16 days from now the primary election will be over, and membership in the State House and Senate will be selected. To a great degree, the budget and policy direction of our State legislature will be set for the next two years.

Many of us, on every island, have been working and pushing very hard to support a wide selection of excellent candidates who have stepped up to serve.

It’s time for the last and final push. The candidates cannot let up, and neither can we.

The Pono Hawaii Initiative (PHI) has endorsed and is aggressively supporting, 6 candidates for the Senate, and 8 for the House. https://ponohawaiiinitiative.org/endorsements/

All 14 are extremely electable, values centered, highly competent individuals, and all are campaigning hard in their districts.

If all were elected, that would without exaggeration turn the Hawaii State Legislature on its head. The days of big money and special interests controlling both budget and policy, would be greatly diminished.

Hawaii could then finally pass living wage and family leave legislation. Hawaii’s environment would receive the protections it deserves.  Affordable housing and education would be properly funded.  And the price tag would be paid by the restructuring of priorities and the shifting of the tax burden to the visitor industry and the top 1%.

These 14 all know very well that if we can find the money to fund rail, certainly we can find the money to fund education and affordable housing.

From my direct experience serving in the Hawaii State Senate for 8 years, 4 of which were as Majority Leader, I know even small numbers matter.  The truth is that any one of these candidates could as an individual, change the dynamics and alter the conversation of the legislative body to which they are elected.  Such is the nature of group dynamics at the legislature.  One person, can make a difference.

PHI working with non-coordinating partners across the State has already supported multiple direct mailings in support of many of these candidates, and we are now preparing to send out our last and final mailer consisting of over 30,000 targeted pieces.

However to complete this last element of our primary election strategy, we need to raise an additional $15,000.  Otherwise, that last piece will not be mailed.

Can you help?  In order for us to meet the printer deadline and get something in the mail in time to have an impact, the funds must be received prior to Monday July 30th.   All contributions, large and small are important and all will help.

If we fall short of our $15,000 goal we will scale back our effort. Our hope and goal of course is to exceed the goal, and do even more during these final days.  Contributions can be made online at:

https://ponohawaiiinitiative.org/donate/

or via mail at:

Pono Hawaiʻi Initiative

P.O. Box 871

Honolulu, HI 96808

Please help if you can.  Time is of the essence, and contributions must be received by Monday July 30th in order to impact the primary election and support this final push.

Sincerely,

Gary Hooser – Executive Director, Pono Hawaii Initiative (PHI)

IMPORTANT NOTE:

One of PHI’s endorsed candidates, Representative Matt LoPresti who is running for election to the Senate is being challenged by Alicia Maluafiti, a corporate lobbyist who was the former executive director for the Hawaii Crop Improvement Association (Monsanto, Dow, DuPont, Syngenta etc).  Needless to say she has been a strong opponent to any and all legislation that has been proposed to regulate the chemical companies. Clearly, the industry is targeting LoPresti for his support of Bill 3095 (banning chlorpyrifos) and attempting to send a message to other legislators, that if successful would have a chilling effect on our future attempts to regulate this industry.

We need to work especially hard to support Matt LoPresti who supported us when we needed him.  We cannot let the chemical companies win, and effectively punish a legislator for his support of legislation that regulates their industry.

Please help if you can:  https://ponohawaiiinitiative.org/donate/

*As always – I extend an open invitation to anyone who wants to meet in person, or on the telephone – just email me and we can set up a time that works for both of us.  gh