 Aloha, welcome to Talk Story with John Laihei. We've got a special guest today, Representative Bet Fukumoto from the Mililani area, right? Yes. Mililani area and one of the outstanding members of the Hawaii State House of Representatives. Thank you. Thank you. Welcome. And this is what's interesting among other things. You were here in, I think it was July or August of last year. And at that time you were the minority leader of the House of Representatives. And today you are our newest Democratic member. So I guess... Hopefully soon. Hopefully soon. Okay. I'm still waiting. Well, you are. You know, we'll get to that hopefully. What happened? Well, since July, you know, some of the concerns that I expressed in July, I think you and I had started talking right after we've had our state convention, right? And I had had some drama... When you had your state convention, you're talking about a Republican convention. And so I came here to speak about being a Republican, right, after we had had the Republican convention. And I had had some trouble with people in the party and that troubles continued. I think at that time, the last time we talked, I felt like there was a way to change the party. And that's what we talked about. Right. A way of bringing energy to the party. Right. Making it a little bit more local, trying to sort of infuse it with local values. Yeah? Right. And gosh... It's just in the dark, right? No. I think I finally hit a place where I just said, oh, this is not going to work. I'm trying to change a thing that just has no interest in changing. Unfortunately. And yeah, at some point you got to walk away and just say, all right, you know... You know what's interesting about that is that actually Hawaii would benefit if the Republican party, in fact, followed your lead and changed and became, you know, much more, as you say, local, much more in tune with our people. Yeah. Yeah. So you get... You cannot make a mainland party here, right? Yeah. You got to make a local party and... It just didn't work. Yeah. Well, you gave it your best shot. I did. I gave it what, eight years of my life and I took a lot of different positions in the party and at the legislature. I feel like I gave it my best shot. You know, one of the things that I read was you talked about your grandfather being interned during the World War II. So I talked about him getting picked up and then not interned. Oh, okay. Unfortunately, people started... A lot of the news reports have said, oh, he got interned. No. He did not. He got picked up and like so many Japanese in Hawaii, he got let go, right? It was different for Japanese on the mainland, but here he got picked up and like... You know, I wasn't going to get this heavy real soon, but you know, I've been thinking about that and it is sort of frightening how close in some respects we're coming to that kind of reaction to people from the Middle East. And on one hand, I feel terrible about having these thoughts, but at the same time, I can appreciate why people had this paranoia and why we need to be so vigilant about not ever letting that happen again, you know, it's actually kind of spooky. Yeah. Fear does that to people, right? Yeah. I think we can all understand that, that desire to just try to make yourself safe by excluding people that make you uncomfortable, but I think, you know, there's got to be a better way than just excluding whole groups of people, right? Right. I mean, it just doesn't happen. And I thought that that kind of tendency was in the past, you know, it would be just maybe theoretical today, but it actually isn't. And I think that, well, you know, welcome and actually welcome to you for bringing, making that issue, an issue, you know, making it cool. So what happens now? Yeah. So now you've decided to switch parties, right? Right. Right. So for me, I think it's making a pitch to Democrats that we have similar values and that I can fit within the party. I can see there are a lot of Democrats out there that have said, well, should we just accept everyone? Like, because there's not a strong Republican party, should we just be a party that is really a party and takes everybody with all different viewpoints? But I'm trying to make the pitch that there was so much common ground all along over the last few years. Right. I've been able to work across the aisle. And the only reason that that's the case, and you can find common ground because you agree on stuff, right? Right. So I think there's a lot of things that I can agree with. Well, let me say this. See, I come from the point of view that we ought not to have any kind of litmus tests in the Democratic Party. Okay. Good for you. Good for you. And I know that over the years there's a process that evolved. As a matter of fact, I just had a conversation with Tim Vanderveer when I told him when in