 and welcome back to Politics in the Way with Dennis Esaki on Think Tech Away. Today we'll be speaking with Palmer, First Lady of the Way, Vicky Caritano. She has recently expressed her desire to run for governor herself, and Ben may become the first man of the way. Her family had humble beginnings and she has worked to become a successful business person. She even was an actress who was starring with Elvis Prestig in the musical film It Happened at the World Fair. Vicky, welcome to Think Tech Away. Please tell us about yourself, starting from your family's escape from poverty in China, to the Philippines, then to Hawaii, working your way up the ladder of success, owning a company with 400 records. Vicky? Aloha, Dennis, and thank you for having me on your show today. Well, I was born in the Philippines. My parents were also born in the Philippines, and my grandparents came from China. We came to this country through the goodness, the good graces, I say, of my sister Ginny, who was a very talented pianist and artist. He was discovered while we were in the Philippines by a friend who knew Ed Sullivan. And of course, back then, Ed Sullivan was probably the number one variety show. And he saw my sister, five years old, playing the piano, and he couldn't believe it. So he sent the tape, back then it was the old recording tape, and sent it to Ed Sullivan. And he said, when can she come over here? And so Ginny came over and a year later, the rest of our clan, nine children, we all came to this country. And my dad had intended to go back, but by the goodness of everyone supporting us, we were able to stay in this beautiful place. And we grew up on the mainland. And also through Ginny is how I got my break performing with Elvis Presley in the movie It Happened at the World's Fair. So Ginny had already been in a movie called Girls, Girls, Girls, with Elvis Presley. And actually she had a very small part, but she did well enough that when the producer, Ted Richmond, wanted to do another movie and it called for an Asian young lady, he asked Ginny to play again the role. But she had already been committed to perform for President Kennedy. And she plays the piano. I cannot play the piano. So my father was very resourceful. And he said, hmm, I think I'll send my other daughter to take on this role. So I walked in with a guardian accompanying me, no family with me. And even at six and a half, I knew that they were not expecting me just by the looks on their faces. So I read for the part and I got it and spent about three months in Seattle at the 1962 World's Fair with Elvis Presley and also spent part of that filming in Hollywood. Back then, it was very different. People learned by going to these exhibitions, the New York World's Fair and Seattle, that's where the genesis of all the Microsoft and all that, that's where it all started was that World's Fair. And it's also the World's Fair where the Belgian waffle debuted. Did you know that? It debuted in 1962. And there's a scene of me eating the waffle. I really love to eat. I still do. And so that's how I got my part. My sister still performs. I gave that up a long time ago. And I started doing laundry 34 years ago. How did you start in the laundry business? So the laundry was really the brainchild of Masaichi Tosaka. Mr. Tosaka was then president of Kuwakini Hospital. His idea was that healthcare should really focus on their core business and that they should not be doing laundry. But he explained to me that every time he tried to create a laundry, a co-op laundry, the politics of all the hospitals would get into play. And so he finally started thinking that if he got outsiders to come in and manage the laundry and the hospitals would just be a customer. It was very interesting. But then I looked into Waikiki and I see all these hotels. And I'm thinking why would you use prime real estate in Waikiki to operate a laundry? And from there began United Laundry with three hospitals, myself managing it. And then it grew to where we invited two hotel ownerships, the Kyoya Group that owned the Sheraton Waikiki, Moana Weston, Royal Hawaiian, Princess Kailani and the Sheraton Maui. And then also after that the Outrigger family. And so for many years, the six of us were partners in this laundry venture. It's been very, very rewarding, but it's hard to believe that 34 years have gone by so quickly. It's a very important part of the hospitals right now, the hotels also, right, with the pandemic. That's right. It may not be a glamorous business. I remember when we first started sorting soil laundry from healthcare nursing homes and then washing, it did everything except drive a truck. Never been a good driver. I did not drive a truck, but everything else I did with our initial group of 25 employees and steadily, slowly and steadily through everyone's dedication and commitment. We grew the business. There were a pre-pandemic, we were about 1,200 employees throughout the state. But yeah, it's not a glamorous business, but it's definitely an essential service. And I love the people that work in this industry because they're very down to earth and we just want to do a job and take care of our customers. That's all we want to do. Yeah, then I read somewhere during the pandemic when the hotels closed down, it was a big hit on the company, right? Very difficult. Like many of our other businesses in this state, I had never seen anything like that in 33 years back last year where so many employees, all of us either had to take cuts in our schedules or many even furloughed. I'm just so grateful though that at least we have a government that has social programs, unemployment benefits that could support those who were not able to continue working. At least we're blessed to live in this country, in this state where we really take care of each other. Yeah, a while back, you read that yourself and some others including OHA trustee, Ostander, Paul Cossassa and others helped to save or revive the symphony. You tell us about that. Yes, really a privilege to be working with people like Paul Cossassa and Ostander. So what happened was the former symphony, the Honolulu symphony, had filed bankruptcy and a group of us were very concerned because it's not just about playing concerts for a few people. It's about music education in our schools to our young people. We are in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and if we don't have those musicians here to teach our students, what kind of hope do they have for the future? Every state in this country has a symphony orchestra. Every state. So in our mind, how could Hawaii be the only state without it, especially given our logistics and where we're