"ELECT MAILE" BLOG HAS MOVED

Maile's campaign blog has CHANGED, please visit http://electmaile.com for the latest campaign updates. Mahalo nui loa for your support & interest.

Mahalo for Your Well-Wishes Re: My Senate Appointment!

My son, Keani, doing the "happy dance" like I did when I got the news of the Senate appointment!

Thanks so much for your support and congratulations regarding my appointment to the Senate seat. I was so moved by the outpouring of phone calls, emails, texts, and letters I received. I could not have asked for a better Christmas present, and I could not ask for better friends and family than you.

Hauoli Makahiki Hou,
Maile

Videos from Don Hutton: Cupcake & Cookie Program

From: "Don - Hotmail"
Date: December 22, 2010 8:41:52 PM HST
Subject: Your Cupcake & Cookie Program on Internet

Aloha Maile and Ianuali-

Here is a link to your great presentation at the Farmers’ Market which was submitted to OLELO: http://vimeo.com/18109884


Here is a web page with links to videos of 14 of your events: https://sites.google.com/site/maileshimabukuroevents/

I will put a couple of DVDs in your parents mailbox tomorrow.

Mahalo,
Don

Mele Kalikimaka & Hau`oli Makahiki Hou!

Letter from Campaign Volunteer Ruth 'Wai' Paaoao

Ruth "Wai" Paaoao pictured with her daughter, Tayzah

Hi Maile,

Just stopping by to say that it was a very warm experience campaigning for you. There were so many new things I've learned and so many different people I've met. My kids also had a great time doing this. And even they too, said that it was a memory that will last forever.

I sure hope that we all can do this again. To meet you in person was the greatest accomplishment. I hope that people out there will appreciate what a great rep. the Wai`anae Coast has.

May God be with you in all your decisions you have to make. And hugs to Keani for us . . . .

Have a blessed day!

Aloha Pumehana
Wai & Ohana

Thanks for Your Support!, Special Kudos to Co-Campaign Mgr Art Frank & Wai Paaoao, Election Results, & Photos of General Election/Mahalo Sign Waving

Mahalo nui loa to co-campaign manager Art Frank (seated, pictured with Puna Ka`aiali`i-Ramos & Karen Young). Art gave 200% of himself to lead us to victory! [Click on the image to enlarge].


Thanks also to Ruth "Wai" Paaoao (pictured with her daughter, Tayzah). Wai served as Art's "right hand," and lead organizer of her 'ohana, the Paaoao-Ayala's and the Mickey's. Her dedicated support was critical to our success. [Click on the image to enlarge]

Click the image to zoom in. Click here for the PDF version.

Mahalo nui loa to each and every one of you who worked so hard to make our 2010 campaign a success! Special mahalo to Co-Campaign Manager Art Frank and his "right-hand woman," Ruth "Wai" Paaoao, who were our fearless leaders, and poured their hearts and souls into keeping all of us organized. Our results are below, as well as photo albums of General Election and Mahalo sign waving, compliments of Cathy Outland.

House District 45 Election Result History (compiled by Co-Campaign Manager Colleen Teramae)

YEAR / MAILE / OPPONENT / BLANKS / PERCENTAGES

2010: 2660 / 1912 / 81 (57% SHIMABUKURO VS. 41% MEYERS)

2008: 3922 / 1172 / 283 (72% SHIMABUKURO VS. 21% GAPOL)

2006: 3089 / 892 / 107 (75% SHIMABUKURO VS. 21% EBEL)

2004: 3774 / 1350 / 167 (71% SHIMABUKURO VS. 25% KILA)

2002: 2796 / 1811 / 112 (59% SHIMABUKURO VS. 38% AUWAE)


Click here to see a photo album of General Election photos by Cathy Outland, or go to this link:
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AZuWrFi5auGL8

Click here to see a photo album of the 11/3/10 Mahalo Sign Waving, compliments of Cathy Outland, or go to this link:
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AZuWrFi5auGMC

Halloween Sign Waving Fun on 10-29-10

Mahalo to all the volunteers who sign waved in costume on 10/29/10. We sure had a lot of fun, and got into the Halloween spirit!

