 And welcome to Think Tech Hawaii's forum on who is running for Lieutenant Governor and evaluation of our major candidates. I am your moderator, Louise Ng. The primary election, just remember for this year, is on Saturday, August 13th. Registered voters can either cast a ballot by mail or vote in person at a designated polling place. And winners in the primary will then be on the ballot for the general election, which is on Tuesday, November 8th. One of our most important elections this year is for the position of Lieutenant Governor for our state to serve with the newly elected Governor. And today, we will talk in depth with four of our major candidates for Lieutenant Governor in the primary. And we welcome them in alphabetical order by last name, and they're all Democrats, by the way, Keith Amemiah, Ikaika Anderson, Sylvia Luke, and Sherry Menor McNamara. Aloha, all of you, and thank you for participating today. So before I start the questions, I'll review guidelines for this forum for both the candidates and the audience. I will pose both general and individual questions to the candidates. They have not seen them in advance. I may also ask follow-up questions. And each candidate is going to have three minutes to answer, and we do have a timer running. Each candidate will then have an opportunity to pose one question to another candidate. Then viewers, because this is a live program, you may pose questions through the question and answer box on your screen. Don't use the chat box, just remember to use the question and answer box. And for those of you who need it, there is a running transcript option. If you go to the bottom of your screen, click on live transcription and choose subtitles. You'll be able to get a running transcript. The candidates, as I mentioned, will have up to three minutes to respond to each question. I ask for brevity in your responses, or I may cut you off. You will see the timer. And I also ask for civility. And then about 1115, I will give each of you up to three minutes to give a closing. So, okay, let's get started. And we are going to start with Keith. And we'll kind of cycle through. But Keith, well, and all the candidates, as we know, the role of Lieutenant Governor includes primarily being the Secretary of State for intergovernmental relations and to act as a governor when the governor is out of the state or otherwise unavailable. So the Lieutenant Governor or LG also performs duties and undertakes projects assigned by the governor. Each of you have outlined your platforms very clearly on your websites, your ads and other forums, such as on corruption, affordable housing, homelessness, poverty, climate change, I mean, sustainability, cost of living, jobs, economy, education, in this case, LGBT and other rights. So really, you've really hit all the high points. But my first general question to all of you, and Keith will start with you, is that, you know, Hawaii, as we all know, has had many Lieutenant Governors over the years, including some who have gone on to become governors or gone to other office. And so who among our past Lieutenant Governors do you admire and why? And what would you, maybe following their footsteps on, what would you try to do better to enhance your role? Well, thanks, Louise. We've had a lot of great Lieutenant Governors. Our state has been lucky in that regard. But two that come to mind are Lieutenant Governor at the time, Ariyoshi, who obviously became our governor eventually. And same with John Wahey, who was Lieutenant Governor, and then became governor. They were both men that I admired and still admire because they had vision. They cared about working families across the state. Governor Ariyoshi in particular was concerned about creating long term plans, not just looking at next month or next year, but looking at decades ahead, looking at generations ahead. And he's 90-something years old today, but he still is a wealth of knowledge. And his prognostications and his concerns about the future 40, 50 years ago are still true today. And so I respect and admire him in that regard. Similar with Governor Wahey, I view him as a visionary. I view him as a great role model for Native Hawaiians and the community in general. He's a statesman today, just like Governor Ariyoshi. And I know both of them quite well. And I utilize them for their knowledge and wealth and experience. But in terms of the Lieutenant Governor job itself, it's an important position. It's the number two position in the state. He or she will fill the role of governor if the governor is unable to fill or fulfill his or her duties. I also feel that it's what you make of it, like any position. Lieutenant Governor Green has shown that the Lieutenant Governor can take a very active role in some of the major issues facing our state today. Now, certainly he benefited from being a doctor during a pandemic, but I feel that any Lieutenant Governor has an important role and responsibility to support the governor, whoever that may be. If I'm elected Lieutenant Governor, one of the areas I'd like to focus on is affordable housing. Far and away, one of the biggest challenges and concerns of working families across the state is the high cost of living. Of course, the biggest expense for most households is housing. We need to build more affordable housing. This has been an issue for 40, 50 years. Our current leaders in government have not done a good job of creating more affordable housing. Studies show that we may need as much as 65,000 units to meet demand. This didn't happen overnight. We need more visionary leadership. We need more assertive leadership. We need people who will get the job done to create more affordable housing in our state. Thank you. I will go next to Ikaika. Ikaika, what Lieutenant Governors have you admired over the years? What would you do, emulate, and what would you do better? I really admire former Lieutenant Governor and Governor Arayoshi and also former Governor who also served as Lieutenant Governor John Whitehead. Lieutenant Governor Arayoshi, when he was Lieutenant Governor, comes to mind because he had to serve his governor. As Lieutenant Governor, he was called to step into the Governor's office when his Governor, Governor Burns, fell ill. So that underscores the need to have a very capable elected executive ready to serve at moments notice as Governor should the need arise. Governor Arayoshi did face that call and he met the challenge. I've had the opportunity to talk with Governor Waihei on a number of occasions and I did actually sit with him and talk with him about his time as Lieutenant Governor. And he shared with me that the relationship between the Governor and the Lieutenant Governor is 95% contingent upon the Lieutenant Governor showing the Governor two things. One, that the Lieutenant Governor is competent and two, that the Lieutenant Governor is trustworthy because if the Lieutenant Governor is only one or neither of those things, they will have nothing to do. That was a lot of great advice that Governor Waihei shared with me. In my role as a Vice-Chair on the Honolulu City Council for six years, I complimented the Council Chair. I served with three different Council Chairs as a Vice-Chair, people with very different personality styles and leadership styles. What I was able to serve as the starting running back, not the starting quarterback, but the starting running back on the team to move the ball upfield. As the Lieutenant Governor, I will have that same role to compliment the Governor and to move the ball upfield to accomplish the state executive branch of government's policy agenda as we move it forward. As an elected executive myself, I look forward to being able to build more affordable housing as I did when I was on the Honolulu City Council, particularly sheltering our homeless residents. I worked with the current Lieutenant Governor in establishing the Kaohalei concept we built together in Waimanalo. We were able to get done the first official Kaohalei project in Kalailoa in November, showing that this concept works and that we can't duplicate it across the state. Thank you, Ikaika. Sylvia, same question to you. Do you need it repeated? No, thank you. Thanks, Louise. And thank you for this opportunity. And thanks to everyone for tuning in and your interest in this race. I know when we talk about Lieutenant Governor, people go, okay, you're running for the second in command. And to raise the awareness and raise excitement of the importance of this office is really important. For me, of course, we honor our former Lieutenant Governors and Governors and clearly Governor Ariyoshi was Lieutenant Governor Governor Wahey, who was also a former Lieutenant Governor. They rise to the top and I had a recent conversation with Governor Ariyoshi and he really believes that what I have done in the state is what the state needs and that's why Governor Ariyoshi is very supportive of my candidacy. But let's look at what the Lieutenant Governor does and let's look at the skill set that the Lieutenant Governor can bring. And just the last recent Lieutenant Governors, you had some successes. You had individuals who stepped out of the box and that is the current Lieutenant Governor, the current Lieutenant Governor, because he was able to fulfill that boy or the vacuum where the Governor needed. So the Governor struggled with communicating during a time where it was really stressful, where it was really stressful for individuals about what is this new virus? How are we going to deal with it? And the Lieutenant Governor filled that role by providing communication and in as much as people thought there