 Aloha and welcome back to Politics in Hawaii with Dennis Esaki on Think Tech Hawaii. Today we'll be speaking with Stephanie Ohigashi, Democratic Party Leader on Maui and Hawaii. She's also the Maui field rep for Congressman Kaya Kahele. She grew up with politics on Maui and still resides there. She danced for a statehood celebration in 1959 and JFK's campaign in 1960. I first met Stephanie at Tip Top Cafe on Kauai. There was over 20 years ago and many years later at a funeral in Maui, she told a friend that she had met me at Tip Top so I was impressed. Stephanie, welcome to Think Tech Hawaii and I hope the party chair Tyler does understand but you're some good roast duck the other week. Please tell us about your history with politics in Hawaii. Thank you Dennis and thank you to Think Tech Hawaii for inviting me and yes, you know Honolulu has all the great Chinese restaurants and one thing my husband and I really really love his roast duck so thanks to Tyler. Let me see what can I say? Oh Jesus, I was brought up like you said in a in a political family. My mother's sister was married to Mayor Enetep and so my mother was going to like beauty school and so she kind of had to go back and forth to Honolulu for classes and exams so I was under the care of her sister Lee Tam and so I was surrounded by politicians from an early early early age. This was during the territorial days even before statehood so I was familiar with the Board of Supervisor leaders and I attended pretty much all the rallies back in the 50s rallies had both republics against the democrats I don't know Dennis you're younger than me. Do you remember the big old-fashioned rallies at the old-fashioned? Yes I remember it. So those days are really great and I remember big carnation days that all politicians had and I would travel along with Eddie Tam to Manai or Ka'i on you know wherever they had rallies he would take me along because I was their little in-house hula dancer Japanese hula dancer yeah free entertainment but one thing really struck according to me is that tomorrow the democrats will go to meet up with grassroots supporters I mean flying into Manai and landing on the tarmac and having a rally right there and then serving hot dogs and orange soda you know is really embedded in my mind that the democrats were there for day one to push their 1954 revolution ahead and I appreciate you know the hard work of those grassroots efforts so even before I officially joined in 1983 I was invited many you know events internationally because Eddie Tam was a lion and I would go to Kona and Hawaii and I met leaders from all over the world so it kind of started my interest in global international relationships but my good friend Martin Luna my local attorney invited me to a precinct meeting in 83 and I said what's a precinct and he said never mind just come so he said he needed help with somebody to take minutes well I got elected county secretary that night and I got elected vice chair the next session in 1984 and I've been going ever since it's been crazy roller coaster and my husband's just waiting for me to get off this roller coaster of democratic party volunteerism but I really enjoyed it I don't think there's a finer look of hardworking grassroots members and elected officials in the world that is so collaborative and and willing to work together besides you know democratic party do some other community service and you got a real job too right I have a real job so I'm on my lunch break right now I'm the international and regional coordinator for UH Hawaii College I create partnerships with universities in Japan Korea you know I was on a zoom six o'clock zoom with Portugal this past week it's am with Tyler and my counselor and it was in there of my picture we know and we have creating relationships for the benefit of our community so we're talking about things like J1 visas for internships in hospitality things that can come back to us in the workforce development and it's really a lot of fun but it's also rewarding to see that you know international relationships can play a role in the future of Hawaii I'm so happy to be part of it and I also belong okay in the state community I'm the sister cities international Hawaii state representative I along with 50 other state reps advisor states on all the opportunities at sister cities international so I work with kawaii county kawaii county do you better not hold up city county in front of me and make connections between us of mutual benefits the ninth and I think a couple years ago dash the japan americans decided why was brand up a nickel we wanted to do a sister city summit with all japanese sister cities because it seems like all four counties have a lot of japanese sister cities and then pull it here so we push back that japanese sister cities summit to 2023 and I'll be working on that with rena and the japanese america society of Hawaii and that's part of my community participation yes I'm familiar with dash as I work with rena on the uh the front prince akeita scholarship foundation um you also worked with uh mayor victorino well for 10 years I was his executive assistant at the county of Hawaii I was in charge of all our international sister cities relationships there as well and created a lot of relationships under his guidance so and of course I did the normal stuff like mend codes you know and create legislation for the betterment of his district which was why me too and I still have a really strong working relationship with their victorino but actually happens to be my first cousin I don't know if you do that but his mother and my father are a sister and brother and we enjoy working