In the latest Civil Beat poll Democrat Mark Takai is trailing Republican Djou by 4 points with a margin of error of 3%. Takai: 42%, Djou: 46%, undecided: 12%. HI-01 includes urban Honolulu on the island of Oahu, a district that is somewhat more conservative than HI-02 which encompasses the rest of the state including the neighbor islands and rural Oahu.
Caveat: Hawaii polls are notoriously inaccurate.
The Money Picture
Takai just came off a 7-way hard fought primary which expended $536,628 leaving him with less that $165,000 at the end of the primary. Djou sailed through the Republican primary spending only $65,689. Although Djou raised only 70% of the money that Takai did, his easy Republican primary left Djou sitting on $439,707.
Outside PAC money favors Democrat Takai with the Sierra Club PAC and VoteVets supporting him to the tune of $176,260.
Takai endorsed by environmental, progressive and union organizations
Takai was endorsed by the Sierra Club, the Progressive Caucus and numerous other unions and progressive organizations. He is supportive of working families, women's issues and sees Climate Change as important to address.
Republicans Blame Democrats for high cost of living in Hawai'i
All Hawaii Republican politicians are running on a platform of blaming Democrats for the high cost of living in Hawaii. Their solution, naturally, is to lower taxes and defund government programs - especially those regulating corporations. (See below the fold for a discussion of the factors contributing to Hawaii's high cost of living)
Republicans like Djou feel all these problems can be solved by waving their magic "lower taxes" wand. And fast-tracking the Trans-Pacific Partnership export-our-jobs and override-our-environmental-and-labor-protections free trade deal. That's sure to help Hawaii people afford their expensive homes -- ship their jobs away.
Also, according to Djou, repealing the estate (inheritance) tax, the ACA, and instituting the Simpson-Bowles plan to cut Social Security will lower costs for the working folks of Hawai'i. Not sure how the inheritance tax figures into this. Possibly allow the multimillionaires who are driving up the cost of housing to employ more maids?
Djou's bad vote
Djou won office for a few months in a 3-way special election where two Democrats split the vote. During that time he voted against the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 which brought $millions to Hawaii when working people were really hurting and facing foreclosure after being laid off. That will really help with the high cost of living - voting against programs that create jobs!
Takai's Progressive Positions
Democrat Mark Takai has more progressive and compassionate positions. His support of infrastructure projects and rooftop solar will insure high-paying construction jobs. He's realistic enough to know that we can't allow our utility to put roadblocks in the way of solar and (as has happened in the last couple years) put hundreds of construction workers out of their jobs. And that renewable energy is the way we bring down the high cost of electricity.
In fact, this is a major issue for Takai as his deployment in the Mideast has made him determined to take the nation off of oil in order to reduce the pressures to go to war.
Speak of war, in the recent debate Takai said:
"I do believe that arming and training Syrian rebels reminds me of arming and training those military people in Afghanistan who eventually became the Taliban."
Seems like the vets like Takai and Tulsi Gabbard are a lot smarter about war than the pundits clamoring for more U.S. involvement.
We need to make sure Takai wins
Bottom line: We have a top-notch, progressive Democrat who needs our help. This poll was a wake-up call. Some more money for TV commercials can help push Takai over to top.
Please contribute at MarkTakai.com
Why does Hawaii have the highest cost of living in the U.S.?
Hawaii's high cost of living is actually a combination of factors including fuel costs for shipping 85-90% of our food and 80% of our materials 2,500 miles across the sea.
Home prices are quite high with the median price of $519,000 and median rental price close to $2,000. Some is this can be attributed to high construction material costs, some to the fact that the Big 5 companies and plantations control the land and insure the cost is high, and some to the high demand by nonresidents for vacation homes.
At close to 40cents per KwH, Hawaii electricity is the most expensive in the nation - again because most fuel (primarily diesel and coal) is imported. Hawaii's utility HECO is putting roadblocks in the way of rooftop solar. Despite programs which allow even low income people to install rooftop PV, HECO is refusing to allow PV customers to hook their systems to the grid.
Help Takai with more TV ads like this one:
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