honoluluadvertiser.com

Sponsored by:

Comment, blog & share photos

Log in | Become a member
The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted on: Friday, April 4, 2003

Capitol briefs

6 Democrats seek party leadership

Six people have completed applications for the position of statewide chairperson of the Hawai'i Democratic Party.

The party's State Central Committee will vote April 12 to decide who will fill the position, choosing between attorney Mike Abe; realtor associate Cindy Rasmussen; Martin Rice; former state lawmaker Alex Santiago; Jimmy Toyama, the party's county chairman for O'ahu; and Robert Tokioka III.

Honolulu attorney Lorraine Akiba resigned as statewide party chairwoman this year.

Mark Forman, executive administrator for the Hawai'i Medical Service Association Foundation, has served as acting party chairman pending election of the new leader.

School ballot bill sent to full Senate

Two Senate committees yesterday approved a measure that could move the state closer to having local school boards.

The Ways and Means Committee and the Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs Committee approved putting a question on the ballot asking voters if the state constitution should be amended to give lawmakers the authority to establish regional boards of education.

Senate Education Committee Chairman Norman Sakamoto, D-15th (Waimalu, Airport, Salt Lake), who has shepherded the bill, called the measure a "work in progress." Acknowledging that the bill's wording of the ballot question is tentative, Sakamoto described the Senate draft of House Bill 714 as a "placeholder to move the discussion."

The proposed ballot question was amended to delete an earlier provision keeping the existing statewide Board of Education, winning the Senate Republicans' support.

The measure now goes to the full Senate for a floor vote. If it passes, it likely will be discussed further in conference committee, where House and Senate lawmakers work out differences in bills.