Thanks to Cathy Outland for, as always, taking excellent photos to memorialize the day. Cathy and her husband Brooks went "all out" with their blow-up duck and sumo costumes, respectively, and their witch and skeleton props. Cathy also lent costumes to several volunteers, donated props and decorations for the Haunted House and Spooktacular party, and helped set up the Haunted House.

Click here or on the following link to view more pictures of the 10/29/10 costume sign waving (photos compliments of Cathy Outland):
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AZuWrFi5auGLe

Grace 'Tinky' Leach Endorses Maile

"Maile is a smart lawyer who has helped many people on the Wai'anae Coast. We need to re-elect her." - Grace "Tinky" Leach (center), Makaha resident, pictured with grandchildren Thalia and Aiden Magallanes.

Star-Advertiser Endorses Rep. Shimabukuro

[Note: The Star-Advertiser published the following endorsement on 30 Oct. 2010. Click here to read the entire article.]

Smaller-town Values Rise to Top

The Star-Advertiser completes its legislative endorsement series today with a look around the most rural piece of an otherwise urbanized island. It starts with the farmland-turned-subdivisions of Ewa and curves around the Waianae Coast through the North Shore communities - where the "keep the country, country" mantra still resounds.

House District 45 (Waianae, Makaha, Makua): Voters should return Democrat Maile Shimabukuro to the House due to her broad-based experience over Republican competitor Jadeen Meyers. Shimabukuro has pushed for better educational opportunities, such as the planned improvement of the Leeward Community College satellite campus in Waianae, and projects such as turn lanes to alleviate traffic backups on Farrington Highway and enable possible contraflow lanes.

Maile Responds to Questions from The Hawaii Independent

On 30 Oct. 2010, The Hawaii Independent published this interview with Rep. Maile Shimabukuro. Click here for the original article.


Q. Who is your largest campaign contributor?

A. Unions and plaintiff’s attorneys

Q. Where do you stand on civil unions? Would you have voted for House Bill 444? Do you think that the debate over gay marriage contributes to gay bashing in our schools?

A. I support civil unions, and I voted in favor of HB444. Yes.

Q. How, as an elected official, will you support and enforce the existing State laws that protect and nurture the rights of Native Hawaiians?

A. One of my top priorities if re-elected is to renew efforts to place a moratorium on the sale and transfer of ceded and public land. I believe that all public lands should be treated like a trust, similar to how DHHL handles their lands. Long-term leases are fine, but the state should not be allowed to sell/transfer our most precious and finite resource - land.

Q. What kind of tax relief do you support and how else do we lower the cost of living for full time residents?

A. I support establishing a state earned income tax credit for low-income families and individuals.

Q. How do you limit bureaucracy in government and manage civil work for efficiency?

A. Continue to improve government services for our most vulnerable populations. I have authored measures which improve the general assistance program by allowing the disabled to claim both physical and mental disabilities when applying, and to claim good cause for failing to pursue medical treatment. I also authored a measure allowing people 3 months to find a rental after being approved for the state's rent supplement program. I will continue to push for these types of changes.

Q. What ideas do you have for improving our education system? Do you support a governor-appointed Board of Education?

A. Cooling schools off! So many schools on the Wai`anae Coast and throughout the state lack air conditioning and other cooling mechanisms. The classrooms, portables, and other buildings are miserably hot, and make learning practically unbearable. I am encouraged by the DOE's recent move to install photo-voltaic panels at Wai`anae Elementary. So far, I have obtained power upgrades/air conditioning for Wai`anae High, Wai`anae Intermediate, and Kamaile Academy, and also held a fan drive which put some fans in all the schools in my district. I will continue to make this a top priority. Yes.

Q. What’s going to be your input in addressing Hawaii’s homeless crisis?

A. We need pet-friendly homeless shelters. Many of the homeless are on the beach because pets are not allowed in the shelters/rentals. Many of them need their pets for emotional comfort/therapeutic reasons. There are numerous organizations who provide "animal rescue" services to the homeless, e.g., taking the pets to the veterinarian, feeding and caring for the pets, etc. We should form public/private partnerships with these animal rescue groups to create pet-friendly homeless shelters.

