Sierra Club, Hawai`i Chapter Capitol Watch

Vote for Hawaii's environment!

So who deserves your vote? The Sierra Club, Hawai'i Chapter, and its four island groups, sorted through all of the candidates and selected the best choices for protecting the 'aina.

Candidates endorsed by the Sierra Club will help to protect Hawaii’s clean water, special places, and spectacular biodiversity while putting Hawai`i on a path to a energy independence. They understand a healthy environment is the foundation of a strong economy.

The Sierra Club’s endorsement process involved sending detailed surveys out to the candidates, interviewing many of them, and reviewing their records. All endorsements received a majority vote from at least two Sierra Club committees of elected leaders in order to be approved.

The Sierra Club is endorsing a diverse field of candidates statewide. Just over half of the endorsements are proven incumbents, while the others are promising green challengers.

We believe that our endorsed candidates will not rigidly adhere to the Democrat’s agenda, nor the Republican’s agenda, but Hawaii’s sustainability agenda.

The Sierra Club was faced with some tough choices in selecting legislative candidates for endorsement. While the Sierra Club may disagree with an endorsed candidate on a specific issue, the endorsement decision was based on the candidate’s overall sustainability vision.

For the State House, the Sierra Club chose to endorse environmental incumbents Faye Hanohano, Mele Carroll, Hermina Morita, Lyla Berg, Maile Shimabukuro, and Cynthia Thielen, among others (a complete list is below). In the Senate, notable incumbents Gary Hooser, J. Kalani English, Clarence Nishihara, and Clayton Hee received the Club’s approval. These legislators have gone to bat for Hawaii’s environment year after year.

Senator Ron Menor received his first endorsement from the Sierra Club. For the past two years, the Mililani Senator has been a solid advocate for clean energy and recycling issues as Chair of the Senate Energy and Environment Committee.

In the House, the Sierra Club hopes to replace two incumbents with with progressive green challengers. The Sierra Club endorsed environmental attorney Jessica Wooley in Windward Oahu District 47 seat to replace Colleen Meyer, a 6-term incumbent who ranked dead last on the Sierra Club’s legislative scorecard—a position she has held on 4 of the last 5 scorecards over the past decade. Community advocate Summer Star received the blessing of the Club for the Maui Upcountry District 12 race over incumbent Kyle Yamashita. Yamashita is known for using his Economic Development & Business Concerns Committee Chairmanship to stop good environmental legislation, including a bill to increase the convenience of the state container recycling law.

For the City & County of Honolulu, Ann Kobayashi is the best choice for Mayor, according to the Sierra Club. The Club highlighted Kobayashi’s slate of sustainability measures she authored and pushed over the past year on Council to increase recycling, bicycle use, and clean energy. The Sierra Club was also highly critical of Mufi Hannemann’s record of anti-environmental actions, including fighting the islandwide curbside recycling program, continuing to fight citizen groups in court over thousands of sewage spills, rejecting energy-saving initiatives from the previous administration, granting approvals for Turtle Bay resort expansion, and failing to support green initiatives to improve O‘ahu sustainability.

Kobayashi brings vision and a collaborative approach to solve the tough problems we face with O‘ahu’s environment.

The best thing you can do for Hawaii's environment on November 4 is vote. Putting the right people in office is more than half the battle. The Sierra Club has worked hard to select the best applicants for the job. Please support these candidates in the upcoming elections.

2008 Endorsements

CONGRESS - 2ND
Mazie Hirono (D)

STATE SENATE
Senate 1 Dwight Takamine (D)
Senate 5 Roz Baker (D)
Senate 6 J. Kalani English (D)
Senate 7 Gary Hooser (D)
Senate 23 Clayton Hee (D)

STATE HOUSE
House 3 Deirdre Moana Tavares (R)
House 4 Faye Hanohano (D)
House 6 Denny Coffman (D)
House 19 Mike Abe (D)
House 23 Anne Stevens (R)
House 36 Roy Takumi (D)
House 38 Marilyn Lee (D)
House 43 Kurt Fevella (D)
House 45 Maile Shimabukuro (D)
House 46 Gil Riviere (R)
House 47 Jessica Wooley (D)
House 51 Chris Lee (D)

HONOLULU COUNTY
Mayor Ann Kobayashi (NS)
Council 5 Duke Bainum (NS)

MAUI COUNTY
East Maui Lucienne DeNaie (NS)
Makawao Kai Nishiki (NS)
S. Maui Wayne Nishiki (NS)
West Maui Joanne Johnson (NS)
Upcountry Michael Howden (NS)
Lanai Sol Kaho'ohalahala (NS)

HAWAII COUNTY
Mayor Angel Pilago (NS)
Council 4 Andy Baclig (NS)
Council 8 Debbie Hecht (NS)

KAUAI COUNTY
Mayor JoAnne Yukimura (NS)