were disagreements between the Governor and Lieutenant Governor, in the public side we saw not too much of that because the Lieutenant Governor filled that role and then the Governor provided the policies and decision that the Lieutenant Governor actually was able to go and communicate. I think that's kind of a success to the extent possible, somewhat of a successful partnership in a place where it was really stressful for a lot of individuals. I can name a few others as well. Senator Brian Schatz, who was a Lieutenant Governor, really maximized that office. One of the things that the Lieutenant Governor is supposed to do is look at all the regulatory framework within the state and look at ways to minimize regulation on businesses or regulations on some of the government methods and he was able to do that and he maximized it because looking at regulatory reform is something that is not very exciting to a lot of people. He didn't get a lot of attention for it, but it was something that he was very successful. Thank you, Silvia. Sherry, question to you. Do you need it repeated? No, I don't. Thank you so much for the question and also thank you so much for putting on this forum. Once I come to mind, I've been mentioned before is Lieutenant Governor Whitehead and Arayoshi and it's because of the values that they embraced and the way they led, respect, trust, community. It's about the greater good and I just emulate that because those are the shared values that I was raised with by my mom who was born and raised in Japan and came to Hawaii and then my grandparents who immigrated from the Philippines and moved away for a better life for their children and so it's those values and values that I was raised with by living in Hilo that shaped me who I am and so that's why I emulate both Whitehead and Arayoshi because of the way they led and as Lieutenant Governor I would like to lead in that way because I feel it's important to restore the trust and to start connecting with the community again and as Lieutenant Governor I commit working shoulder to shoulder with the governor because it's important for the Lieutenant Governor to respect the position of the governor and to work with he or she and making sure that he or she is successful in her position. So that is my commitment to have a good working relationship and to have that trust between us too because of my business experience as a leader of a statewide business organization that represents more than 2,000 businesses that employ more than 200,000 employees across the islands. I have a good pulse of what's going on and especially after this pandemic and what businesses and working families had to go through. So I would like to lead the effort of an economic recovery plan and under that it entails reinventing government so to speak. So when President Clinton cast Vice President Gore to come up with this reinventing government initiative that was one of his most successful initiatives at the end of his presidency because we don't know there we do know there's so many outdated regulations regulations that needs to be updated and just a revamp of everything that's right now currently driving up the cost of doing business as well as the cost of doing cost of living for that matter. And then as I mentioned from Hilo and the only candidate that's from the neighbor islands I want to make sure that the neighbor island voice is heard and that their voice is at the table. So I will commit to not staying in my fifth floor office but actually going to the communities and spending time with them on each island listening to their stories listening to the concerns finding solutions together. So that's my commitment to neighbor islands because too many times decisions are too old and sometimes too on the loose centric. And finally I want to focus on education workforce development initiatives because in order to start expanding our economic base and keep our cakey here we need to really invest in education workforce development. So that is another area that I would like to work on as lieutenant governor. Thank you. Thank you Sherry. Thank you Sherry. Next question in this area and kind of related and I'm taking some from some good audience questions but how do you think the role of the lieutenant governor should be changed or expanded given the times and then and then in that regard how do you deal with a situation where you or the governor may disagree on approach policy and the like. Ikaika you go first this time. When the lieutenant governor and the governor have a disagreement as lieutenant governor it would be my preference to have these discussions privately rather than publicly. When you have public disagreements between the governor and the lieutenant governor it creates confusion amongst the public and that confusion leads to people being upset and not clear on exactly the direction of the state administration. So first and foremost I believe that those disagreements need to be handled privately between the governor and the lieutenant governor. After all it is the governor's policies that will carry and it's for the lieutenant governor to compliment the governor to the best of his or her abilities. As to being able to compliment the governor as I shared earlier I spent six years as a Honolulu City Council Vice Chair working with three different council chairs. We always did our best to try to keep our disagreements private. Yes there were times that they were public but we always did our best to keep the disagreements private because it was the council chair who ultimately drove the policy for the Honolulu City Council. In the role that I see the lieutenant governor's office playing I believe that the lieutenant governor can be a solid policy advocate for additional workforce housing as well as homeless housing as I touched on in my opening provided that we have the right lieutenant governor in place but it's also extremely important that the next lieutenant governor is ready to serve as the governor with no notice as lieutenant governor Ariyoshi was called to do. We never ever know when the governor is going to be out of state and will face a disaster and then it's the lieutenant governor who's on. Simply having a placeholder or someone who's going to be in the lieutenant governor's office just to be able to manage isn't enough. I would argue that we need someone in the lieutenant governor's office who has had elected executive experience. Thank you Ikeika. Sherry, the same question for you and if you need to repeat it. Yes please. Okay and I think I sorry Sylvia but anyway the question is you know how has the role of the lieutenant governor or how should it change or be expanded and how do you deal with disagreements in approach or views with the governor? Yes thank you for that question. First the lieutenant governor should respect the office of the governor and that's why as I mentioned earlier it's critical that the governor and lieutenant governor have a good working relationship. Now that can also mean that the lieutenant governor can disagree with the governor and there will be times where that might happen but in the end it's about the final support and respecting the decision of the governor and that's what I do and that's what I mentioned about earlier about the values of respect and building that relationship and the trust. So I will as lieutenant governor express my opinion based on the perspectives that I hear when I go out into the community and bring that back to the governor as was my own expertise and what I bring to the table and share that with the governor and I will ensure that whatever information I collect I communicate that to governor and listen to he or she based on what the decision is and respect that decision. I use bring up this analogy where a head football coach or assistant coach they may disagree on some of the calls but ultimately the assistant coach will need to defer to the head coach in order to keep the team together in order to promote collaboration and in order to move forward. So that's the kind of lieutenant governor I will be is one who respect the position of the governor and to collaborate with the governor and ensure that the governor is successful. Thank you Sherry question same question to you Sylvia do you need it repeated. No please thank you for that question you know the I am a legislator who has to work with 75 other people so 76 people who are elected by the public regardless of background regardless of values bring different type of values different type of skills that different type of goals and what individuals want to accomplish for the state are forced to work together it's 76 people and can you imagine in your individual lives if you randomly pick 76 people if you were to be able to agree on politics policies you know even were to put a speed bump it's really hard so working with 75 different people with different background different goals different skillset and still being able to come to some consensus and bring results that's what I do I am a collaborator I've been able to work with different people with different views different values and different agendas to bring together set of things that we can pass every year as lieutenant governor what is important about this office is that it's really a the bridge between the executive and the legislature over the years I have seen many bills passed in the legislature that somehow didn't get off the ground or has languished in the executive branch and what I want to do is bring those skillset and and bridge that gap and figure okay what are some of the obstacles or challenges and help the