Education K-12

When Honolulu County Council member Andy Mirikitani faced trial in 2001 for fraud, theft, extortion, and bribery, key testimony against him came from Cynthia McMillan, the wife of now-State Representative Karl Rhoads (D-Downtown Honolulu).  McMillan had worked closely with Mirikitani, at one time chairing his campaign committee.  Prior to presenting her testimony--in which McMillan implicated her husband--her attorney negotiated an immunity agreement with federal prosecutors. 

The Milken Institute rankings of 200 largest US metro areas shows that Honolulu has risen from 100th to 55th overall in the combined rankings based on eight measures of job growth used by Milken.  The brightest spot for Honolulu is its ranking of 30th in “short term job growth” comparing employment numbers for April 2009 with April 2010. 

The Taxpayer’s Perspective highlights two ballot measures in Hawaii, including a statewide measure that would give the legislature discretion to use property tax rebates intended for taxpayers and a local measure in Oahu that would create a transit authority to oversee a rail project.

"I do not believe the future of our economy is going to come from a bureaucrat," Djou said. "The future of our economy is going to come from an individual, an individual American who takes a chance, goes into the marketplace and creates a job."

Wall Street Journal, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Hill

The Democratic Governors Association is fighting back with a new ad framing a vote for Mr. Aiona as a vote against President Obama. The ad quotes Mr. Aiona himself saying electing a GOP governor would be a "knock-out punch" against Hawaii's favorite son in the White House.

However, this may not be a risk-free strategy for Democrats. The Republican Governors Association has its own ad up that gently chides Mr. Abercrombie for being out-of-touch with the state. The ad doesn't clobber Mr. Obama, but says: "Maybe people in Washington don't care how you handle the federal budget -- by printing money, raising taxes, and increasing the deficit -- but in Hawaii, we do care."

In her own words, Colleen Hanabusa said in one of her recent advertisements that she is the kind of politician that, “What you see is what you’ll get.” Since she asked for it, let’s take a look at her record…

Attacks by the White House and the Democratic National Committee on outside groups like Crossroads and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Collegio said, have helped energize their base and bring in more donations.

The first eight races in which Crossroads will run ads include two for incumbents — Dan Lungren in  California’s Third Congressional District and Charles Djou in Hawaii’s First Congressional District.

Hawaii Rep. Charles Djou may be getting the biggest prize: Boehner said Djou will get a seat on the Appropriations Committee if he wins re-election next month after winning the special election in May to replace Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D). Hawaii Sen. Daniel Inouye (D) chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, so the appointment would give the island state an outsized influence on Appropriations.

New numbers out Wednesday from The Hill's midterm poll give Djou a four-point lead over Democrat Colleen Hanabusa, despite an Obama endorsement for the Democratic nominee. Djou leads 45 percent to 41, with 12 percent of likely voters undecided. 

The poll, conducted for The Hill by Penn Schoen Berland, surveyed 406 likely voters and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points.

To make matters even worse for Democrat candidates like Hanabusa, President Obama recently admitted in an interview that he realized too late that “there’s no such thing as shovel-ready projects,” confirming once and for all that the stimulus was a policy disaster. After leaving small businesses and hard-working families to suffer from Washington’s egregious miscalculations – how can Hanabusa possibly defend the failed trillion-dollar stimulus now?

Never has there been a more gross example of the nation's heritage being mismanaged than at the Ewa Field battlefield, where US Marines died in defense of their country on a December 7 Sunday morning, where Navy Region Hawaii allowed this hallowed ground to became a totally forgotten GARBAGE DUMP - until Save Ewa Field brought this gross mismanagement to local and national attention.

The April 26 Denver Post agrees:

Exhibiting quite a lot of gall, General Motors is trying to spin the public with an ad campaign launched last week based on breathtakingly misleading information.

Djou, a Captain in the U.S. Army Reserve, represents the First Congressional District, which is home to the U.S. Pacific Command, the U.S. Army Pacific, the U.S. Pacific Fleet, the U.S. Pacific Air Force, Pearl Harbor, Camp H.M. Smith, Fort Shafter and Tripler Army Medical Center. Ensuring that these bases and military installations have adequate funding is in the best interest of Hawaii and the United States.

"The fact is Colleen Hanabusa's handlers on the mainland have decided to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to lie about Charles' record and district voters from her own troubling record," said Dylan Nonaka, Hawaii Republican Party Executive Director.

"In this difficult economy, the last thing voters in Hawaii's first Congressional district want is a politician who has voted for just about every tax increase and government regulation imaginable, killing local jobs and paying off her union cronies."