the world this ridiculous situation occurred. And, you know, and he was telling me to be kind and so forth. Sure, sure. So, you know, we'll be gentle. But, you know, I think that it's only when you become so overwhelming, like the Democratic Party, that you tend to have these things. Because if we, for example, if you were in Congress, which I maybe ought to be something you ought to think about, if you were in Congress and you decided to be a Democrat, bam! That would be it. Because we so desperately need another member, right? So anyway, in Hawaii we have decided that, you know, you've got to go through having the party interview you and the rest of this. And I actually, I'm okay with that. I'm okay with that being the process. I can see where people would have concerns about it. Because sure, at the end of the day, the committee could reject me, right? But I think going through that process and making everybody feel comfortable and making everybody feel like they know that I want them, that I want to be a part, maybe that'll help, right? That's a good thing. Well, I'll tell you what, if you need character references, you know, I volunteer. I will take it. And, you know, and I'm sure I can get some of my fellow governors to do the same for you. Thank you. Because I think you'd be a tremendous contribution to our party. Now, having said all of this, you ought to know something. Okay. Our party needs a little reforming, too. Seriously. So people have said that as I've been talking about switching, you and Democrats have been like, are you sure? So, you know, I hope you don't give up on your determination to make wherever you are better. Yeah. You know? We should all feel that way when we're in elected office. Yeah. I think so. I think so. I think that, you know, our party deserves every so many years to look at itself and to challenge itself. My only, and I'm not crusading, but my only, one of my main hesitations about the, about all of these discussions before somebody can get to change party, is that sometimes if we do too much of that, we start to calcify. We start not being open to change. And I can understand where certain issues are, you know, they're bedrock issues. They're completely the opposite of what somebody in the party may believe. But our party has evolved over the years. I mean, you know, good. We used to be the home of the deep south. Right. Right. You know, the solid Democratic south. You know, the Democratic party was the party that maintained segregation. And so if we weren't willing to change over the years and become the party of Martin Luther King and the rest, where would this country be? You know? So, yeah, welcome on board. Thank you. Thank you. One of the main criteria is raise a little cane, you know? Yeah. I think, you know, that's the thing that I've always respected about the Hau'i Democratic Party is you guys have done such a good job of making sure that it's a local party, right? Yeah. That it's not, we're not being dictated to by the mainland and by mainland values, right? The national party, sure, they exist to give us some guidelines, but we got to make it applicable to Hawaii's people, right? Right. And we should, yeah. I think Hawaii's party has never been afraid of not being in lockstep with whatever. I mean, whether it was, you know, we had healthcare, we didn't need Obamacare, frankly, to provide our own citizens with healthcare. And so, you know, on the issues, you know why? Because we secretly believe we're smarter than the guys are. I see. Okay. Now I know. Yeah. You know, in your old party, I think sometimes they don't think that. Yeah. But we think that, you know, it's, you know, it's, it's having to grow up. What do you go to high school? I went to Hawaii Baptist and Honolani. See? Private schools, yeah. You are smarter than the guys up there. Oh, I hope so. You know, welcome in. Thank you. Thank you. And so what's next, you know? I think for me, the biggest issues are still the same as when I was minority leader. The ones that I outlined at the beginning of session, it's affordable housing and cost of living. There's no reason why those should be Republican issues. No. Those are everybody's issues, right? So I'd like to see us focus more on those things now and as a party, right? I think, I think we've drifted, both parties have kind of drifted into other issues. But, but the economy and economic inequality should be a super important thing for everybody, right? Regardless of your party. Absolutely. Absolutely. So, do you have any thoughts on what would make Hawaii much more pro-affordable housing? I mean, what can you do? So there are a few things that I had thought of this year. One is not necessarily pro-affordable housing, but I'm sure you know that Hawaii, the legislature allowed to lapse tax increase on the high-income earners. What