governor succeed there are many times that the governor and lieutenant governor may disagree on policies but as an example there might be differences in things you know every candidate in this call all the lieutenant governor candidates have ideas of what they want to accomplish and what they want to do but if the governor we're still running for number two so if the governor doesn't agree there will be disagreements so it's up to all of us it's up to individuals who bring that skill set being able to collaborate being able to to put forth why certain things are important and have the experience and have the have actually the the result in bringing some of the challenges and I believe that I bring those skillset after working with different people different individuals not just in the legislature but throughout the community and listening to them and bringing those changes I think I've been successful in working with the current governor in bringing out some of the major initiatives especially during the pandemic and because he knew that I had the skill set in getting the things done he relied on me to bring some of the major things that the community needed during a time that it was very stressful thank you thank you Sylvia Keith same question to you do you need it repeated no no I don't know Louise anyway thank you for the question I view the lieutenant governor's role to to support the governor as as best as I can I know all three of the major democratic governor candidates well I respect them all and I'm confident that I'll be able to work well with whoever may end up winning the gubernatorial primary contest I view the governor lieutenant governor's role as a support role I believe in the chain of command and again I'll do whatever I can to support the governor to make our state better to fight for people without a voice and including our working class families the lieutenant governor's role is important more than ever there are too many challenges for any one person to to address by him or herself so I look forward to the opportunity to support our governor in the major issues facing us whether it's affordable housing homelessness or climate change now with all due respect to my opponents and in Kaika in particular yes he was the council chair but that's not executive leadership he had a staff of 10 he didn't oversee the city budget I mean the mayor is the executive leader of the city and county of Honolulu I've had broad-based executive leadership experience throughout my career leading statewide organizations I was the head of the Hawaii High School Athletic Association for 12 years the Hawaii High School Athletic Association is comprised of 98 of our high schools across the state I've visited those high schools across the state many times over I've been in the communities where those schools are located many times over I know the community's well I know the leaders well I know the working families they're well I know the administrators coaches athletic directors parents in all of those communities well those kinds of experiences will serve me well as lieutenant governor and will be a huge asset in my opinion to help the governor reach out to these communities I didn't go to these communities just in the last six or seven months because I'm running for lieutenant governor I've been going to these communities for the last 20 plus years when I go to these communities again they know me the best far more than than my my esteemed opponents in this election you know I I've gone in the communities I've been able to work with them and reach consensus I've worked with city councils I've worked with state government I've worked with unions I've worked with community organizations far more than with all the respect to my opponents in this context I didn't grow up on the neighbor island I wasn't raised on the neighbor island but I have no doubt I've been on the neighbor islands substantively for the last 24 years or so more than my opponents combined so again I have the broad-based experience to know how to address the challenges facing our state and I look forward to working with our next lieutenant governor with our next governor to address those problems thank you thank you Keith um now this section we're gonna I'm going to ask some individualized questions of you we're going to start with Sylvia um and Sylvia I am seeing this pop up in some of the questions of the audience too it's just the trust in government and it sort ties into you know you've had many years in the legislature to help or hurt your ability to find out of the box solutions and so how can we be sure and especially now you know given that in 2022 the news about corruptions how can we be sure that you know we can trust government given your long tenure you're not beholden to long-term interests of supporters and how do you rebuild trust yeah yeah so trust in government is a it's a big issue and you know I've been in the office for 24 years and I first got in office you know as some of you know I was born in South Korea I came here at a young age didn't know any English and it was because of a teacher who took time out of her schedule to help me learn English and even after my dad passed away it was really the community and the sense of community um and even if our family didn't have much it was my mom who encouraged me to go into public service and I I you know I think of that as an honor and the last 24 years I've been in office and fighting for many of the people who didn't have voices you know including many of the Medicaid patients including people who are oppressed including fighting for civil rights over the years and a lot of times those things may not have been popular when I first got elected in 98 you know we could barely pass discrimination in housing for same-sex couples and we I still stood up for people in the LGBT community and many of the others you know when it comes to public trust we all elected officials and people who are candidates have an obligation to uphold that public trust and you I'm going to do my best to ensure that you know we're we're going to do our best to ensure restoring public trust and that may be reforms in campaign spending that may be ethics reform that's going to be other things to make sure that you know our government system is open and transparent in the last several years especially the way I run finance committee we tried to be more inclusive and we tried to hear as many bills as we can and sometimes you know it was um grueling to some of the testifiers only because they had to wait a long time to address many of these issues but it is an important issue and you know you have my commitment to continue to work towards restoring trust in government thank you um in that because of your long you know there's some of the candidates have mentioned term limits as part of the effort to restore trust of course you've been a long-term time legislature do you have thoughts on term limits just briefly yeah so you know I've served for 24 years and all of a sudden you know it will be pretty hypocritical of me to just because I'm running for lieutenant governor to say okay I support term limits term limits is one of the things that is being considered as part of the discussion about government restructuring and whatever the legislature decides you know we would definitely support that I think the issue is what is the right term limit so for instance I know others have said okay eight years or two terms of eight years but even Icaica Anderson who support an eight-year term limit didn't serve eight years he ended up serving 11 years and you know I think during his tenure he was able to get a lot of things done in 11 years as well and so I think the real discussion is how do you restore trust through term limits I think part of the all the the additional other issue is when you have term limits then it's really the special interest and big money interest that win in the end because these are the individuals who can finance campaigns and can go and influence politics as well but for me I was able to bring accountability and even question high cost of rail and I think it's because of my knowledge in not just budget issue but it was my ability to question some of these tough issues that I was able to do it I you know I'm just wondering if term limits would have an opposite effect of allowing some of these legislators or other officials to make some of these tough calls so it sounds like you're not in favor of term limits then is that right no you know we would I'm just saying that you know for someone who's served long time it will be you know hypocritical for me all of a sudden just because I'm running to say I support term limits but I think there is a value of that discussion and we need to have that discussion and figure out okay what is that what is that term limit time period where it will bring restore public trust and at the same time bring accountability and transparency and bring results for legislators to do its work. Thank you Sylvia and raise a good point you know there's pros and cons and so something to consider I'm going to go to Sherry next and Sherry of course you've represented the business committee for many years in the chamber and so I think you know the question that folks may have is just can you step back from that and also represent and keep in mind the interest of the greater community those who are poor unemployed need social services and the like. Thank you for that question yes I've been with the Chamber of Commerce for 16 years representing more than 2,000 businesses statewide that employed more than 200,000 employees