Friday, August 1, 2014

GMO Free Hawai`i Island Endorsements 2014

GMO Free Hawaii Island
2014 VOTER`S GUIDE

Mahalo for your kokua electing strong candidates this primary season.

WALK-IN VOTING - July 27 - Aug. 7, 2014
PRIMARY - Sat, Aug 9, 2014

Vote at your local polling station (as stated on your yellow Voter Registration and Address Confirmation postcard. Call the Office of Elections: (808) 961-8277 to find out if didn’t get one.

Here at GMOFHI we are a grassroots group focused on environmental health and want to build a close working relationship with our elected officials in all four branches of government; County, OHA, State, and the Federal level. After viewing public records, forums, and videos, when possible we arranged interviews with the top two candidates in each race.

We believe that building working relationships with our elected officials is very important and understand that there is no time like the present to begin fostering a healthy dialog. We enjoyed having the opportunity to begin a dialog with new candidates and to continue this conversation with incumbents about, protecting our GMO Free ban on taro, coffee, and all new crops, home rule, and GMO product labels. In addition we talked about how we could move forward to further protect the environmental health of Hawai’i island and the State of Hawai`i, a place the world knows as paradise by protecting us from the harmful effects of neonicotinoids. There is so much more to discuss as we move forward. We wish all of our endorsements the best of luck in the upcoming primary elections, and hope that they will continue to be active supporters of environmental health and the precautionary principle no matter what happens on August 9, 2014.

There are some districts left out; in those cases the race is incumbent-only, or none of the candidates running in that district earned our endorsement. In a few instances the candidates were reviewed by a sister organization, and our endorsement is based on their recommendation.

HAWAI`I ISLAND COUNTY COUNCIL
District 1 - POINDEXTER, Valerie
District 2 - MARKS, Kerri
District 3 - No Endorsement
District 4 - LOZANO, Roy
District 5 - PUEO, Frannie
District 6 - ABBETT, Richard
District 7 - No Endorsement
District 8 - EOFF, Karen
District 9 - WILLE, Margaret

STATE
Governor - No Endorsement
Lt. Governor - PULETASI, Sam or SHIRATORI, Miles

SENATE - HAWAI`I ISLAND
D1 - KA'EHU'AE'A, Wendell (Hilo)
D4 - INOUYE, Lorraine Rodero
(Hilo, Hamakua, Kohala, Waimea, Waikoloa, Kona)

HOUSE REPRESENTATIVE - HAWAI`I ISLAND
D2 - MIRANDA, Edwin L.P.
(Keaukaha, parts of Hilo, Panaʻewa, Waiakea)
D4 - BRONSON-CRELLY, Leilani
(Puna)
D5 - CREAGAN, Richard P.
(Na'alehu, Ocean View, Captain Cook, Kailua-Kona)
D6 - LOWEN, Nicole
(North Kona, Holualoa, Kalaoa, Honokōhau)

FEDERAL
U.S. State Senator (1) - SCHATZ, Brian
U.S. Representative District 2 - GABBARD, Tulsi

OHA - AT-LARGE
WONG-KALU, Hina
MAKEKAU, Keli’i
DE SOTO-MCCOLLOUGH, Laura

*O'AHU - K. SHIGEMASA, K.
*MAUI - LINDSEY, Hu

Mahalo for voting!
~the team at GMO Free Hawai`i Island