Updated at 5:02 p.m., Friday, January 11, 2008
State House names new vice speaker
Advertiser Staff
State Rep. Pono Chong has been named vice speaker of the House, replacing Rep. Jon Riki Karamatsu who stepped down from the post last year after facing a charge of driving under the influence of alcohol.Chong, D-49 (Maunawili, Olomana, Enchanted Lake and Kane'ohe), has been a member of the Legislature since 2004.
Karamatsu will take over Chong's former assignments as vice chair of the Committee on Water, Land, Ocean Resources and Hawaiian Affairs, and membership on the Finance and Energy and Environmental Protection committees.
Chong has worked as a special assistant to the director of the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, and as a project coordinator for the H-3 Freeway Mitigation project with the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. He is a graduate of Saint Louis High School and the University of Hawai'i at Manoa.
In other organizational changes, Rep. Karen Awana — who recently switched to the Democratic Party — will become the new vice chair of the Committee on International Affairs.