together you know to create the new tourism of the environmental and eco-terrorism that is needed here for the future if we're going to be sustaining our economy seemed like you get a lot of relatives in in office getting back to the democratic party understand it was uh formed democratic party of Hawaii was formed in 1900 by supporters of the queen who was overthrown and it was in the wake of the plague the bubonic plague which is kind of ironic that we're in such a situation right now can you tell us a little bit more about the democratic party what what is doing right now well you know buddy should mention that because all we do is talk about how we're going to function during the pandemic and luckily for us we we didn't see it coming but we saw the need to be tech savvy when I was state party chair 2014 and we looked the DNC gave each 50 states a chunk of money to upgrade our tech support systems and data you know cybersecurity and managing membership information so right now I you know I fluctuate up and down but the party has almost 80 000 registered members statewide and that means we're a really big business and we have a lot of people to have and we have a lot of constituent requests we don't only just go campaign door to door and you know have rallies we run a official business providing legislative support helping and training our would be and want to be candidates for elected officials we're constantly recruiting younger members of society to be young democrats a lot of our elected officials today like senator gilkey auger on I met him when he came back from college from Yale and he called me because I happened to be the party chair there he goes oh I want to start a young democrats chapter and always so I said yeah okay he picked me up in his old bus up you know pickup truck and I thought what are we doing are we going to go round up kids from the street oh he actually had a plan and he met with a group of young people of Hawaiians and in Kine we had our first you know young democrats kickoff meeting but till today in fact I got an email from senator gilkey auger on today having a meeting to recruit four young people into the party and this is this is what we have to do because most of us have been here for years and years we want to see the next generation of leaders you know start to take over so I applaud gil for reaching out and continuing to be looking to train the next generation of leaders that we have represented and try Hashimoto from Maui who is my colleague at Maui County Council he worked for Mike White I worked for Mike Victorino and we call ourselves the stereos because we work we had two mics to deal with but anyway we uh I enjoy working with the Maui legislative team Kyle Yamashita he's very quiet with very strong and his advocacy for health and education all of them really surpassed my you know expectations of them as leaders and they surprised me quite often so right now what the party is doing Dennis is preparing for 2022 and so 2022 is the biennial year that every we all get together statewide to be attending our precinct meetings and the last in-person precinct meeting we had was in 2020 just before COVID yet we managed to have in-person meetings all across the state they usually are held in cafeterias or you know libraries or your precincts could go in and getting like the precinct officer delegate to your county commission delegate to the state convention well that's all changed we've had to and we used force to pivot to online voting so in 2022 early on maybe March maybe or March we're going to have our very first digital precinct and district elections we're not quite sure how successful it's going to be but we really have no choice because we can't bring people together so it's really going to be a test and we want to learn from it we know it's not going to be perfect people are used to showing up you know Democrats they want to go talk story with their friends in their neighborhood I did it so that's what's happening it for us is to prepare for 2022 yeah you know started a long time ago in the plantation days and then you got the Elmer Cavalli days we're involved with the Elmer and Calvin Nemoto and that group of course Calvin was county chair and I was his vice chair and Elmer was state house speaker of course I know him personally and I grew up with him his family his nieces and nephews were all family friends I didn't have such a great relationship with him when I was county chair because I'm of a different generation but we worked together for the sake of you know of moving our gen core but he was pretty much one of the most visionary mayors the state has had when he decided to launch tourism in front of Fully I have to take credit a little bit because Eddie Tam went with MFAC and Seabour to plant the seeds for the build out of the Sheraton so this was before Elmer came back and you know Elmer really did carry the ball because he said he wanted quality tourism not quantity tourism I think his words are coming back to harken us to action all right yeah um yeah I remember uh we used to call you know the whole time there's like card carrying Democrats I remember getting a I don't remember getting a card I don't know where it went and I don't see anybody carrying cards now a lot of people a lot of people in office they you know you never got a card so it's different now I mean now you got you got to deal with the millennials like a different generation so how do you deal with uh you know the the ongoing controversy about the cards is it story's not ended yet um with 80 000 members and renewals and people come off come back on you know issuing cards is a big job for