I had introduced this year was increase, putting that back so that it's not going higher than they were paying, but go back to the increases of two years ago, and then take that money and lower the rates for everybody in the middle of the hour. Why don't they dump you out of the Republican Party? Right? I know. I know. But we're lowering taxes on everybody else, right? Wow. I feel like people should pay more attention to the middle class, right? All of us, all parties should focus on, you know, the middle and lower classes in Hawaii, because that's, you know, people are struggling to make ends meet, right? Yeah, that was one of my bills, but you're right. That's it. That's made to trouble. I feel some kind of a litmus there. For sure. Yeah. Then there are a couple other, one of the things that I think we should be focusing on is the rail and rail transit. I think also we should be looking at providing some sort of a property tax credit on the state side so that the counties can raise taxes, but only on out-of-state property owners, right? Right. Because that's the fear with raising taxes is that we're going to hurt Hawaii's homeowners, right? But there's a way to do that, I think, and try to raise funds for the rail. Well, we'll be right back. This is an exciting interview with Representative Fukumoto, our newest Democratic star. Hello, I'm Dean Nelson, host of Planet of the Courageous. From a Tibetan point of view, we chose to be on this planet because we enrolled in a sort of graduate school for courage. Just that we may have chosen this adventure is a leap of logic. The question is, how do we spend and make sense of this precious human life? We are, as a species, extraordinarily successful, dominating the planet, and now with planetary size problems that our existence itself has created. It takes courage to face not only the uncertainty of life, but also the challenges sustaining this gift of life for future generations. Join us every Monday at 3 p.m. on Think Tech Hawaii. Aloha. Aloha. I'm Kaui Lucas, host of Hawaii is my mainland every Friday here on Think Tech Hawaii. I also have a blog of the same name at kauilucas.com where you can see all of my past shows. Join me this Friday and every Friday at 3 p.m. Aloha. Welcome back to Talk Story with John Wahee and our special guest, Representative Bet Fukumoto. By the way, if you have any questions for us, please call 415-871-2474. That's 415-871-2474. Well, this is exciting. So okay, now you're in the house. I guess there's this process you have to go through, and I'm just out of curiosity until you actually do. I think that's more of a problem with the, I'm assuming your colleagues in the state legislature see you as a member of their caucus already. I mean, it's not like you sit out in the middle of the Capitol by yourself, right? I remember referring to it as partisan purgatory. So my seat got moved, and I'm now with the Democrats, we haven't started caucusing together yet. Technically, I'm an independent until I become a member. So you're like Bernie Sanders? Right, so I'm just like, hey guys, it's just like Bernie Sanders, let me caucus with you, right? And I'm sure I have a lot of people in the house that have taken good care of me as a Republican, I'm sure. You know, we're going to get along just fine as a Democrat, so, but we're not there yet. We're still trying to figure out where I go. Just to figure out how you do it and so forth. Right, we're figuring out the mechanisms, but everybody's been very welcoming. Why the timing? You know, I thought once I made that decision, I talked to my community, and I had heard back from them, and enough people were calling me saying, hey, did you decide yet? Did you jump and not tell us? Right. I felt like it got to a point where I needed to just say something. I needed to tell people, because once you know and you kind of carry on, it's kind of dishonest, right? Yeah. So the timing's not great in terms of logistics, right? But I thought in trying to just be as forthright with my community as possible, I needed to just say something. So you did move chairs? I did move chairs, yes. What about your office? The next day, no, office is the same. I have a very good office. I don't want to change it. I like my office. So we've got to make sure that Speaker Suki understands that, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Leave the office alone. Just let it go. Yeah, even if you're trying to be nice, I like my office. Yeah, great. Good for you. Now, you, do you have any other particular issues that you're working on? Yeah, I think the biggest thing is, like I said, it's just affordable housing. I think that is the issue. And as I said, an opening day, I had said that... That was a great speech, by the way. Oh, thank you. You're welcome. I felt that cost of living, it's the one thing