With Hurricane Iselle slated to hit the Big Island this evening, the HI-Sen election could be affected by depressed voter turnout. Iselle will continue up the island chain as a tropical storm. Maui gets it early Friday morning. Oahu and Kaua'i are next up on election day (Saturday).
Rain already saturating Maui ahead of Iselle
With sustained winds predicted to be 75mph decreasing as the storm moves up the island chain, just getting to the polls could become physically impossible. Flooding and downed trees are always a problem. These could be aggravated by Hawaii's antique electrical grid failing causing traffic lights to go dark, voting machines to idle and folks to hunker down in their homes.
MoveOn has emailed a comparison of Sen Brian Schatz and primary challenger Colleen Hanabusa that refutes Hanabusa's ads claiming she didn't vote to cut Social Security (which she did in 2013 when she voted for an amendment to implement Simpson-Bowles which cuts COLA and raises the retirement age.)
Schatz's supporters need to be courageous and strong to brave the storm and get to the polls. Hopefully the following arguments will give them the energy to brave the wind, rain, floods - and worst of all - snarled traffic when the lights go dark!
Four Reasons to Vote for Sen Brian Schatz this Saturday
Social Security
Colleen Hanabusa voted for the Simpson-Bowles plan that would cut Social Security benefits and raise the retirement age to 69 for our kupuna.
Brian Schatz was one of the first members of Congress to endorse expanding Social Security benefits and has stood up against any cuts to Social Security.
Colleen Hanabusa keeps saying we can't expand Social Security because we don't have any money -- just blindly ignoring the option of lifting the cap on SS tax that causes the poor and middle class to pay 6.5% on their earnings but someone making a million dollars a year to pay at a rate of only 8/10ths of a percent.
Pharmaceutical company giveaways
Colleen Hanabusa supported allowing big drug companies to get massive giveaways from Medicare—and her staff got caught coordinating activities, potentially illegally, with drug companies.
Brian Schatz co-sponsored a plan, supported by the AARP, to put Medicare on stronger financial footing and stop powerful drug companies from ripping off federal taxpayers. (See also CivilBeat)
Climate Change
Colleen Hanabusa voted for a coal-industry-backed bill to block enforcement of the Clean Air Act—and cited it on her campaign website as one of her proudest votes.
Brian Schatz has championed environmental issues, supporting the Clean Energy Initiative which tripled Hawai'i's renewable energy production from 6% to 18%, and supporting a bill that could lead to charging oil manufacturers a fee for emitting carbon. That work has earned him the endorsement of Al Gore and many local environmental organizations.
Progressive vs Wall Street Democrat
In the House, Colleen Hanabusa joined the corporate-friendly New Democrat Coalition, known as "the coalition Pharma and Wall Street love."
Hanabusa standing with the New Dems. "We're ready to deal" (away your Social Security)
In the Senate, Brian Schatz has been a proud progressive, and has earned endorsements for re-election from
President Barack Obama, Senator
Elizabeth Warren, Howard Dean,
MoveOn.org members in Hawai'i, the
Progressive Change Campaign Committee, and many other progressives. He's also been endorsed by the
Sierra Club.
It's urgent that we make Get Out the Vote phonecalls. There's still time to volunteer. Go to Sen Schatz's website to sign up: http://brianschatz.com/...