Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 27, Number 11, 1 November 2010 — Aiona, Abercrombie face off in OHA-sponsored debated [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Aiona, Abercrombie face off in OHA-sponsored debated

By Lisa Asato KaWai Ola Heading into the Nov. 2 General Eleetion, gubernatorial hopefuls Neil Abercrombie and Duke Aiona laid out their records and visions for the state - and tookjabs at their opponent's - in an OHA-sponsored debate that addressed a range of Native Hawaiian and other issues, including ceded lands, Hawaiian language in puhlie education, and the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act, commonly known as the Akaka bill. Abercrombie said the bill, whieh would grant federal recognition of Native Hawaiians similar to what Native Americans and Alaskan Natives enjoy, has faced opposition from "some Senators, many of them Republicans, who did not want to see anything favoring native people" advance. Abercrombie, who vacated his seat in Congress earlier this year to run for governor, said there's still time for lawmakers to take up the bill postelection, adding, "I think we have an excellent ehanee to do that." Asked what he would do to shore up support for the bill among his fellow Republicans, Aiona said, "It's a matter of building relationships and identifying who the leaders are in the Senate and making your pitch to them." The election will decide who gets voted to Congress, he said, "I will take it from that point." At the state level, Abercrombie said that as a Democrat he would have an advantage in getting the Democratic-controlled Legislature to pass a settlement for past-due revenues owed to OHA. A ceded lands settlement reached in 2008

between the Republican Lingle administration and OHA has languished in the Legislature. Aiona, the sitting twoterm Lieutenant Governor, said he was most proud of the strides made over the last seven-and-a-half years by the state Depart-

ment of Hawaiian Home Lands. "We've put more Hawaiian families on Hawaiian lands," he said. "We have put 2,500 people back on Hawaiian lands." He said an additional 1,300 homes are in the construction pipeline and 3,400 homes are in the planning phase. The candidates were split on civil unions. Aiona said the issue needlessly "divided our eommunity" and that the bill passed by the Legislature this year and vetoed by Lingle was "nothing more than a same-sex marriage bill" that should be addressed through the state's practice of reciproeal benefits. He further proposed a state constitutional amendment that would ask voters to agree or disagree with the statement that "marriage is defined between a man and a woman." Abercrombie disagreed, saying, "As a proponent of the Akaka bill and supporter of Hawaiian rights, the last thing on Earth we should be doing is trying to decide whether anyone is entitled to their civil rights." He said civil rights infringements were seen here in Hawai'i during World War II when Japanese Americans were detained in camps. "Marriage is already defined in this state,"

NATIVE HAWAIIAN » NEWS | FEATURES | EVENTS he said. "It will not eome up again." On the issue of Lurlough Lridays, Aiona said was wrong to use instructional days as furlough days because it cut into classroomtime. He would have supported an across-the-board pay cut or other solutions that wouldn't decrease instruction time, he said. Returning often to the idea of the state getting its share of "federal dollars," Abercrombie said there is untapped money that the state could use for everything from Lurlough Lridays, staffing unfilled positions, energy, health care and plans for a public-health school at the University of Hawai'i. Abercrombie said his running mate Brian Schatz is "ideally situated" to go after federal dollars and will do so. "The day of the ceremonial lieutenant governor is going to eome to an end," he said it was wrong. Aiona, a former Circuit Court and Lamily Court Judge, said the next Governor will nominate three of five state Supreme Court justices and he would look for a nominee who had the "ability to rule according to the law as opposed to legislating from the heneh." Abercrombie said the most important factor is judicial temperament,

whieh the American Bar Association has defined as having compassion, objectivity, courtesy and "commitment to equal justice." Waving a "Hawaiians for Neil Abercrombie" sign in the throng outside the convention before the debate, Unele Bob Tassill said he supports Abercrombie because of his stance that if you take care of the host culture first, everything else will fall into plaee. "When I heard that, I

said, 'He talking about me.' " Tassill, a retired state worker who has supported Democratic governors since John Bums, noted that Native Hawaiians suffer fromhigh rates of incarceration, chronic disease and high school dropouts. "You gotta take care of the host culture," he said. "Where (else) we going?" After the debate, Kekoa Wong, Chair of the Native Hawaiian Coalition fortheAiona-Linnegan campaign, said having a Hawaiian govemor was important to him. "My loyalties run far in politics," said Wong, a Hawaiian language teacher at Mililani High School. "People can't fathom what my loyalties are to my people, whether they're young or old or not born yet." Referring to Aiona, Wong said, "We eome from the same mold, we eome from the same Islands, so that's where I gotta go." The 90-minute "Race for Washington Plaee" debate took plaee Oct. 12 in front of an audience of about 400 at the Hawai'i Convention Center. It was broadcast live on OC16, with OHA CEO Clyde Nāmu'o serving as a panelist along with Shawn Ching and Amy Kalili. Howard Dashefsky moderated. ■

Watch it on QC16 The "Race for Washington Plaee" debate is available on demand at Oeeanie Cable digital ehannel 15

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