a one percent office during my tenure as chair and we had a machine and would take the machine around the state and people join or they are members if they wanted a laminated card we would they would pay us and we would like pumping out cards like the law but I think Dennis that is something that people really want they want some identity with the party and I've talked to Tyler we've all talked to Tyler and all you get is a email back saying thank you for joining the party it doesn't quite ring the bell as looking at your card in your wallet it's the oh yeah the kind when saying my car you know Jack Richardson you know Jimmy Kumagai those are really cool memorabilia so um somewhere's along the line I think we'll return to a a card that you could purchase and uh we've mentioned it over and over so stay tuned yeah uh well in today's uh computer age it's going to be on the computer too just like the vaccination cards and your insurance card from Gaiko it's not as pretty but you know it is what it is uh oh we're going to get some donation from Gaiko we mentioned that Tyler a couple times yeah just to show a generation gap here's my uh my son's classmate you know a long time ago so he's uh the Democratic Party Chair for the state right now all right yes he's enough incoming and um have you had him on your show yet not not yet yeah yeah but you know talk to him on on Oahu and not quite yeah okay I'm ready to show you some pictures oh yeah I'm taking my my type yeah yeah let's go over some of your photographs oh my god yeah anyway what what is what is um loading yeah what is loading that uh getting back to me yeah go ahead getting back to be in a new generation uh some people call it call it the me generation which is different from what you know original Democratic Party ideals you see on the map I do and you know there's nothing wrong with that because I think the party has evolved and it has to evolve if you want to be relevant and I work really well with the me generation or Gen Z or you know whoever's coming next because remember now we are broad and we are encapsulating the best of who we are here in Hawaii so we want to be able to work with the Millennials they bring a lot to the table they've got their tech savvy and they are hungry to participate and be part of the Democratic Party yeah they they don't like dinosaurs sometimes like me hanging around but they're willing to work with me yeah a while back you lobbied for the open primary what something I guess your opponent didn't like it open primary where anybody can vote for you know in a primary you're gonna mention something about that uh you mean Tony Gill yeah yeah he had a lawsuit actually that the party was trying to change things and it didn't you know it didn't survive I think it was a ninth circuit that it went up as far as that and that I don't think that was the reason he lost the election to me I do know that um when I decided to throw my hat in the rain in 2014 the day before John Whitehead come to Maui for our county convention that that was for me the end I was like oh I'm proud I'm done and I found out that there was only one candidate for a state party chair and I said oh how come normally we have plenty people running so the next day was the deadline uh to run May 4th so I emailed my application just to give party members a choice that's all it was that my husband said oh yeah go ahead because he didn't think I'd win anyway so it was no problem and for 30 days I called everybody I remember I called uh Jimmy Tokioca I said hey Jimmy you can support me he's a Buddhist and I said um nobody nobody knew who I was and he said okay he would support me if I promised to come to Hawaii he said nobody ever comes here I said I promise and I kept that promise I can't I went to every colony number of times so um I think it's a matter of being accessible and even though I didn't know anything and I didn't know how a lot of people I still prevail because the party knew that I would look hard so but as far as Tony Gillis concerned his um open primary thing is still not a popular subject to broach um I think there's a couple legislators that want to you know go back to that but they haven't done it so far so right now we'll just stick to the party run of primaries yeah thanks um you know I've noticed uh some of the uh photos showed you with you know like senator in no way senator in no way and others Hilary I guess it's been true with the yeah that's what her husband was running for office we invited her to Hawaii she also sent her daughter to Maui but you know um it was Bill Clinton's birthday so we presented her with a huge Snoopy because Bill Clinton loves Snoopy and all of us Democrats we just signed our names and she she loved it but she was really down to earth uh a really classy you know woman that's why I supported her for president even though in the in the press and some mainland press they call me Hilary's uh prime boss or something I see some good pieces on me and wow interesting and we're talking about uh a lot of people signed up for the democratic party at one time a lot of them did we during uh Obama's press run for uh office you know they were flooding the uh the democratic uh headquarters to sign up no they didn't have a card at least they they wanted to be democrat to be part of yeah and Obama did a lot of that because he was on the radio encouraging people to join the party and so it was chaos for sure and uh but you know we may do I remember uh senator gilke thought about once again he was at ballton high school and we ran out of ballots because who knew that thousands would show up and he had um um a legal tablet in his car well