Each week Editorial and Opinion Editor Jeanne Mariani-Belding hosts The Hot Seat, our opinion-page blog that brings in elected leaders and people in the news and lets you ask the questions during a live online chat.

On The Hot Seat last week was Rep. Kirk Caldwell, D-24th (Manoa), who gave up his House seat to run for Honolulu City Council, but was then ruled ineligible by the city clerk because he did not properly withdraw from running for his House seat in time.

Here is an excerpt from that Hot Seat session.

To see the full conversation, go to www.honoluluadvertiser.com/opinion and click on The Hot Seat link.

Noelani: How will your district now be represented, both in your office and in the committees you were a member of? Can you apply to run for the now-vacated seat? What are your future plans?

Caldwell: I will remain in office until the general election is complete, and then whoever is elected will replace me. Up until then, I will continue to work hard for the Manoa community. I can't apply to run for the now vacated House seat. However, I will look for ways to serve the Manoa community in other capacities whether it involves volunteering for Malama o Manoa, the Lyon Arboretum, or Noelani and Manoa elementary schools.

YoungVoter: You seem to be saying that it's unfair that you're disqualified since you told the city clerk you were withdrawing from the House race. Didn't the clerk tell you to submit a written withdrawal to the state elections office? Isn't it your responsibility, not the clerk's, to withdraw from a state race?

Caldwell: I followed the advice given to me by the city clerk after talking to the state Elections Office. Nowhere in the Hawai'i Revised Statutes does it say that withdrawal must be done in writing within the first 24 hours after filing. There is no rule requiring written notice either. I can't think of a more official notice than the city clerk telling the state Elections Office that they have Caldwell before them and that he is filing for the City Council race and is withdrawing from the state House race. As was stated by the city clerk, her office then processed my nomination for Council "based upon the confirmation we received from the State Office of Elections that Mr. Caldwell was withdrawn." I then followed up with a letter as the state Elections Office requested and which I would have done anyway.

Educated Citizen: Don't you think you should also be disqualified because you didn't have enough signatures by the deadline and the city clerk then had her own employee sign your papers after the deadline?

Caldwell: The city clerk has said the signature was acceptable. To quote the city clerk directly: "The State Office of Elections candidate filing procedure manual states that no additional signatures may be obtained on nomination papers after payment of nomination fees. The payment of fees occurs after nomination papers are verified, deficiencies allowed to be corrected, and the nomination affirmations signed. The final qualifying signature of Mr. Caldwell's nomination papers was obtained prior to the paying of fees and was acceptable within the procedures." Those are the words of the city clerk.

ForemerlyUndecided: What is your biggest political mistake — other than this current one? Killing Hawai'i's gas cap, perhaps?

Caldwell: I don't think the repeal of Hawai'i's gas cap law was a mistake. We saw prices skyrocket to unprecedented heights under this law after Katrina and Rita. The climb down was slower and much less steep. As a result Hawai'i's consumers on average were paying more for gas under the gas cap law than without it. I do believe that we must do much more to wean Hawai'i from its addiction to oil (we have remained 96 percent dependent on fossil fuels for our energy needs over the past three decades). Real action must be undertaken, not just setting targets and mandates. This means finding ways to get the private sector to grow biofuels and to produce substantial energy from Hawai'i's abundant sources of wind, solar, geothermal and waves. To continue to fail to do so is political malpractice.

Waiakeagirl: What have you learned from this recent experience?

Caldwell: If I had had more than several hours' notice, I would easily have had more than enough signatures to ensure that my nomination papers were valid. Woulda, coulda, shoulda ... that's how we all learn.

Shogun: Ann Kobayashi seems to be the starting point of all the flurry. The Office of Elections should be ashamed for giving out erroneous instructions to the city clerk and to you. Then saying that you did not withdraw properly. You followed their instructions. They should be punished, not you and your constituents. How can this be corrected?

Caldwell: Let's talk about the future. Without having done any real research, it seems to me like there are at least two ways to approach this last-minute filing rush by amending the state statute.

In the case of a sudden vacancy for an office on the day of the filing deadline, you could extend the filing for a day or so to allow for the public to be advised and for new candidates to file. Or, we could pass a law requiring that nomination papers must be taken out at least 2-3 days prior to the filing deadline so as to avoid the same pull-and-file transaction at the filing deadline. Some combination of these two approaches might be viable.

kappaminos: What can a citizen who is upset about this result do to help our community, now that we have no choice for Council except Duke? I want to have someone as caring and smart as you representing me and my fellow citizens soon.

Caldwell: Thank you, your comments mean a lot. And I would also like to put in a good word for people who sign nomination papers. What I'm hearing is that they are the bad guys. They aren't. They're the good guys. They are saying: "Let's nominate candidates; let's have election contests; let's have public debate on the issues; let's support democracy."

If there is some sort of fraud, it might be another thing. But that's not the case here.

In terms of what you can do, take a look at election reform as I noted in a previous post. I think we can improve the system together. And, maybe you oughta think about running.