself saying electing a GOP governor would be a "knock-out punch" against Hawaii's favorite son in the White House.

However, this may not be a risk-free strategy for Democrats. The Republican Governors Association has its own ad up that gently chides Mr. Abercrombie for being out-of-touch with the state. The ad doesn't clobber Mr. Obama, but says: "Maybe people in Washington don't care how you handle the federal budget -- by printing money, raising taxes, and increasing the deficit -- but in Hawaii, we do care."

In her own words, Colleen Hanabusa said in one of her recent advertisements that she is the kind of politician that, “What you see is what you’ll get.” Since she asked for it, let’s take a look at her record…

Attacks by the White House and the Democratic National Committee on outside groups like Crossroads and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Collegio said, have helped energize their base and bring in more donations.

The first eight races in which Crossroads will run ads include two for incumbents — Dan Lungren in  California’s Third Congressional District and Charles Djou in Hawaii’s First Congressional District.

Hawaii Rep. Charles Djou may be getting the biggest prize: Boehner said Djou will get a seat on the Appropriations Committee if he wins re-election next month after winning the special election in May to replace Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D). Hawaii Sen. Daniel Inouye (D) chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, so the appointment would give the island state an outsized influence on Appropriations.

New numbers out Wednesday from The Hill's midterm poll give Djou a four-point lead over Democrat Colleen Hanabusa, despite an Obama endorsement for the Democratic nominee. Djou leads 45 percent to 41, with 12 percent of likely voters undecided. 

The poll, conducted for The Hill by Penn Schoen Berland, surveyed 406 likely voters and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points.

To make matters even worse for Democrat candidates like Hanabusa, President Obama recently admitted in an interview that he realized too late that “there’s no such thing as shovel-ready projects,” confirming once and for all that the stimulus was a policy disaster. After leaving small businesses and hard-working families to suffer from Washington’s egregious miscalculations – how can Hanabusa possibly defend the failed trillion-dollar stimulus now?

Never has there been a more gross example of the nation's heritage being mismanaged than at the Ewa Field battlefield, where US Marines died in defense of their country on a December 7 Sunday morning, where Navy Region Hawaii allowed this hallowed ground to became a totally forgotten GARBAGE DUMP - until Save Ewa Field brought this gross mismanagement to local and national attention.

The April 26 Denver Post agrees:

Exhibiting quite a lot of gall, General Motors is trying to spin the public with an ad campaign launched last week based on breathtakingly misleading information.

Djou, a Captain in the U.S. Army Reserve, represents the First Congressional District, which is home to the U.S. Pacific Command, the U.S. Army Pacific, the U.S. Pacific Fleet, the U.S. Pacific Air Force, Pearl Harbor, Camp H.M. Smith, Fort Shafter and Tripler Army Medical Center. Ensuring that these bases and military installations have adequate funding is in the best interest of Hawaii and the United States.