and 80% of our membership is small business our local businesses and yes I that is my constituency at this point but I really felt that I needed to do more and to make a difference uh and a broader to a broader constituency and that's why I decided to run for lieutenant governor and that's who I am going to be held accountable to is to help the working families is to help our small businesses is to help the homelessness is to help the many people that are now facing many challenges as a result of failed policies by our some of our policymakers who have served for decades and so that's where I believe Hawaii deserves a fresh start and that's why I'm jumping in is because I can bring the businesses perspective to help rebuild an economy but also leverage my skill set which is all about listening about collaboration about convening different stakeholders to come up with common set solutions and so I realize now that with the Chamber I have my own constituency and that is to support businesses and to advocate for businesses but now I have the responsibility to appeal to a broader constituency and so constituency across the islands and that's why as lieutenant governor I will commit to going to each island and hearing their issues hearing their challenges and ensuring that I listen to each and every story and bring that back to the governor who will ultimately come up with his or her own policy agenda and which is the agenda that I will support. Thank you Sheri. The follow-up question is you know what programs do you you know have has the Chamber have you helped develop with the Chamber to help those who are economically disadvantaged homeless poor and the like? So there's been a number of them but as a result of the pandemic one of the initiatives that we created as a result of one creative member was the Hawaii restaurant card program because during the pandemic we just weren't getting any support from the legislature and just and it was a difficult time so everybody was facing challenges but we just sat at a table and wondered okay what can we do to stimulate the economy help stabilize an industry that has been impacted by the restrictions and that was the restaurant industry and we recognize how far the industry goes from helping the farmers to the fishermen to the distributors to repair shops I mean the restaurant industry is one of the largest employers and because of the huge supply chain and as well as what can we do to help families who have lost their jobs and finally what can we do to just pump some money into the economy so we came up with this program the Hawaii restaurant card program and we went to the governor because we weren't getting any responses from the legislature went to the governor and the governor liked it and so he allocated 75 million dollars into this program that turned out to be a hundred fifty million economic stimulus help save more than two thousand jobs help keep some of our local and small businesses and restaurants open at the most darkest time in our state's history and it was it wasn't just a chamber though in the end it was about the collaboration bringing the public bringing the private stakeholders together to come up with to help execute a program that had a very far-reaching impact another project was the hawaii's hiring website a one-stop center where offered a listed of jobs over 25 000 jobs available because we saw how many got displaced or let go as a result of the pandemic mainly the hospitality industry so we partner with the public sector again in coming up with this hawaii's hiring.com website that allowed those who were seeking jobs from across the islands to see what opportunities are there and moreover to ensure that they had this training to retrain for these new type of jobs to upskill to retrain and internships job interviewing tips because that's what our people needed at that time is to find jobs and that's another project that we came up with and another one is a hawaii's pivot program which again the governor supported as you know many of our small businesses were just impacted overnight no one had a playbook many of them had to use their savings to keep their doors open to provide them grants to cover some costs unanticipated costs as a result of the pandemic which again helped them keep their doors open so there's a number of other initiatives but these are the ones that arose because of the pandemic and led to us being more creative and innovative of what kind of solutions we could come up with to help the business community the working families and just the state overall. Thank you Sherry I'm going to turn to Ikaika next and Ikaika you know there has been some references to your job at the city council but how would you apply what you learned at city council to state government and to an executive position and so let's get to that question first. Well first of all the Honolulu city council chair is indeed an elected executive the legislative branch of which the Honolulu city council chair serves as not only the chair but the chief presiding officer is a branch of more than 155 employees and when I was the chair comprised the budget of nearly 24 million dollars it's the council chair that works with their team to put that budget together and to also be able to advocate for in front of the council's budget committee so it's not just merely supervising a staff of 10 the Honolulu city council chair in supervising the entire legislative branch has the office of council services that have researchers and attorneys you also as the council chair supervise the Honolulu city clerk's office which has a number of people in that office including the city clerk who is the city's chief elections officer so there's a solid elected executive role in that regard as the Honolulu city council chair when covid hit I made the very difficult decision to close the legislative branch and Honolulu was one of the first if not the first branch of government in the state to close and I made that decision with the information that was available to me at the time but the actions that I took proved to keep the 155 plus staff members in the legislative branch safe additionally when covid did hit the Honolulu city clerk's office I found out that nine o'clock on a Tuesday morning of the outbreak by 12 noon I had a team headed by Dr. Scott Miskovich of premier medical group on the ground conducting covid testing for every city employee not only the legislative branch but also extended this to mayor Caldwell's executive branch of government employees who wanted to be tested we found the number of additional infections that day with that testing but that is the difference when you've served as an elected executive when you have those decisions come down to you you're able to act quickly I would be able to apply that to being lieutenant governor because lieutenant governor's office likewise is an elected executive position and we need to remember when the governor is out of town the responsibilities of the governor's office don't travel with the governor they stay home here in Hawaii with the lieutenant governor and it is absolutely critical that we have a lieutenant governor who has been an elected executive before understands the roles of an elected executive and is able to bring people together as a team if in fact they are called to serve as governor the team that we will have comprised will be able to do this thank you thank you Ikeika and in the two minutes we have left for you what context have you had in the well actually I think some audience questions let me go to this one I had another one first for you as the thought you resigned of course this has been public in the middle of your last city council term how can we be sure of your commitment to the LG's office given the things that it goes on in everybody's lives that's a very fair question when I left the Honolulu city council three months prior to my term ending I remain a primary caregiver for my grandparents who raised me my pop is 90 my 2287 we live in a multi-generational household they live right across the lawn from me in addition to tending to my grandparents every day needs of helping them with their shopping getting them to doctor appointments when I left the council I was also in the process of gaining primary physical custody of my minor children I was successful in gaining primary physical custody of my minor children I'm raising my kids today as a single father very difficult time for my family but there was no magic pause button that I could press and hold off on tending to my grandparents and gaining primary physical custody of my cakey for the final three months of my term what I did do is talk to my colleagues and talk to one of my former staff members about succeeding me on the council and finishing my term I will point out that Alan Kikua Teixeira one of my staff members who served as my deputy chief of staff was appointed by the council to complete the final three months of my term there was no special election that cost the taxpayers the city and county of Honolulu any additional monies there was no learning curve for any successor to have to learn to finish my term my staff member did that no cost to the taxpayer and at the close of my term Alan simply handed the keys to my successor who was elected and the office continued to carry on but today I'm a single dad my grandparents are doing fine my cakey are doing fine I certainly don't see me having to undergo another family crisis like this where I'm working to gain primary physical custody of my cakey in addition to tending to my age in Kupuna those issues are behind our ohana