Maui races highlight rural needs

By Christie Wilson
Advertiser Neighbor Island Editor

The recent reapportionment separated Lana'i and Moloka'i from more urban West Maui, and placed the two islands in a new canoe district, the 13th district, with East Maui, which includes Hana. The 13th House District includes Kaho'olawe and the 130 or so residents of Kalawao County on the Kalaupapa Peninsula. The 12th House District encompasses Upcountry Maui while West Maui comprises the newly redrawn 10th House District.

13th House District

13th House District Ron Davis (R) • Address: Lot 45, Kapa'akea Loop, Moloka'i • Occupation: Retired fire chief, state lawmaker • Family: Married, six children, 14 grandchildren One big idea: Restore air ambulance service. "It affects everyone in my district." Sol Kaho'ohalahala (D) • Address: 533 Akolu Place, Lana'i City • Occupation: Cultural resources director, Castle & Cooke Resorts. • Family: Not available • One big idea: Did not respond 12th House District Kika Bukoski (R) • Address: 2694 Ililani Way, Pukalani • Occupation: Vice president, Techform Hawai'i; finance consultant, Trans Pacific Mortgage • Family: Single, two children • One big idea: Create alternative energy system on Maui using waste or biodiesel Kyle Yamashita (D) • Address: 90 Apana Road, Makawao • Occupation: General partner/general manager, Superstop service station/convenience store • Family: Married, two sons • One big idea: More funding for Maui Memorial Medical Center 10th House District Brian Blundell (R) • Address: 817 Ho'ohakua St., Lahaina • Occupation: Owner, Central Pacific Marine • Family: Widowed, one daughter • One big idea: Build a new highway to Lahaina. Jim Rouse (D) • Address: 1500 Malo St., Lahaina • Occupation: Deputy Public Defender • Family: Single • One big idea: Replant former sugar lands for ethanol production

Kaho'ohalahala had served on the Maui County Council for two terms before being elected to the House in 1998. Davis, 50, had served as Maui County fire chief for eight years.

Davis sees elected office as a natural progression from his 28-year career with the Honolulu and Maui fire departments. "My past experience as a firefighter was all about helping people," he said.

Kaho'ohalahala, 41, is the cultural resources director for Castle & Cooke Resorts on Lana'i. He has been involved with Hawaiian issues and was a crew member on the Hokule'a's 1998 voyage to Rapanui..

Moloka'i's population of 7,400 is predominantly Hawaiian. The island depends on ranching, farming, aquaculture and some tourism.

East Maui includes Hana's 700 residents who are largely Hawaiian and other smaller villages that depend on taro, fruit and flower farming. The Hotel Hana-Maui is the area's largest employer.

The majority of Lana'i's population of 3,200 is of Japanese and Filipino ancestry, reflecting its plantation past. With pineapple gone, the island is dependent on two luxury resorts owned by Castle & Cooke.

"These small rural areas are so far away from everything that sometimes we get forgotten," Davis said.

The first-term GOP lawmaker favors locally controlled school boards and a school voucher system that uses public money to help parents pay for private school tuition.

Vocational programs tailored to local economic conditions should be established in certain schools, he said. For example, Moloka'i and Hana students would benefit from learning agricultural skills. This would also serve to keep some of the communities' young people from having to move away to find jobs, according to Davis.

While Lana'i has evolved into a travel destination, Moloka'i is still struggling to find its economic footing amid resistance to new development.

Davis said he would also like additional money appropriated to repair the state's irrigation system on Moloka'i to put more Hawaiians on farms. "The easiest way to help the economy is to make more farmlands available."

During the last legislative term, Davis voted against a gasoline price cap, a measure that passed, and joined others in defeating a bill that would have allowed physician-assisted suicide.

Kaho'ohalahala did not respond to requests for an interview, but in a candidate questionnaire he said that Hawai'i's economic and social success depend on caring for "our environmental and cultural resources."

He said the state must "build upon our rural diversity, support economic development and pursue sustainable and renewable resources."

Unlike his opponent, Kaho'ohalahala does not support school vouchers. "Our education dollars should be used to improve on what our public schools already provide for," he said.

Both oppose gambling.

12th House District

In the 12th House District, Democrats are mounting a campaign to win back the seat lost to the GOP's Kika Bukoski when longtime legislator David Morihara quit.

Businessman and political newcomer Kyle Yamashita, 43, got a crash course in state politics when he worked part-time for veteran Democratic Rep. Bob Nakasone of Kahului during the 2002 legislative session. Every weekday, Yamashita arose at 4:30 a.m. to catch the first flight to Honolulu. He would return to Maui late in the day and work at his Kahului business long into the night.

It was a grueling routine, but Yamashita said it convinced him that he was ready for public office.

Yamashita said he easily could have aligned himself with the GOP, but his dad was a construction worker and his blue-collar roots held sway. "I was brought up to remember where you came from and who got you there," he said. "I chose the Democrats ... When you look at it, small business is the little guy, too, so the party fit."