that we can definitely address. Everything else, shipping costs and all that, are sort of larger issues that are national and local. But affordable housing is something the state can do something about, like, right now. And so I think it's our job to do that. Oh, you know, this whole conversation like music to my ears. Oh, good. Because, you know, that was our challenge as well when I was in office. And one of the things that we did was create the couple aid, you know, and made homes more available and the like. Is there any effort being made to do something like that to actually, if not directly, indirectly sponsor more houses on the market? There is. I mean, money is going into some of the rental housing trust fund and those funds that are supposed to go towards building housing, but what it's really going to take is a massive infrastructure bond infusion, right? We're going to have to do a bond authorization for 25 million or more to actually improve the infrastructure because the city is just not doing it, right? And you can't, every single developer that you talk to that's willing to build affordable says we can't do it unless the infrastructure is available because otherwise all the cost goes into the infrastructure and then the housing won't be affordable. One of the mistakes I think that the government made was we sold off our rental inventory. Right. And, you know, now we're paying the price for it. Yeah. Yeah. And building more rentals is now on the list of things to do, right? Well, I think you need to do all of it. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And just, you know, get started. It's a question of energy. Right. And hopefully you'll inject some of that into our culture. I hope so. It's a time trying to learn about affordable housing. Like in the last, probably two years ago I decided I think this is the issue of my generation. It's something we have to, in Hawaii, something we have to address. Otherwise we're going to keep losing people to the main line, right? Let me ask you a question. And maybe we should learn more about you because I hope, I hope. And, you know, I hope that not only that you help our party become a better party, but I hope that you also, you know, look at a future that's beyond what, you know, where you might find yourself. Well, thank you. Thank you. So, what did you grow up? I grew up in Milani, primarily, but I was born in Salt Lake. Then we moved to Milani when I was about 10. Okay. That's all, you know, kind of affordable housing-type moves. Yeah. For middle-class people. Right. Milani was, you know, a growing area for young families. And my parents just thought, okay, once my dad was a postman and my mom was a stay-at-home mom until she became a realtor later. And so we went from a small apartment in Salt Lake to an apartment in Milani. They worked as hard as they could to put me through private school. Eventually we moved to Kalihi to take care of my grandma. Right. So I spent two years living in Kalihi and then we moved back to Milani. Where in Kalihi? Right above KBTV, between Dole and KBT, on Hawiki Street. You really went into Kalihi. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. It is Kalihi. Yeah. That was my dad's childhood home. So we moved in with grandma. Oh, that is Kalihi, yes. That was my district. Oh, okay. In the house. Okay. Because, let's see. No, you were right out of it because my district line was the freeway. Oh, okay. So everything below the freeway. Oh, okay. Yeah. Just out. Just, you know, that's Kalihi. That's where we were. And my wife grew up, and her mom had a business right on the corner of Kalihi Street and King. Oh, okay. So it was called Farrington Inn. Oh, okay. In fact, that was the first job I had when I came back to, I see, I was cocky. I went through the street lane and came back thinking I was smart. And I couldn't get any work except being a fried cook at the restaurant. So, you know, you actually have been part of this. Yeah. And my grandparents had a store in Kalihi also, the Fukumoto store. Right. From way back in the day. Oh, wow. Yeah. My dad's born and raised in Kalihi. Right there. He's starting to high school right there, yeah. Okay. So we'll talk a little bit more about the rest of your family. Okay. Your husband was the chairman of the party. Yes. Yes. How's he taking all of it? Well, he and I have not talked about it much. Yeah. Yeah. I have not talked about it much. Well, it's okay. So one of my friends is the Raging Cajun, you know, Carville. Oh, okay. Yeah. And his wife is like, you know, the ultimate Republican. People can disagree. Yeah. Yeah. And it's fun. But I think we all agree that we ought to do whatever the best we can to make Hawaii better. Yeah. Yeah. And that's why I got involved in this in the first place. Right? I wasn't like a super strong Republican