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.

great news nationally (i am giddy!), and also some good news locally. these are the ones i take note of: (full results at office of elections website)

State Representative, Dist 28
(D) RHOADS, Karl 2,393 50.1%
(R) WONG, Collin C.O. 2,179 45.7%
this is the one where lingle appointed harbin… notorious due to the fact that she joined the party at the last minute and then was found out that she had some embarrassing skeletons of her own. harbin lost the primary to rhoads; nice to see a (real) democrat keep this seat.

State Representative, Dist 23
(D) BROWER, Tom 2,319 49.6%
(R) STEVENS, Anne V. 2,127 45.5%
another seat in play with a lingle appointment; this one due to galen fox resigning after he got caught with his hands in someone else’s pants. republican seat goes to a democrat.

State Senator, Dist 24
(D) TOKUDA, Jill 8,905 55.6%
(R) LEONG, Keoki 6,629 41.4%
this was the seat vacated by bob hogue when he decided to run for US House 2nd CD. this race was touted as an interesting one since either tokuda or leong were set to be the youngest in the senate. net gain, democrat. good job jill.

State Representative, Dist 25
(D) BELATTI, Della Au 3,718 58.1%
(R) OKUBO, Tracy (Hanayo Y.L.) 2,463 38.5%
this is the seat that was vacated by brian schatz when he ran for US House 2nd CD. this was okubo’s 2nd time (if i am not mistaken) running for office so she arguably had better name recognition than 1st time belatti. i actually held signs for della yesterday and am happy to see that she pulled out a convincing victory. i hope she is as good as i think she may be.

No Departmental School District Residency
Number To Vote For: 3
IKEDA, Donna R. 115,664 17.2%
KNUDSEN, Karen 103,292 15.4%
IWAMOTO, Kim Coco 76,364 11.4%
the big one here is iwamoto, i am super stoked that she made the cut. i truly believe that she will be a wonderful fresh voice in the BOE. other notable is that darwin ching, lingle appointee, was on the bottom.

State Representative, Dist 40
(D) HAR, Sharon 3,766 51.4%
(R) MOSES, Mark 3,467 47.4%
republican incumbent out to new dem. enough said.

Honolulu Charter Amendments: (the environmental ones)
Honolulu: Land Conservation and Affordable
YES 122,231 54.8%
NO 86,067 38.6%

Honolulu: Curbside Recycling
YES 163,107 74.3%
NO 39,070 17.8%

Honolulu: Pedestrian and Bicycle Priority
YES 160,904 72.2%
NO 46,340 20.8%

all three of these are HUGE. all three were expected to be voted down due to heavy backing for the ‘no’ vote by the mayor, honolulu advertiser, and others. primary support was from sierra club and some smaller environmental groups. this is a big statement as to where the priorities of honolulu residents are in comparison to how the city has been prioritizing things. shortly after hanneman was elected, we heard that curbside recycling was off the table all of a sudden. whenever i asked about city recycling at my neighborhood board meeting i was told by my city coucil rep that they already were… with H-Power. what?? H-Power=recyling. i don’t think so! let’s hope that we see some change for the better with these charter amendments.

also some not so good news, primarily this one:

State Senator, Dist 19
(R) GABBARD, Mike 6,633 55.2%
(D) YAMAMOTO, George S. 5,136 42.7%
in case you are new to hawaii or have otherwise been under a rock for the last several years, gabbard led the ’save traditional marriage’ fight, which brought a ton of super conservative money to hawaii. a big step back for civil rights in the state that saw the first inter-racial marriages. very sad to see him in any elected office. i hope people pay very close attention to his agenda.

those are my quick thoughts as of about mid-night election night…