thank you good to hear you thank you very much Keith finally to you you know you're one of our two candidates without prior government experience you've run for office but will that be a handicap for you hitting the ground how can you you know how can you succeed in this job without prior government experience well before I get to that louise I just want to point out or respond to some of the answers of my opponents you know they all represent the status cool louise and sherry mentions her role as leading the chamber of commerce but during her tenure she consistently opposed minimum wage she consistently opposed family paid family leave and she tells the fact that the chamber represents or is comprised of 80 small business but you look no further than their the chamber website of the 33 board members on the chamber board and none of them represent small business silvia mentions the her position on campaign reform while the legislature had a golden opportunity to address legislative or campaign reform in this last session and they failed to do anything meaningful I'm the only candidate with a real plan to address the corruption at the capital by imposing term limits by banning fundraisers or fundraising during the legislative session by eliminating financial conflicts of interest with the legislators and to require legislators to comply with the sunshine law in terms of icaca's situation I'm glad you pointed out the fact that he left the council early I sympathize with his family issues but he also took a job with a union with strong ties to the real project before he left office as well and that's not even mentioning the thousands and thousands of dollars that both silvia and icaca have received from Dennis mitsunaga and milton choy during their 10 years on the legislature and and the city council respectively they're compromised they're going to continue to be beholden to special interests if they're elected as lieutenant governor now in terms of executive leadership experience or elected officials experience all of us as candidates do polling and we ranked or asked our respondents what's important to them and I know other candidates in important offices had the same data or results as be elected officials experience is at the bottom consistently the public doesn't view elective experience as an advantage and exactly it's a it's a disadvantage whether you look nationally or even locally first time candidates often farewell against long time executives and that's because they're tired of the same old same old they want new fresh leadership and that's what I'll provide as the next lieutenant governor of our state I mentioned earlier my tenure at the Hawaii high school athletic association that is by far with all due respect to my opponents the kind of executive leadership you need as lieutenant governor thank you thank you Keith and follow up question I think we've got about on three minutes left but while we appreciate your platform ideas and you lay them out well in your in your online can you tell us that as lieutenant governor how do you think that you can get done the goals that you have well as I mentioned earlier I view any job you take as what you make out of it as a lieutenant governor I expect and want to hit the ground running and I've shown an established track record of getting things done working with people and finding solutions to the problems facing our state I mentioned earlier my tenure at the Hawaii High School Athletic Association I've also served on the board of education I've also served in a leadership role at the University of Hawaii those kinds of roles will serve me well as your lieutenant governor I would venture to say that politics is considered by some to be a blood sport but so is high school athletics at a time in many ways you have to deal with so many different constituencies as I mentioned 98 different high schools 34,000 student athletes across the state thousands of coaches you deal with the media you deal with the legislature you deal with city councils you deal with unions you deal with community groups you deal with balancing Oahu versus the neighbor islands private school public school large sports like football with smaller sports sports like bowling you always have to have a broad based perspective on on how how to make decisions I've had years of experience in in running a statewide organization with many similar issues and challenges that will the lieutenant governor will face you always have to balance issues this is not a job to hit the ground or to to start with no experience leading a statewide organization and that's why I feel I'm best suited to be our next lieutenant governor thank you Keith I'll go to some general questions now maybe more issue oriented questions and this time we will start with Sylvia Sylvia of course affordable housing and homelessness have just been intractable problems and the legislature has tried to approach them in in different ways and still we have this problem of a housing crisis you know what are your ideas for preparing us in the near future in the far future for solving these very deep problems in our community the affordable housing continues to be the number one issue that plagues the cost of living for the residents of Hawaii so there's two different issues it's really affordable rentals and be simple home ownership so dealing with affordable rentals we have committed over 200 million dollars in recent years to build out about 1300 units and so that's why we're seeing things like at Alder Street and right in Cook Street the number of affordable rentals that that are being built clearly the success of trying to build out 200 million dollar worth of affordable rentals has been shown to be successful that's why this year we provided another 300 million dollars to rental housing revolving fund of the the agency in charge of building out affordable rentals that should be able to yield about 1700 in the next five years but but it's one thing for the legislature to provide money it's really about getting it done at the executive level so because we have the concept of what are some of the issues that are impeding the the build out of many of these projects after we give money that's why i'm running for lieutenant governor because i know where some of the some of the challenges and barriers have been and now that we are able to provide this type of funding to work with the legislature and work with the agency to get many of these housing units built that's about 5000 units in addition to that department of Hawaiian homelands got about 600 million dollars this year actually it was a little bit more and if we were to deal with native Hawaiian housing we're dealing with affordable issue for the entire state because whether it's mental health whether it's justice reform whether it's housing in the center of many of these issues is native Hawaiian population so with the 600 million dollars we're working with department of Hawaiian homelands to build about 5000 home ownership units these are major significant projects that need guidance you know it needs people who work with some of these issues figure out where some of the barriers and make sure that it gets done right so i am excited about this opportunity to transition from the legislative role and helping our departments build many of these units thank you sylvia um sherry my question to you is regarding the legislature you know you've worked on the business side of this and on the legislature you know how do you how as lg can you use your position to make things happen in the legislature in terms of moving um bills along or the governor's policies and the like thank you for that question louise and before i answer that question i'd like to clarify excuse me and respond to mr amamiya's comments first of all under my leadership we have supported minimum wage increases in some sessions back in 2020 we did this session we did we supported an increase and we just wanted to work with the legislature to come up with a manageable increase 2021 yes we did not support a minimum wage increase because as you know small businesses were dying and they could not absorb any additional higher cost so similar to hlta where you miss misprovided misinformation that were a big business organization we are a small business 80 percent small businesses so i just want to respond to that although you do work for big businesses um you know again you say you're in high school you let a statewide organization high schools and that's very admirable and i admire what you've done to it this is we're talking about today the economy which is something that's so critical to get back on track and as the president of a statewide organization that works with the economy works with businesses works with all stakeholders this is the experience that i bring so and part of that as to answer the question that louise posed i've been doing this for 16 years and part of it is to build relationship with the legislature build relationship with all 76 legislators understanding their perspective understanding their concerns and also understanding who they are as a person and building those relationships earning their trust so i understand how to do that i understand how to navigate the legislature as well as administration because we've worked with all aspect at all levels of government i've been able to form relationships and that's what i would do is lg is to continue to strengthen the relationships at the legislature with the administration as well as leverage all my relationships that i form throughout my career at the chamber in 16 years and that that