of course lawyers always carry around yellow leaf tablet so he ran out he broke them into pieces and he you know they were flying everywhere but the minute that day was over unfortunately the there wasn't a whole lot of sincerity and the people joined the party they just joined to vote for him and they did it again it to first Bernie Sanders you know I have to say that that was a necessary thing they have to join to vote uh and then they came off the party but the majority of those who joined stayed with us to give us the chance so the party was really moving because of Obama and Bernie Sanders so for that I'm really thankful that so we don't have much time I I wonder if more of the pictures were shown or I do have an interesting picture of people in muckawaw side waiting for Kennedy in the cities I think you did show it already on the top I didn't mean to show you the bottom of the yeah so um one of my mentors is senator maori yamsaki I worked really closely with him when he was a wamp and I wanted I was lobbying for coalition of early childhood education uh agencies so I asked him for money for this program you know zero three and why e and s what year was that oh gosh uh in the 80s like 1980 I want to say two or three something that and um he he did appropriate funds for maui and uh there was a why monologue within the why and I that they said oh how come you giving the money to maui you know we have more you know situations here that require the money and he said because I'm from maui and I said so and I really um admire that because he knew he was taking a chance with us what he did and we proved that that agency was only five people now it's 35 people so uh his investment with us really you know but I am the imperative of the whole maui yamsaki archives and I have his senate jacket and his bowling shirts and all his pictures and someday I hope that I can showcase them and uh you know because when he he never got married he never had children he lived for and worked for all of oi's children on his grave still is this maui yamsaki or the children so his legacy lives on where do you see the party going now you know we talk about the party the past and some changes some people sent you know signed up so they could vote for a certain party the party is going to you know well like governor's race is the hot topic you know and for me on maui I'm hosting three events coming up with Kirk Caldwell uh josh green and vicki pietano just to get them familiar with uh maui's democratic leadership there'll be small events we're not going to um you know break any restrictions but I think that we have three very interesting candidates for governor and who knows more me um but those are the three major um candidates and I think the party will will evolve as a digital platform for its membership and our elected leaders they were moving and giving in towards the digital age and incorporating apps and data management to match the time and to make us more accessible through the borders that's what we're going to do we get uh in in a way I mentioned earlier you know with uh the party started in the wake of the bubonic play and now we you know we've got this pandemic uh a while back we had uh the state dinner that money so the government cut back on uh and the road in control they did the whole program that the vector control and then later ohant lo and behold we get the red red lungworm disease so we gotta be careful on what you know what we cut back of of course there wasn't no there was no other party but so what uh what what do you see what don't you see the party doing like I think the party has to partner with the community we can only be playing politics if we have to be involved with pushing you know the the I don't want to say the new green deal but I think we have to push sustainability food security we've been so reliant everybody knows that we've been talking to a who in the face of water and we have to train our workforce to be able to meet the future needs of work I mean who knew you could be a Facebook manager or a TikTok developer you know those words did not appear in career paths in the past but now the future of work is evolving so rapidly that all all entities have to rethink reimagine you know our workforce and so the party is having a legislative agenda that will talk about these things to our elected officials and try to encourage innovation and technology across the state okay thanks we're winding down here uh you know have any closing statements well closing statements I really want to thank the people who took their lunch hour to come and watch me I I did tell the people that I I have a bad hair day and so pardon me but um it's ironic because my mother was a stylist and she had three salons but I have the worst hair in the world but I want to thank you Dennis because I think take boy for having me today I really appreciate all the people listening in I hope that they are interested if they're interested in being a member or even finding out what what the Democratic Party is doing we have a Walton County, White County, White County, Maui County which are all led by women and then we have the vice chair of the party which is also so we've got a lot of what he need power in the house and we're here to answer the all ahead of make changes as the state sees fit so Mahalo and Hulihau okay thank you Stephanie um thank you to think back Hawaii thank you good listeners yeah politics in Hawaii if you like it please go to think back Hawaii support excuse me uh let's go to think back Hawaii support the organization and tune into the other shows we'll be back politics in Hawaii in two weeks aloha and Mahalo