BY DANNY DE GRACIA II – The majority of Democrat candidates refused to answer the 2010 Hawaii Family Forum candidate survey. Wonder why?
For years the Hawaii Democratic Party has told voters that they are the party of keiki, kupuna and kanaka. They talk about howthe state has an important role in “value education” and shaping the interests of the public to be “sustainable.”
But here’s my question: if the Democrats are really for ohana – that is, if they really care about you and your family’s future – why is it that this year, the majority of Hawaii Democrat candidates refused to participate in the Hawaii Family Forum/Hawaii Catholic Conference survey which asked candidates their position on key issues such as physician assisted suicide, religious conscience exemptions, marriage and even abortion.
It would be one thing for a few of the Democrats to simply decline to answer the survey, but what we see in this year’s 2010 survey is an overwhelming proportion of Democrats refusing to participate. Why? If they are all about family, all about transparency, all about the people, why did so many refuse to let people know what their positions are?
While the number of Democrats who refused to answer these questions is far too numerous to list, consider as a preliminary exposé some of the “no shows” for major offices such as our congressional delegation, Governor/Lieutenant Governor and State Senate:
Governor
Neil Abercrombie
Lt Governor
Lyla Berg
Gary Hooser
Jon Riki Karamatsu
Brian Schatz
U.S. Senate
Daniel Inouye
U.S. House Of Representatives (CD1)
Colleen Hanabusa
U.S. House of Representatives (CD2)
Mazie Hirono
State Senate District 2
Russell Kokubun
State Senate District 4
Shan Tsutsui
State Senate District 8
Larry Price
State Senate District 9
Les Ihara
State Senate District 10
Brian Taniguchi
State Senate District 11
Carol Fukunaga
State Senate District 14
Donna Mercado Kim
State Senate District 15
Glenn Wakai
State Senate District 19
Mike Golojuch
State Senate District 20
Celeste Lacuesta
Sam Puletasi
State Senate District 22
Donovan Dela Cruz
Gerald Hagino
State Senate District 24
Jill Tokuda
State Senate District 25
Andrew Jamila
Pohai Ryan
Not answering a survey about family issues en masse? Now that’s extreme.