goes beyond just the state level but the national and international levels and explore the opportunities that we can bring back to hawaii so we can get our economy back on track thank you sherry um ikaika my question for you has to do with the economy um such a big issue for us all these days but how are we uh with the cost of housing getting a cost of living getting worse recession threatening us how to what are your concrete suggestions for mitigating the effects of the economy on hawaii and helping our communities thrive first of all the state government needs to work to build additional workforce housing if our people do not have a roof over their heads and a door to lock behind of them at night when they come home that's a huge challenge for the first hurdle i believe that we need to overcome is building more housing and we can do that by inventorying existing state properties that are conducive for development and looking to provide housing opportunities there as far as the economy i would like to see state government do more with agriculture as a former county elected official i have a lot of experience and my team has a lot of experience in looking at core services county core services as we know police fire lifeguard trash pickup i would like to see the state start to treat agriculture as a core service and in treating agriculture as a core service our team believes that we'll be able to give greater incentives to our farmers to actually produce food and we'll be able to bring down the costs of delivering these foods to our consumers and at the same time we would require as part of this package that our farmers who receive the brakes in their taxes that they pay for their trucks that they utilize to get their produce from farm to market as well as the equipment that they use for those same purposes when they get those tax breaks we would require in turn that prices be lowered to pass on to the consumer so that the people of the state of Hawaii realize some form of a return on the investment that they make in being able to provide for agriculture to be a core service we really need to treat agriculture as a core service and i think that that is another opportunity to grow our economy but in doing that as i mentioned earlier we absolutely have to provide more housing with the department of Hawaiian homelands i simply can't understand why the legislature hasn't moved to already provide additional rental opportunities for native Hawaiian in the department of Hawaiian homelands and on that wait list so many native Hawaiians for whatever reason cannot afford a fee simple loan but if we provided additional rental opportunities which our team will look to do that would provide some additional means for people to be housed thank you Ikaika and finally Keith one of the areas that we haven't touched on that is also very important is education um and you know the future of education how we're going to prepare our kids for the workforce but is it time to rethink um the idea of one state one department of education um are there other areas in education that we should be rethinking as well well as I mentioned earlier I had the privilege and honor of serving on the board of education I also served in an executive capacity at the University of Hawaii so I have the background in education I have the passion for education I also was involved in high school sports for 12 years as I previously mentioned so um you know education is a commitment as far as I'm concerned more needs to be done in terms of allocating resources to to education in terms of one state one district if you will uh that is something that I'm open to revisiting or looking at I know that's been talked about in the past and splitting up the state into into school wide into separate districts and not just having one state body in terms of education and the reason I'm open to it and that we should consider it is when I was in charge of high school sports and it stills exist today um they're not under one statewide umbrella they're divided by counties more or less uh you have the Oahu Interscholastic Association the Big Island Interscholastic Federation the Maui Interscholastically which encompasses the Maui High Schools and Molokai and of course the Kauai Interscholastic Federation and anyone involved in high school sports whether you're a coach athletic director or a school administrator like a principal or vice principal would tell you they cannot fathom or wouldn't fathom uh having it any other way it's more effective it's it's better to have local people making local education based decisions on what's best for our our students across the state so I'm open to it I know it works in athletics and I think it can work in education as well and so I'm supportive of it and I'm open to it and I think that's something that's right for discussion. Thank you Ki. Okay now we're we're supposed to do this right at 11 I think we're pretty on target but this is kind of the fun part maybe for you um which is that the candidates will each have a chance to ask another candidate a question and um this time we will start with Sheri. Sheri there's no rebuttal right um no rebuttal you might you have some chance at the end but this is your chance to ask a question of one candidate okay question is to Keith uh you keep saying that you're not a career politician but I've spent the better part of the last four years running for different political offices isn't that by definition a career politician because in a July 16 interview with Hoi News now about your mayoral campaign agent end quotes he promises he's running for the job and applying the political ladder so I don't know that to me that sounds like you're a career politician in the making. So this is my second run for political office I haven't run for office prior to that um my last run as as everyone knows was two years ago for the office of mayor so I certainly don't think uh that constitutes being a career politician I go back to what I've always said my career has been dedicated to public service my career has been dedicated to going out in the communities working for them fighting for people without a voice fighting for working families I've been out there and for 20 years they've been struggling if anything their standard of living has gotten considerably worse I'm committed to working for them that's why I'm running I have no other ulterior motives than to work with the communities across the state as the saying goes let's take this show on the road I'd love to go with with my fellow candidates to any community they name and let's hear from them let's hear from the community members have I've been there for them have I visited them beyond just running for lieutenant governor I've been there for 20 years as I've said or over 20 years I know them well I respect them they respect me and I look forward to hearing what they have to say about whether they consider me a career politician or not thank you um next we are going to go to Sylvia Sylvia who is your questiony let me see I will ask a question you know since um you know all the candidates were pretty uh civil except um Keith who just came out and then decided to attack all of us so I will ask Keith as well so um you know along the lines of what Sherry asked um the you are the poster child of bishop street you know you work with various people in the bishop street whether it's corporation and clearly right now you work for a bank um so how do you differentiate yourself for you're not beholding to big developers bishop street and even the appointments that you have gotten if you were a complete outsider you would not have gotten the appointment on the stadium authority which is pretty reserved for people who are connected I don't think any you know even like our Sherry have the kind of connection that some of you have so how do you justify that you're an outsider when you are the poster child of bishop street where we have fought um you know IOWU and other unions have fought against the the big five and the corporate interest and Keith Keith if you can do one to two minutes so we can keep on track sure uh well let's talk about the stadium authority appointment I was appointed by governor Ege and the reason he appointed me was because he said that I had broad-based community experience that I had the perspective of the community that I have statewide experience of being in communities throughout the state that I work directly with the public and private high schools I primarily the public schools so I do have that experience I do have that credibility and that's why I was selected to the stadium authority to have the community perspective when it comes to stadium decisions as I mentioned in my prior answer to Sherry's question my career has been based on going out in the communities and like I said I'd love to go let's name a community and let's all go there and talk to them and see who they've met who they know amongst the four of us before this lieutenant governor's campaign they know me I know them it's been over 20 years where whether it's Kaunaka Kai or Hana Pepe or Ka'u or everywhere in between I know them they know me I know there's issues I know their problems and that's the basis of why I'm running because they're struggling and people in the elected office and in big business haven't addressed their needs and we're going to lose an entire generation of younger people if we don't act and act fast and have new people in government thank you thank you Keith Ikaika your turn to ask a question thank you very much I'm going to frame my question on a policy matter this is not a personal attack