when I came in. I just thought it was a way to make Hawaii better, right? And I think I can carry that mindset on into the Democratic Party. What got you involved in politics? I mean, did you do that in college? Were you an activist of some sort? Not at all. So I was an English lit major. I wanted to read books. I had no interest in politics. It was actually the recession when I came back to Hawaii that I started working at the legislature because it was the only place hiring. So like you, I had gone away to school. I came back and I was a file clerk. Yeah, right. Right? With my master's degree. After you went and did all of these things, right? I was like, I went to Georgetown, you know. I came back and I was filing papers. But it was a good learning experience. I got involved in politics that way. Who did you work for? I worked for the minority research. Oh, okay. So, and my story of becoming a Republican was I was answering an ad in the newspaper for minority research. Right. And I thought it was ethnic minorities. So I thought, oh, okay, I'm a minority, right? I can do the legislature studying minorities. So that's what I did. And I didn't realize until I actually got in and interviewed that it was Republicans. Well, I'll tell you, you want to start with how I got to be a Democrat? Yeah. So I, well, outside of the fact that my father was pretty much Democrat, I think. But, you know, we live next to Takmini. But I come back to Hawaii. And I'm working for the city. My colleague of mine, he calls me up and he says, you know, come over and have a drink with me and da, da, da, da. So I go there. And I hardly know the guy, you know, and we, he started, we're having beers and so forth. And he's like going crazy, you know, he's jumping up on the table and dancing and making jokes. And I'm like, what in the world is happening? This is right after I return. In the middle of all of this, he pops down and he hands me a blue card. And he says, I think you should sign up for the Democratic Party. I said, what? He says, yeah, yeah, sign this card, you know, and I'll buy you another beer. So I signed the card. I did that. And then he says, I want to talk to you about Tom Gill. See, so we were, I joined the party to be in opposition to the establishment. Okay. And had a lot of free beer doing it, you know. So that's, yours is a little bit more sane of a pathway. I like that you joined to be in opposition to the establishment. Yeah. Well, I'll see. Now you got your chance. Plenty of space. Yeah. Who knows where you might end up. You might be on this side of the table telling somebody, you know, after a career in the house and maybe, maybe more. That would be nice. Yeah. Because I tell you, we really do need leadership within the party. And people, I think that people are due for an exciting time. And, you know, the national level politics is such right now that, and this is not just an anti-Trump thing. I mean, just in general. Oh yeah. National politics are such that we are going to have to take on more and more responsibility as a state. Yes. And as a city. And therefore we need, you know, we need innovative ways of leadership and the rest of it. Yeah. Yeah. And a lot of the problem just sort of from a political science perspective, right, is that the Democratic party nationally sort of lost sight of state legislatures. At least in Hawaii we have had Democratic control. So, you know, we know how to handle this, but there are a lot of, there are a lot of legislatures that just don't, nobody, the Democrats don't know how to gain them back. Yeah, it's amazing. When I was in office way back in the day, you know, out of the 50 governors, 32, 32, yeah, 32 were Democrat. And that's completely flipped. That's, yeah. Completely flipped. Yeah. And that was the chairman of Democratic Governors Association when Bill ran. And within our party politics, what it was, what made it possible for him to be successful was the fact that the Governor's Democratic Governor's united. Oh, yeah. Which is a big thing. And yet today, on the national level, we haven't been as successful. Yeah. But when we competed at a legislative level, that naturally is going to cause a problem up-ticket, right? At some point. And I think we saw that this last election. Yeah. So it's another way that Hawaii can be a good model for the national party, right? We've done a good job of having local leadership here that fits the state. Well, welcome on board. Thank you. And when you get to talk to Tim, the chairman of your new party, tell him I try to be as kind as I can. I will talk. Our tools are kick and very well. I will tell them. All right. Thank you very much. Thank you for joining us. And thank all of you for being with us to another episode of Talk Story with John Wahey, an opportunity to welcome our newest Democratic member. Thank you.