Q. How would you improve accountability in government?

A. I would love to require all HI citizens to register to vote like they do in countries like New Zealand. Maybe here we could require it if you’re going to utilize a government service, like apply for a driver’s license, government benefits, etc. If only people realized how easy it is to vote, especially now that we have permanent absentee voting (where a ballot is mailed to your doorstep along with a postage-paid envelope)! As an elected official you are keenly aware of the percentage of voters in your district, and turnout in many areas is very low, e.g., 20% or less. Think about it: it’s like having a job where your boss is only around to oversee your work 20% of the time, or 1 out of every 5 days. We need to educate the public about how much power they have in a democratic society, and that the first step to exercise that power is to vote. The more voters we have, and the more participation, the more accountability there will be in government.

Q. What is your opinion on Hawaii’s current approach to renewable energy?

A. Hawai`i has the unique environment and natural resources to make us the ideal place for technologies like ocean thermal and wave/solar/wind energy, etc. We should encourage the development of these alternative energies so that we can power not only ourselves, but export energy and bring in revenue to our state.

Q. Do you support legislation that would establish clear definitions and penalties for human trafficking in Hawaii?

A. Yes.

Q. Are you aware of concerns Hawaii residents have with the lack of enforcement of child support laws, and do you see a way you could address it if elected?

A. Yes. Fund the Child Support Enforcement Agency (CSEA) adequately. I was pleasantly surprised to recently discover that you can actually get through to a human being who will answer questions now when you call CSEA. At least that’s a step in the right direction. In balancing the State budget, what specific government programs or services would you cut?Our state and city governments should be completely paperless. I think I heard the Senate saved a million dollars by going paperless. Imagine if all other government entities followed suit – it would be wonderful.

Q. Do you have a modern economic plan that takes into account local agriculture, businesses, and traditions? What about high tech jobs such as film and TV training?

A. I want to continue to make higher education a top priority. My proudest achievement this past session was obtaining $3m to help Leeward Community College-Wai`anae (LCCW) pursue their goal of purchasing their own building and expanding. I also supported UH West O`ahu's (UHWO) efforts to obtain $48m by being part of a "hui" of legislators who requested these funds.

Making higher education more accessible for those in rural communities like the Wai`anae Coast will go a long way toward addressing our high teacher turnover, lack of medical professionals, lack of social workers, lack of entrepeneurialism, etc. on this Coast. Encouraging high tech jobs such as film and TV training is the perfect fit for an area like the Wai`anae Coast, where Searider Productions and Makaha Studios were born. I would definitely encourage LCCW and UHWO to continue to promote these areas of study. Stopping the "brain drain" will help our economy overall.

In terms of promoting agriculture, I believe we should provide more state lands to local farmers, like we have done with dairy farmers on Hawai`i island. We should go back to requiring businesses who sell in Hawai`i to buy local, e.g., Meadow Gold's "Island Fresh" milk should trully be from Hawai`i, and not the mainland the way it is now. We should legalize traditional poi preparation, eg, provide DOH licenses to those who prepare poi by hand (right now DOH will not approve of this). We should continue to fund DLNR's Legacy Lands fund and the City's Clean Water and Natural Lands fund. We should require the military to go back to allowing neighboring farmers to use their "buffer zone" lands for cattle grazing. We should restore natural stream flows.

Mahalo to 10-28-10 "Wake Up Crew" Sign Wavers!

Thanks to Cathy Outland for the photos!

Update: Video & Photos: Maile's Spooktacular 2010!

Click the image to see the video by Don Hutton.

Click here or visit this link to view Spooktacular photos from Cathy Outland: share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AZuWrFi5auGLP

BERNY M. LUNING ENDORSES MAILE

"Mahalo for serving the Wai'anae community all these years. You're doing an awesome job! We need to keep an experienced representative already serving."
- Berny M Luning, Makaha resident

Mahalo to Oct 25 Sign Wavers!

Photos by Cathy Outland

Mahalo to Volunteers from 10/21/10 Joint Sign-Waving with Team Abercrombie!

Photos by Cathy Outland

Click images to zoom in.