Bukoski, 37, is hoping voters will look at his record, and not necessarily his party affiliation. He said he was ranked third by the Legislative Reference Bureau in terms of capital improvement dollars allocated for the district in the last session.

"As a freshman legislator, I have positioned myself as a force to be reckoned with. I have good relationships with members of both parties," he said.

Bukoski said his top priority is getting 24-hour ambulance service for Kula. Other district issues are education, water and roads, he said.

Upcountry Maui is home to ranchers and small farms that export fruit, produce and flowers. Residents who don't work the land commute along Haleakala Highway to jobs in central Maui or the resort areas of Kihei and Lahaina.

The mountain's cool climate and sweeping vistas have attracted higher-income households. The majority of the Upcountry residents are Asian or Caucasian.

Bukoski said he would push to restore money that was vetoed for the dual Upcountry waterline to provide irrigation for farmers. He also said the state should support development of wells and storage capacity.

On education, the incumbent favors local school boards and decentralizing the Department of Education bureaucracy. "Anything else is a Band-aid fix. We have to build education from the bottom up and move more money to the school level."

Bukoski, a single father of two, said he is willing to consider vouchers "if it improves education for our children."

During the past legislative session, the Republican supported the bottle bill that sets up a recycling system for plastic beverage containers.

Bukoski and Yamashita do not support gambling, although the Republican said he's "open to discussion," and both agreed they would like to see the cap on gas prices overturned.

Yamashita said local control over the public schools "is starting to make more sense," and that school vouchers are not a good idea.

Yamashita also expressed concern for issues facing the elderly, such as the cost of prescription pills, and making sure Maui Memorial Medical Center, the island's only acute-care hospital, stays financially healthy.

10th House District

West Maui — comprising the newly redrawn 10th House District — finally has a district to itself, and no incumbent. The urban region was an ill fit in its former canoe district with Lana'i and Moloka'i. With sugar gone, West Maui's is dependent on the condominiums and luxury resorts that stretch from Ka'anapali to Kapalua. The area's 18,000 residents are mostly Asian and Caucasian.

Republican Brian Blundell, a longtime education and community advocate, and Democrat Jim Rouse, a deputy public defender, did not hesitate in naming the need for an updated highway linking Lahaina with the rest of the island as West Maui's top concern.

Two-lane Honoapi'ilani Highway carries thousands of commuters and visitors a day, and is vulnerable to closure by high surf, car wrecks, brush fires and other public safety events.

Blundell, 61, who owns a company that sells and services boat engines, ran unsuccessfully for a House seat in 1998 and for the Board of Education in 2000. A 30-year resident of Lahaina, he said he's frustrated by lack of action on the region's obvious need for better roads.

The state returns only a portion of the hotel room tax revenues generated in West Maui, he said, leaving few dollars for improvements to roads and other infrastructure that support tourism.

Long-term solutions include widening the road and moving the highway away from the coastline, where it is subject to erosion and high surf. In the short term, Kahekili Highway, which provides an outlet from Lahaina to Wailuku around Kahakuloa, should be improved to serve as an alternate route when Honoapi'ilani is closed. Kahekili is in poor shape and narrows to one lane in many places.

On education, Blundell wants decisions made on the local level, which would provide better control of funding and the quality of classroom instruction.

He opposes gambling and school vouchers, and favors health insurance reform that provides tax incentives for individuals to buy their own coverage.

Electing a Republican would bring more balance to the Legislature, Blundell said, and allow more bills to see the light of day and undergo open discussion, instead of being killed in committee.

Rouse, 38, first moved to Hawai'i in 1988 then left to get his law degree. He returned in 1992. He worked as a waiter for four years until he got a job with the county prosecutor's office. After a few months, he went to work as a public defender.

Rouse said he's always had a love affair with politics. His father and grandfather held elected posts on the local level on the Mainland and politics was discussed around the dinner table. But it wasn't until he found himself stuck in yet another traffic jam that Rouse decided to run for office himself.

"Government is slower that traffic in Lahaina. There's a perception that Honolulu doesn't care about us," he said.

"First and foremost is the road," Rouse said, but beyond that, he favors making Hawai'i more business-friendly by eliminating unnecessary regulations, offering more tax incentives and streamlining government processes."

Rouse said the state should consider a lottery as a way to supplement funding for education. The only way to cure public school ills is "to throw money at it," he said. "The teachers are underpaid and the classrooms are a mess."

Rouse is opposed to local school boards, saying it would add a layer of bureaucracy and put schools in lower-income areas at a disadvantage.

The Democrat favors implementing a conveyance tax of a half-percent, for example, on real estate transactions over $500,000 as long as the money is earmarked for a specific purpose such as environmental protection or services for the elderly.

To prevent further urban sprawl on the agricultural lands in Central and West Maui that recently have been opened to development, Rouse suggested returning the acreage to sugar to make ethanol for fuel. The plan would keep the hillsides green, prevent erosion and runoff, and make the county less dependent on imported oil. He said it could be mandated that county and state vehicles run on cleaner-burning ethanol.

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