PDHblog
This is a place for members of Progressive Democrats of Hawai‘i to express their thoughts
and exasperations about political happenings. The opinions and views are not necessarily
those of PDH's steering committee or membership as a whole.

The Star Bulletin ran an article today listing the amounts of money raised so far by the candidates for the 2nd CD US Representative race (I have re-ordered them by amount rather than alphabetically as they were originally listed).

Mazie Hirono, D: $438,713
Quentin Kawananakoa, R: $377,770
Colleen Hanabusa, D: $248,603
Brian Schatz, D: $221,794
Gary Hooser, D: $167,043
Clayton Hee, D: $66,680
Nestor Garcia, D: $44,400
Bob Hogue, R: $30,956
Joe Zuiker, D: $3,830
Total: $1,599,789

The sad reality of our political system is that you need access to large amounts of money in order to be a “viable” candidate and get your message out. I truly hope that the outcome of this race will reflect more than just the amount of money put into it by the different campaigns.

This report only covers 9 candidates in this race, yet according to the Hawaii Office of Elections website currently there are 21 people who have pulled papers for this race and 9 have filed (not the same 9 as above). It will be interesting to see how many file their papers by the deadline next week (7/25).

PDH will be hosting a candidate forum for this race next week Weds at McCoy Pavilion. More info about this coming soon…

Chris Bowers (“DLC Disavows Case And Other Things”) today offers some news on the DLC and Ed Case, one of its card-carrying members. He feigns surprise that they’re not supporting him. The reason has nothing to do with his score on Progressive Punch, but rather the fact that Akaka is the incumbent. Sen. Charles Schumer, in a fund-rasing e-mail from the DSCC today, underscores this point when he says that the DSCC supports Democratic *incumbents*. One wonders how strongly they will support Akaka.
Bob Schacht

I was listening to HPR on my way to the PDH general meeting yesterday and they were talking about renewable energy in Hawaii. I missed the beginning of the show, so I am not sure what specific plan they were talking about, but it was still very interesting to hear what they had to say.

One woman called in and asked something to the effect of, “if we were to use all of the technologies available to us today in regards to clean, renewable energy that average citizens as well as native Hawaiians would have little to no objection to… how much of Hawaii’s power demand could we achieve in 10 yrs.” Before the guest had a chance to answer, I was thinking to myself, “All of it!” The answer was, “2 to 100 times the projected demand.”

Wow. So why aren’t we going in that direction? According to the guests it basically has to do with lobbying by the oil industry (including HECO), coupled with the fact that citizens have not demanded it. I don’t want to get into the lobbying aspect right now… but what can WE do to create a groundswell demanding that our state move aggressively toward freedom from fossil fuels. There is so much potential here, there is no excuse!

Somehow I got on Ed Case’s email list, even though I don’t recall ever signing up for it. Oh well… It is interesting seeing what he sends out. The other day I got an email from him titled, “81 Days to Election Day and No Debates” that concluded with the following excerpt:

There are just 81 days left to election day. We are both asking Hawaii’s voters to make a crucial choice on the future of Hawaii’s representation in the United States Senate.

Joint discussion and debate on these choices and related issues is critical to providing voters with the full range of information with which to make their decisions. It is a basic job requirement for any United States Senator, and it is a basic obligation of any candidate for the Senate, incumbent or challenger, to his or her voters. Several of your own Senate colleagues running for reelection have already recognized their obligation by debating their challengers on statewide and national television.

We should do likewise, and we have ample time, before and through our five-week August district work period as well as after, to undertake a range of appearances statewide. For my own scheduling purposes and so I can continue to fairly characterize your actions, I ask for your response at this time.

Sigh, is he really still going on and on about this?!

He claims that a debate is needed so that people know where they stand on the issues… Right. Do you really get a chance to understand where a candidate is coming from when they debate? Typically they simply truncate their answers into soundbites so that they will come across well on TV and can be quoted easily in the paper. If you like something you year, you may check the candidates website to see how they flesh out their ideas and stances on issues. Yet when you go to Case’s website, he doesn’t outline his stance on any issues beyond the soundbites that he prints on his “Agenda for a Better, America Better World” brochure. Contrast that with the extensive issue statements on Akaka’s website.

I particularly like it when Case points out that it “is a basic job requirement for any United States Senator” to provide “voters with the full range of information with which to make their decisions.” I agree. Which is why I commend Sen. Akaka for making it a priority to answer the questionnaire that we submitted to him as a part of PDH’s endorsement process. Ed Case didn’t answer our questions. Could it be that he didn’t want to be pinned down on his position on the war in Iraq? It seems to me, that Ed Case is more interested in appearing next to Akaka on TV so that he can show everyone how young he is, than in informing us about where he stands on issues.

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