PUHI — If the polls are right, it’s anybody’s guess who is going to represent the Democratic Party against the Republican Party in the November general election for governor. Editor’s note: This is the first part of a two-part article
PUHI — If the polls are right, it’s anybody’s guess who is going to represent the Democratic Party against the Republican Party in the November general election for governor.
Editor’s note: This is the first part of a two-part article on the first-ever gubernatorial debate held at Kaua‘i Community College Thursday.
PUHI — If the polls are right, it’s anybody’s guess who is going to represent the Democratic Party against the Republican Party in the November general election for governor.
A debate Thursday evening on Kaua‘i showed local supporters split between two of the Democratic Party’s top candidates.
Former Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann and former U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie, D-urban O‘ahu, went toe-to-toe in the first gubernatorial debate ever held at Kaua‘i Community College.
Hannemann said Hawai‘i needs leadership with executive experience, someone who will “hit the ground running and won’t need on-the-job training.”
“If someone applies for a job, it’s important to assess his background,” Hannemann said. “It’s important to look at it in terms of not just promises that are made, but whether in fact they can deliver it.”
Hannemann was the mayor of the City & County of Honolulu for five and a half years, a position he said is an “executive leadership job.” He also has served for the same amount of time as a council member in Honolulu, the largest county in the state and the 12th largest county in the nation.
Abercrombie said he’ll bring change, and that people in Hawai‘i want a “new day” without references to what has been done.
“If there’s one thing that’s crystal clear in this election, it’s that people want change. They don’t want the politics of the past,” Abercrombie said.
Decision-making will be a referendum of what constitutes leadership in the September primary, said Abercrombie, who served 11 years in the state Legislature followed by 19 years as a U.S. representative.
Agriculture
and barrel tax
The barrel tax was instituted across the nation as a way to try to get a “visible demonstration in some real dollars behind the question of alternative energy,” said Abercrombie, adding that while in congress he supported biofuel agriculture in Hawai‘i.
The state barrel tax recently passed is a “wonderful addition” to bring agriculture to the future, according to Abercrombie.
Hannemann also defended the barrel tax, saying it provides funding to enhance agriculture.
“Agriculture also needs a marketing focus,” said Hannemann, adding that such marketing would help farmers to reap profits from different sectors of the economy.
Business
Hannemann said Hawai‘i needs jobs, and the Honolulu rail system will do that, by providing 4,000 new construction jobs, and ultimately creating 8,000 to 10,000 new jobs a year over an 8-10-year period. Neighbor Islands would also benefit, he said, because the O‘ahu workforce won’t be able to fill all those jobs.
A wholesale, devoted effort to champion tourism would benefit all of the islands, according to Hannemann.
Infrastructure, including improvements to roads, to the airport and harbors would also boost local businesses, said Hannemann.
With local concurrence, the Hawai‘i Superferry needs to come back into the discussion, Hannemann said, adding that he would not bypass an Environmental Impact Statement.
Supporters of Abercrombie booed Hannemann when he brought up the Superferry.
When Abercrombie spoke, however, he did not mention the Superferry, despite having said days earlier he would welcome private investors to bring back the company if they had sufficient financial backing and a solid business plan.
Abercrombie said one of his “top priorities” is to use hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funds to “actually put people to work.” Building workforce housing on Kaua‘i would be one way of utilizing those funds, he said.
“If you want an economy that’s going to come back, we have to keep the dollars here,” said Abercrombie, adding that Hawai‘i is importing more food than it did in the 1970s.
“We have to have sustainable agriculture,” Abercrombie said.
In order to keep dollars from leaving the state to purchase oil, Abercrombie said Hawai‘i needs alternative-energy programs right away, rather than studies about them. “I’m ready to do it from day one,” he said.
The former congressman said the only thing Hawai‘i exports right now is garbage.
Education
Both candidates pledged a revamp in the current public-education system, and said school furloughs will end under their leadership.
Abercrombie said he believes he is the only one running for governor who has a “background in education,” because he attended University of Hawai‘i and helped form what is now the University of Hawai‘i Professional Assembly, the professors’ union.
Hannemann, however, countered by saying he is the only one who attended a Hawai‘i public school, therefore is familiar with the system. He has also been a history teacher and basketball coach at O‘ahu’s ‘Iolani School.
Abercrombie said he would decentralize decision-making to the school level. If there’s going to be accountability at schools, then principals, teachers and staff must have more authority, he said.
“I will take personal responsibility as governor to restore public confidence in the public-school system,” Abercrombie said.
Hannemann said the superintendent of education and the president of the University of Hawai‘i will be members of his cabinet from “day one.”
“I will champion education like no other governor of the State of Hawai‘i has championed before,” Hannemann said.
Health care
Hannemann said there’s a need for a management review of the state-hospital system.
The government needs to make sure hospitals across the state adopt some sound business principles, according to Hannemann.
“We need to come up with proactive solutions to make sure doctors and nurses want to work in one of our state hospitals,” Hannemann said.
“Let’s run it like a business,” said Hannemann, proposing a “top-to-bottom” review of the system.
Abercrombie said the government needs to invest in technology that would enable trained physician assistants to work with a simultaneously transmitted diagnosis system servicing patients in different community health centers across the state.
“We’re a rural state not divided by water, but connected by water,” Abercrombie said. “I’m ready to move on day one to see that health care provision and personnel goes to the entire state.”
Agricultural development
Abercrombie said the first thing government needs to do is to enforce laws aimed at curbing abuse of agricultural lands.
“We need to have food security, and we need to have an agricultural renaissance,” Abercrombie said.
Preserving and growing on agricultural lands, repairing irrigation systems, developing integrated agricultural requirements and education are some of the ways that Abercrombie said would help toward food sustainability.
Hannemann said his business mentor told him he could grow anything, but the key is getting the produce to the market.
Hannemann said he has a proven record of implementing “sound agriculture marketing principles,” and curbed theft of agricultural water and produce when he served as mayor of Honolulu.
Go to www.thegardenisland.com for video of the debate.
Candidates for lieutenant governor will face off Aug. 12 at the Lihu‘e Kaua‘i War Memorial Convention Hall, from 5 to 7 p.m.
• Léo Azambuja, staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 252) or lazambuja@kauaipubco.com.