this is a I think all of these questions should be based on policy this lieutenant governor's race is about the people of Hawaii and what we as candidates offer for the people of Hawaii in terms of our service and our ideas uh Keith you've been like a bowler in a china shop today absolutely you're right but this should not be personal attacks against other candidates it should be where we may differ in policy and what our different different experiences bring to the table in that regard I'm going to ask a question on policy to Sylvia Luke House Bill 670 that originally would have taken the entire pension of a convicted felon and this is House Bill 670 of 2021 was amended to only take half a convicted felon's pension when the bill went to the senate when the bill came back to the house you voted for the amended bill on April 22nd of 2021 can you please tell us why you voted for the amended bill if you believe in the house's original position to take the entire pension of a convicted felon thank you very much again for answering my question yeah no thank you thank you I think that's a fair question and I think um you know when um the bill the the bill that Ikaika is referring to is the the the legislature's attempt to take away pension from individuals convicted of a crime so one of the things that we were grappling that year was they're looking at the KLOA situation and other um at that point in time you know it was the a lot of city corruption um even DPP and um others and then so the legislature looked at that issue and said hey you know if people are convicted of a crime and they were working they shouldn't get pension and so the as member of the house we had a bill saying okay you should lose your entire pension and uh when the bill went over to the senate one of the things that the attorney generals in discussion with the court they have said is because pension system is vested right um you cannot legally take away the all the hundred percent because it's a vested constitutional right and they would have a problem so because of that unfortunately in the end we had to vote for our 50 percent because the attorney generals and the judiciary involved said okay um even if we want to penalize individuals who uh got convicted of a crime um constitute constitution protects these individuals I think that warrants a question if we should put into the constitutional amendment whether in certain situation when we're dealing with uh crime and um dealing with people who are convicted of of a crime while they are in office that we remove that constitutional protection to allow for a hundred percent elimination of a pension so thank you for that question and thank you for the opportunity to clarify so you voted the way you did because the attorney generals advice was that you could not take the whole pension so in the end uh it comes down to whether we're gonna have no bill in that situation we would say hey you know what even if you're convicted of a crime um uh you're gonna continue to have the pension or it depend on the advice of council and because the senate believed in the advice of the council that was what we were left with but it is it warrants a future discussion about whether we need to pay you know change the constitution thank you Sylvia um finally Keith you get to ask a question of one candidate and we're going to stop at 1115 so everybody can have a chance to make their pitch okay well let me first just make clear there's been no personal attacks from me it's all about setting the record straight it's not personal but there's just too much state at stake in this election so if my opponents are gonna make misleading statements or not be forthright uh in providing information i'm i'm gonna call them all of that um i'm not just gonna let the status quo rule and special interest groups uh move the day moving forward and so it's just about setting the record straight making facts clear and and moving forward so anyway in terms of a question for Ikaika um i'd like to ask him why you left the council prematurely and took a job uh with a union with strong ties to uh the the rail project and uh how are you're going to address the fact that you received over $15,000 from Dennis mitsunaga who was indicted on corruption charges two weeks ago what's to say that you won't leave office again prematurely to take another lucrative job or that you'll continue to take money from special interests that are controlling politics far too much today got two minutes Ikaika for this big question thank you for your question Keith as I mentioned earlier I departed the council to tend to family crisis depending to my aging grandparents while at the same time gaining primary physical custody of my children I accepted the employment with the local 630 because working there offered me the opportunity to work in a closed environment that was close to the public and our general membership so I had very low risk of contracting any illnesses and taking those illnesses home to my grandparents and my children also working there Keith afforded me the opportunity to be able to work from home a lot of the time to tend to my grandparents as a single father at the time also to ensure that my kiki were doing what they needed to do during homeschooling and at the same time being able to meet with my attorney and and the law firm that I was working with as I was working to gain primary physical custody of my kiki when my attorney informed me that my divorce was about finalize in June of 2021 I made the decision to leave local 630 and on June 18th I did leave local 630 in July of 2021 roughly a month later my divorce was finalized and at that time I started working in a consulting practice being self-employed but I stayed with the union until my divorce was finalized because it offered me the opportunity to be able to work in a closed environment and also work with my attorneys as I became primary physical custody with my children as I also mentioned earlier this issue is behind me and my ohana and this is not an issue that's going to be coming up again that is going to interrupt my service here in Hawaii we value family we value commitment to family and commitment to ohana and I did everything possible to protect my ohana as I would expect everybody here would do the same to protect their ohana and still serve the public thank you for the question thank you kai kai you got us right on time we've got we're going to have three minutes now for each candidate to address questions I'm sorry we didn't get to audience questions but as if you may have been following that seems the big issues are like the cutting uh funding maybe if you have a chance you can address these new use of state lands for housing how to deal with corruption how to deal you know get away from big interests of controlling diversifying economy knowledge of the community making us more business friendly and then you know health issues mental health public health what do we do about vaping positions of marijuana vacation rentals so with all of that in mind we're going to start from the back it's cherry you get your chance for your pitch and I'll do this oh get off mute to answer any of the questions that were raised right the issues that you just mentioned uh yeah this is your chance to do your three-minute closing pitch um answer whatever thank you well thank you so much everyone for tuning in as well as for think tech and louise wonderful job in moderating my name is sherry menor matamara and just a little bit about me I was born in japan raised in hilo as I mentioned earlier my mom was born raised and moved here started her own business and 40 years later she still has it and I've seen the struggles and the challenges she had to go through to sacrifice for her three kids so that her kids could get a better life and it's the same with my grandparents who immigrated from the philippines raised their seven kids with the values of always taking care of one another always keep thinking about community hard work and those are the values I was raised with including my dad who served in the house at some point in the 60s but those are the values I was raised with and I would like to bring those values to government you know the cost of living cost of doing business amongst other challenges housing etc have not gotten better and these are challenges that we've been facing even before the pandemic but now here we are fast forward after getting out of this one of the darkest moments in hawaii's history a defining moment in hawaii and the path we take will determine our future and I ask you which path would you like to take one that continues path of status quo and a path where nothing has been getting better or path where we can create hope and opportunities and restore the trust in politics this politics should all it be about hope and optimism and as lieutenant governor I will work shoulder to shoulder with the governor to address some of the challenges that louis just mentioned two because of my experience of working especially in the past couple of years supporting a small local businesses so that they keep their doors open and keep their employees employed working on an economic recovery plan so that we can build a more sustainable economy and a better future for hawaii for our keiki and our kahuna and all the working families and that will include doing the hands-on work such as working with the agencies and departments to get rid of red tape and reinventing governments so to speak also it's important that we invest in education and work for development and strengthening our talent pipeline because ultimately we