positioned here? And so we banded together as a team and thanks to the Cossassa family, I worked with the trustee because it had gone into bankruptcy, worked with the trustee to get them to sell all the assets of the symphony as a lot versus individual pieces because if it's sold individually, a lot of people could have bought a small piece of it and then you couldn't keep the symphony intact anymore. So the Cossassas put up the money to buy all these assets so that we could form the Hawaii symphony orchestra. And that's important because Honolulu Symphony notates playing for Honolulu. Hawaii Symphony is a symphony orchestra to support the entire state from Kauai to the Big Island. Yeah, that's great. The company also supported some other nonprofits. Can you mention some of the things you've been involved with? So our leadership and our company has always been about giving back and supporting the community that gives you so much. And so yes, we've supported over 40 different organizations from Food Bank, IHS, Institute of Human Services. Anything that has an impact to our community, we want to be a part of it. But the symphony is a wonderful story because it's been 10 years later and the music is still playing as recently as this year out at the Waikiki Shell. We had some wonderful outdoor concerts for our residents and visitors to enjoy as well. I think to me that is what's really meaningful about one's life is what you leave behind, not just what you enjoy, because you can't take anything with you. But what you leave behind and the legacy you leave behind is really important. Yeah, it's great. I remember that time I was taking symphony. I think it was Jerry Spence, the attorney and author. And he was at 34 in the middle of Marcus. This book he said something like, oh, some people will step over a dying man in the street to get to the symphony of opera. So I was thinking like, oh, is that what it is? I'm glad it sits. And I told you that. I'm glad you're concerned about everybody. Oh yeah. Yeah, it's also through our musicians, you know, them if you meet them. I mean, lifetime. No, I'm just quoting what he said. You seem to have a comfortable life now. Why would you want to run for governor? You know, my friends asked me that, Vicky, you have a good head on your shoulders. Why are you running for governor? Well, seriously, you know, our state has never been, I think, at a more critical juncture than where we are right now. And with this pandemic, the economy, where it's at, what kind of tourism are we going to have in this pandemic and post pandemic world? What about our climate? What about a plan for COVID? Climate change? If you read the paper today, you know, the median home is over a million dollars. How many young people can afford to stay here? And how many have already left us? And if the future of Hawaii is not staying in Hawaii, what kind of future will we have? All those things really weigh heavily on my heart. And I've been thinking about it for a while, and I just feel that the time is right. I have no agenda here. I have a great job, wonderful family. I don't need to do this, but I have to do it because I care so much. And you're once a Republican, but now you're a Democrat. Well, I was never active in politics, you know, between working and then raising two children. And running a laundry is a very tough job. I mean, people in the industry know it's literally 24-7. I never really had time to do anything else except family and work, like so many people. And the Republican Party that I was a member of 25 years ago, up to 25 years ago, was a very different Republican Party, you know, but I've been a Democrat for the past 24 years. And my values of pro-choice, of urgency in addressing climate change and global warning, warming, and minimum wage for working people, those are values that are really at the heart of what the Democratic Party stands for. And I'm very proud to share those values and to represent them in the community. We run for office. A lot of times, it matters who your friends are, who's behind you. As you've been working with Lynn Waters, Loretta Sheehan, Alan Tang, and Vicky Borges. Who are they? So Vicky is a friend, of course, widow of Jimmy Borges and a dear friend. We've known each other for years. She worked at United Laundry. I was privileged to have her as my executive assistant until the furlough situation with COVID hit so many people in our company. She's helping me organize my schedule, which is one of the most important things, as you know. Trying to keep juggle a million things. I continue to work in the laundry. Like so many people in the state, I have two jobs now. But I'm very fortunate to have a great group of people involved and many also advising and giving, you know, sharing their concerns, whether it's small business, people in the environmental world. So many issues that we have to tackle from education, healthcare, affordable housing, cost of living, Native Hawaiian issues, something dear to my heart. I call it the humanities, animal welfare, and the arts. Because to me, it's not just about surviving. I'm running to make an impact to really better people's lives so you can thrive. And not just to survive. You know, life is too short to just survive. We should be able to enjoy these times with our family. And when people are living paycheck to paycheck, and barely making it, when they cannot buy a home, that's beyond their reach. Those are the things that really bother me. And I'm running to do something about that. But I think the two most urgent issues that we have to deal with is COVID, a plan for COVID 19 and variants that will be coming. We're already seeing the Delta variant. And the second C, I call it is climate change. You know, we need to start recognizing the urgency of that. You see it already, you know, in on Kauai, in 2018, the rain bomb that you folks had, right? North Shore. Here, when you drive along Kamehameha Highway, you see the erosion of the coastline. Waikiki, concerned there. I mean, it's just on every island, we have issues about climate change that must be addressed with urgency and priority. Yeah, like all of those things you mentioned, climate change, you know, sea level rise and all that. Then we have to do something about it before it gets us. Also housing, affordability of housing and jobs. You know, over a thousand jobs. People have a hard time buying a house, which median price is what, a million dollars or something. So what do you say about that? So one of the things I will say is when you look at the magnitude of our problems, what it needs is it needs somebody in my mind who's going to look at it from a new perspective, because