Tag Archives: Hawaii politics

Clutter becomes history: 1978 newsletters showcase early efforts to stop Navy bombing of Kahoolawe

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[text]For an inside look at the early years in movement to stop the navy bombing of Kahoolawe, check out these early issues of the Aloha Aina newsletter, published on Molokai by the Protect Kahoolawe Fund.

I found several early issues in a box of old papers which luckily had avoided being thrown away over the years, including Volume 1, Number 1, dated June 1978. I’m so glad that I inherited from my parents a tendency to save too much old stuff.

The first issue of Aloha Aina (Vol. 1, No. 1) reports on statewide public hearings on the Navy’s draft environmental impact statement on the bombing of Kahoolawe.

Preparation for the best-attended hearings in the history of our State began in late March. WIth less than three weeks notice from the Navy, the Protect Kaho’lawe Fund, in conjunction with each island’s ‘Ohana, sponsored eight informational workshops, wrote and distributed hundreds of educational handouts, and organized scores of people to come forth and testify. It was a fantastic, energizing experience. One which occupied many of us, day and night, for six sleepless weeks.

The second issue features a number of substantive articles, including Haunani Trask on negotiations with the state and the navy, Emmett Aluli on litigation strategies, Isaac Hall on the Protect Kahoolawe Fund, Jack Grambusch on the State Democratic Convention, and Ian Lind on Senator Inouye’s role.

The third issue, August-September 1978, includes Hauanani Kay Trask on “Negotiations and Politics”, an article which I wrote about Viequest (an island in Puerto Rico which was also being used for military training), Steve Morse on geothermal policy, poetry, and more.

The 24-page October-November 1978 issue includes seasons greetings from the folks putting out Aloha Aina, along with articles including another Ian Lind piece on the selling of Kahoolawe, Moanikeala Akaka on the Hilo Airport 54, testimony in the EIS hearings by Julia Kaupu of Milolii, Mililani Trask on the 1978 Con-Con proposals (including the creation of OHA), and a lot more.

The March 1979 issue contains articles by Ilima Piianaia, John Charlot, Mike Hanchett, Judy Napoleon, June and Zelda Kapuni, Kahala-Ann Trast Gibson, and others.

The Summer 1979 issue of 32-pages includes articles, photographs, and poetry by those taking part in two legal accesses to the island that resulted from ongoing negotiations that were part of a civil suit aimed at stopping the bombing, as well as notes from those ongoing negotiations.

Tuesday…A Twitter face-off, and a look at the emerging race for Lt. Gov.

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Check out the war of words (or Tweets) that flared this month on Twitter.com between the official Kamehameha Schools persona (@KSNews) and a cyber squater that has grabbed onto a related name (@KSBE).

The official school site says:

Aloha. Please do not follow @KSBE. This is not an authorized representative of our organization. Thank you.

The imposter responds:

Do not trust @KSNews. KSBE is the only Kamehameha Schools news source.

One entry from the imposter last week:

As Pauahi’s will clearly states: “Fuck da haoles.”

11:01 PM Jan 26th from web

The exchange has slowed and perhaps warnings have had their effect. @KSBE you are not authorized to use the Kamehameha Schools seal or “KSBE” as it is part of our domain name.

The first race in the 2010 election to heat up turns out to be the scramble for Lt. Governor. State Senator Gary Hooser officially threw his hat into the ring by filing an organizational report with the Campaign Spending Commission on January 31, a prelude to actually filing nomination papers for the seat sometime before next . Schatz filed the previous day.

It’s hard to say which man has the early edge. Both ran in the 2006 primary for the 2nd Congressional District seat vacated by Ed Case and finished in the middle of the pack.

Hooser ran in 5th place with 10,730 votes (9.1%), well behind the top tier candidates, Mazie Hirono (24,487 votes or 20.7%) and Colleen Hanabusa (23,643 votes or 20.0%). Schatz was close behind with 8,254 votes (7.0%).

But Schatz, a former state representative from Makiki, was elected Democratic Party state chair last year and was very visible at party functions across the state during the 2008 election. As an early backer of Barack Obama and a key figure in the local Obama campaign, he’s gotten a lot of favorable public exposure.

Hooser, with an electoral base on Kauai, now serves as Senate Majority Leader and has been out in front with a low-key but visible advertising campaign selling “The Hooser Story”, both through online pop-up ads in the online Star-Bulletin as well as on his own campaign web site.

The key for Schatz, though, may be his campaign chair, attorney Andy Winer, fresh off of two successful and exremely visible statewide campaigns. In 2006, Winer served as campaign chair for Dan Akaka’s re-election against challenger Ed Case, and in 2008 was coordinator of the Hawaii for Obama campaign. Winer previously managed Duke Bainum’s mayoral campaign in 2004, which came within a few thousand votes of victory. That set of experience and contacts in an invaluable asset that Schatz now appears to have locked up.

For that reason, if no other, I’ve got to consider Schatz the early leader in what is expected to become a very crowded field.

But with the prospect Congressman Neil Abercrombie coming home to run for governor, things get complicated. After all, it has been traditional to balance the ticket geographically and/or ethnically. An Abercrombie-Schatz ticket, with both candidates tracing their political roots to the same Makiki-Manoa neighborhoods, would lack the diversity normally relied on to knit together a statewide campaign organization. Hooser would at least bring a neighbor island perspective and backing, although Kauai has fewer voters than either Maui or the Big Island.

On the other hand, either Schatz or Hooser could bring considerable balance to a ticket with one of the other expected contenders, such as Senate President Colleen Hanabusa or Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann.

If Abercrombie does follow through and jump into the governor’s race, the whole 2010 election is likely to be a mad scramble for position.