want our kids to stay here but we need to create opportunities for them create those jobs and we can't wait until tomorrow to do it or the day after or five or 10 years from now we need to start now and that will take collaboration working with the public and private stakers and that's what I'm at chamber is working with high school students working with community college and different stakeholders so that we are creating a stronger talent pipeline and finally by one that holds dear to my heart is because I was raised in hilo I've seen growing up how our policies are so aho centric and where neighbor islands are not treated as the same so I am committed and I will regularly and extensively go out into the communities across the islands to listen to you to hear you to ensure that your voices are brought back to the governor and to work with the legislature to address the many challenges that we face today so I humbly ask for your support as a first-time candidate I still bring 16 years of working with the legislature and administration again your vote means a fresh start for Hawaii so my name is Sheri Minore-McMurray and I humbly ask for your support for a fresh start thank you Sheri Sylvia you're next thank you thank you Luis and thank you for Think Tech Hawaii to provide this opportunity to hear from the various lieutenant governor candidates as you can see by the the enthusiasm of all the candidates I think we all believe that hey you know we are going to do a great job for the state of Hawaii and I I want to applaud the other candidates for their willingness to put themselves out as well because you know running a statewide office is pretty tough and it is it is it is a really hard decision that each of us have to make but I think one of the great things about running for lieutenant governor and this is something that I have also done as financial is go out to the the many communities and many communities to hear their needs and as chair of the finance committee we are able to go out to Lena E city to look at the the situation where barges don't come in if the barge doesn't come in in Lena E you don't have food or you don't have supplies for the entire week and you know it's those kind of things which is really heartbreaking and you go out to Pihonua and look at situations where tourists have overrun a hiking trail that they shouldn't be and you know you go out to Moloka'i and you go out to La Pahua'i and look at some of the broadband issue and if you were to drive from Kona all the way to Nahale'u for an hour you're not going to have internet service so you know good thing there's only one road going to Nahale'u otherwise you know it's pitch dark but it's those kind of things that I've been able to do not just because I'm running for statewide but reconnect because I've been in the legislature hearing from the the communities out there that really struggle and really need our help over the last several years it is has been an honor I look at public service as an honor and I look at the opportunity to serve as an honor and when I first got in a couple of decades ago my mom encouraged me and she was a single mom who struggled but she really instilled in all of us about public service the last two years when the governor needed help the governor turned to me to help with unemployment so I helped set up the 200 man satellite office at the convention center with putting 600 people to work and I also helped him to utilize the federal funding and you know and as much as Sherry talks about okay restaurant card well I created that budget pulled people together and helped the governor create that budget and it wasn't just about restaurant cards it was about the rental subsidy and so when I look at the LG's office I'm the only one who has been doing the role of the LG helping the governor helping the state succeed and I am very thankful for this opportunity and I look forward to working with the next governor to fulfill some of the mandates and responsibility of the state and Aloha I would be grateful for your support and your vote thank you Sylvia Ikaika your chance first I'd like to thank think tech for this opportunity to get to come together with all of the democratic major candidates running for lieutenant governor and allowing us to talk story with you as well as with your audience can't thank you enough for this opportunity a sincere mahalo movie law I am the only candidate running for lieutenant governor with elected executive experience having the decisions of an elected executive stop on my desk the Honolulu city council was one of the first branches of government in the state to close during the covid pandemic I made that difficult decision with the information that was available to me at the time as city council chair and presiding officer my office established policies that kept the 155 plus employee legislative branch safe and largely allowed people to work from home as the council chair our team worked with the current lieutenant governor to establish Hui Mahiai Aina in Waimanalo a tiny home kaohale that shelters homeless families and provides wraparound services to those ohana the first official kaohale which is a concept I worked on as well opened in kalai law in November 2021 which proves that this concept can be expanded on across the state and be duplicated we need additional workforce housing opportunities for our people in our state we can do this by opening up the inventory of state lands and looking to see which lands are most conducive for development to deliver real workforce housing for our community going forward the lieutenant governor's office with me as lieutenant governor will have a solid neighbor island presence for years I was the city council's representative on the Hawaii state association of county's executive committee the Hawaii state association of counties or eight sap is a conglomerate that represents all of the county councils across the state every single month at least monthly I joined my colleagues from the neighbor islands to talk with them about issues important to our residents across the state sometimes you met in Honolulu sometimes we met in the neighbor island columns my team and I were also very fortunate to be guests in the homes of a number of my neighbor island colleagues we also need a lieutenant governor who can talk about the policies not only that they hope to build but can talk to the people throughout the state of Hawaii how they're going to build upon their existing experiences the track record that they've already built to absolutely prove that they will be an effective lieutenant governor I'm a team player the team that we put together just as the team that we put together when I was on a little city council chair we'll be able to collaborate with the next governor and move Hawaii for I'm Ikaika Anderson democratic candidate for lieutenant governor and I'd be honored to have your vote as we move forward to protect Hawaii's heart and soul thank you very much again for the opportunity to thank them thank you Ikaika and finally Keith thank you Louise I'm running for lieutenant governor because we need change I'm the only candidate in the race that's not a career politician or a lobbyist I'm also the only candidate in the race with broad executive leadership experience leading statewide organizations with large budgets and large employees where I was directly responsible for the bottom line of these companies and the welfare of our employees I'm also the only candidate that's been out in the communities throughout my career and has dedicated my career to public service I've been in every community in the state I know the stakeholders in every community and that kind of broad based experience will serve me well as I work alongside our next governor to tackle the issues facing our state and finally I'm the only candidate with a real plan to clean up corruption at the capital and that's by imposing term limits banning fundraising at all during the legislative session requiring legislators to comply with conflict of interest rules and also requiring legislators to comply with state sunshine laws we need to do all of that before we can meaningfully address the issues facing our state such as affordable housing homelessness and climate change thank you very much for this opportunity and I humbly ask for your vote and your support mahalo and aloha thank you Keith and thank you all of you for being really help educate us as to your positions I'm sorry that we could not get to the many excellent questions but to all of you who did ask questions or do have questions each of the candidates has information on their website and you know make make an effort if you have a chance to meet them see them in public ask them questions directly we all have the questions too so hopefully they'll have a chance to think about it and respond this concludes our lieutenant governor forum for today really want to thank the candidates and our audience for joining us and mahalo to think tech Hawaii for organizing this program which will be available on youtube and other platforms and finally remember to vote on august 13th and remember to vote in the general election to our votes are important we all need to get out there and do our part to make this community better and elect learn about our candidates and elect the best leaders thank you thank you thank you so much for watching think tech Hawaii if you like what we do please like us and click the subscribe button on youtube and the follow button on vimeo you can also follow us on facebook instagram twitter and linked in and donate to us at think.kawaii.com mahalo