small incremental change isn't going to have any material significant impact, creating solution. The other thing I think that's really important is like you, when you run your business, to make it work, you reach out to everyone, your employees, your customers, your vendors, it takes everyone coming together. And that's something I've been doing my whole life. You know, we don't have the luxury of saying we don't want to work with this party or that segment of the group. We don't have that luxury in the private sector. We have to work with everybody. And that is my message in governing that we need to work with everyone, bring people together. We're not always going to agree, but we need to have those discussions and move decisively to implement the right kind of solutions to be, to not be afraid to try, because that's the only way that we're going to create solutions to the big problems that we're facing. And I also pride myself as somebody who who's into details. You know, you can talk about, I want to make life better for people, but what does that really mean? And so in my business, it's all about all the details that are needed to create a successful plan. We have a lot of good people with great ideas, but implementing and execution requires another set of skills. Yeah, I think housing, like other businesses, like probably in your business, you know, they got to be laws, you know, and rules, but in housing, I think sometimes we get some of the restrictions and conditions that prevent more housing, you know. For the regular people, and then it comes down to, okay, the government, we're going to do it then. So I don't think it's going to be all the government going to do the whole, you know, affordable housing, which is another thing that's calling it affordable housing. It's not really affordable, you know, the affordable categories like half a million, it's not really affordable to a lot of people. I don't know how much you've been into housing, but there is a big issue along with jobs, like you said, pandemic. What do you think about the jobs now? I think that tourism is something that's always going to be our number one industry. There's nothing that's going to quite replace it, especially in a very short time. But having said that, I really think that one has to define sustainable tourism. I think that all of us who are in this industry would recognize that this last year, the uptick and the type of unmanaged tourism is very concerning for residents and also for the right kind of visitors. So I definitely think that that needs to be addressed and discussed. And, you know, to me, that cannot be a separate entity that's not working together with the state government. I think state government does need to be more involved in terms of supporting but also oversight of how the tourism visitor industry works. And I think there's been a little bit of a disconnect. And I'm sure that that's something that will be addressed. Certainly, I see that as a priority to work more in partnership together. Yeah, and when we opened up the state and all the tourists started to come, like hotels were full, people couldn't get cars, traffic was bad. But now we spoke to someone who works in a hotel in Waikiki. They're down in the 60, 70 percent occupancy now. So it's kind of been cutting down. I don't know if it's because of the governor's plea for them to not come here. Where do you see it going? So that is one of my, perhaps the biggest priority, is to come up with a plan to address the COVID-19 so that we can create Hawaii to be the safest place to visit, to live in. It will take consistency across all islands, not one county to the other, because I think that creates confusion. It will take understanding and to an extent, obviously, the different stakeholders need to understand and buy in. But that, to me, is a very critical goal so that we don't have to live on this roller coaster ride of going up and down. We can't afford more shutdowns. And yet, without a lockdown, this thing seems to be getting out of control. We need hospitals to be open not only for COVID people, but for those who need other services as well. And so that's top of my priority as I campaign to be the next governor. Yeah, a lot of these things surround the pandemic plans, jobs, tourism. Right now, there's uncertainty, and we need a good leader coupled with a normal issue. Like you said, the normal people who go to the hospitals and the other topics like native Hawaiian, issues or things that we got to deal with, you know, get the only focus on the pandemic. But meanwhile, you get people trying to make a living. That's right. You're absolutely right. But we need to get a handle on COVID so we can talk about all these other important issues. But I have a lot that I'll be rolling out on my website. So when you have time, I hope you'll check it out, Dennis, www.vickiforgovernor.com. But I'll be rolling out what I'm working on. But to me, yeah, climate change and a plan to deal with COVID-19. So we're not on this wild ride of uncertainty, which leads to a lot of frustration, anger. You know, everybody's just like, so we've got to get this under control and we can get it under control. But we have to have a plan. Yeah, kind of backtrack. I mean, you know, everything is, you know, life lessons. But going back to college, you went to Stanford. What did you study? Well, I didn't graduate from Stanford for two years. And then I started a business. And somehow, too much being too much of an entrepreneur, if I had to look back, that is probably one of the things that I would say I regret is not completing that. You did a lot. Not more than a lot of college grads. I started my graduate work in urban planning. So I'm going to drop out there. I'm also going to drop out from the Carnegie class. And both of them were there because of the two hurricanes. Well, you speak very well. So you have your own show. You're doing great. One thing that was kind of funny, I think, read somewhere that when you first met Ben, you said he was down to earth. He didn't talk a lot. And he was very humbled as he's here. I don't know. I guess he learned to talk a lot more later. We're getting close to the end. Any closing statement? We have a couple of minutes. No, I just want to thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak to you and your audience. And I'm humbled to be able to take this run, you know, and have an opportunity to answer. And I'm going to do everything I can, earn your trust and your vote. Yeah, thanks for joining us. And thanks for your body for listening to Think Tech Hawaii. We'll be back again on Politics in Hawaii in two weeks. Thank you and Aloha.