Democrats and the AFL-CIO have been flooding the airwaves and the mailboxes with debunked claims labeled “false” by FactCheck.org and mocked by the Washington Post.  The leftist KOS poll and the Democrat poll would make up a polling trend which indicates that these Democrat lies are working.  But neither poll is independent, so it is impossible to know whether these poll numbers are merely atmospherics to go along with the barrage of lies.

HONOLULU – More than 2,000 grassroots supporters today joined Duke Aiona and Lynn Finnegan and their families for a pa‘ina in the park at Bishop Museum. Prior to the event, more than 400 supporters lined School Street and Likelike Highway to sign wave for the event.

Honolulu, HI — Congressman Charles K. Djou (HI-01) was joined by local Cub Scouts and volunteers at Mililani Waena Elementary School today to participate in the Hawaii Jaycees’ Third Annual “Adopt-A-School” Day, an annual day of statewide service to our local schools.

Despite all the negative ads saying Charles Djou voted against funding for schools, we know that actually no Hawaii schools were ever in danger of closing, nor were any teacher jobs at risk. Consider the following from the Washington Post's editorial board. They call this bailout for states a "boondoggle" and that "With schools in session, it's even clearer now than it was then that the numbers were exaggerated and that the measure was in no small part intended to motivate the powerful teachers unions for this fall's midterm elections."

• WHO: Congressman Charles Djou and Honolulu Chinese Jaycees
• WHAT: Adopt-A-School Day at Mililani Waena Elementary School
• WHEN: Sunday, October 10, 2010, beginning at 9:00 AM
• WHERE: Mililani Waena Elementary School 

... it was said that it was the first time anyone had been denied a chance to fill a vacancy on the Manoa Neighborhood Board. Zach Thomson a businessman, active civic leader, founder of the non-profit Lucent Film Academy, Eagle Scout and Active Boy Scout Den Leader, who is a husband and father that lives with his wife and child in the Manoa community was denied ....

...she claimed that the Hawaii Republican Party's gesture of support and goodwill was simply a 'stunt'....

WaPo: Below you'll find our rankings of the 50 House races most likely to switch parties in the fall....

Washington- After months of rubber-stamping reckless spending and job-killing legislation, reality finally caught up with Hawaii Democrat Colleen Hanabusa and her Washington friends. The final jobs report before Election Day showed another month of high unemployment at 9.6 percent, marking it almost a year and a half since unemployment has been under nine percent, signaling major problems for any Democrat on the ballot in November.

HONLULU—The Hawaii Republican Party stopped by Colleen Hanabusa’s headquarters this afternoon with moving boxes fresh off her statement and our video released yesterday indicating she would be moving into Hawaii’s First Congressional District.

Charles Djou's stay on Capitol Hill was supposed to be brief....

...police reported the car was registered to my opponent, Rep. Jessica Wooley, and her husband. When police called her, she did not deny her car was there and said it must have been a volunteer, but that she didn't know who it was.  She also claimed to have only taken the signs down and left them in front of the house, but as we reported, the signs were stolen and thrown into her van.  Someone mysteriously returned signs at the place they were stolen with a note saying the property caretakers didn't want the signs up.  But these were not the same signs stolen from the property and we confirmed with the property caretakers that they indeed supported our campaign and wanted a sign in their home.

“Congressman Djou understands the importance of small business in restoring the nation’s economy,” she said, noting his willingness to fight growing federal regulations and stand firm against anti-business measures such as big labor’s “card check” legislation that would unfairly deny small businesses and their workers the right to secret ballot elections when faced with union-organizing campaigns."

"Jobs and the economy are unquestionably the two most important issues in the elections this November," said Ed Pinto, Chairman and CEO of Trust in Small Business PAC. 

"Small business is the key to jump starting the economy and creating new jobs America so desperately needs," Pinto continued. "Congressman Djou understands this. Djou stands up for small business."

Naturally she withheld this magnificent announcement until encountering an amateur videographer on a Washington, DC street corner. 

Honolulu, HI — Congressman Charles K. Djou (HI-01) has selected local attorney Irene Anzai as a 2010 Angel in Adoption^TM  for her support of adopted children and their families. The Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute (CCAI), which organizes the Angels in Adoption^™ program, will honor Anzai and other Angels at an awards ceremony and gala event on October 6, 2010 in Washington, DC. Congressman Djou will present the actual award to Anzai at a local ceremony on October 15....

Our internal polls now show us with a narrow lead, and a recent poll by a left wing blog shows our opponent with a razor thin lead.  In either case, our race is very close.

The leftist Daily KOS has released results of a survey conducted by Public Policy Polling October 2 and 3 among likely voters in Hawaii.  The poll shows Republican Gubernatorial candidate Lt. Gov Duke Aiona statistically tied with Democratic Gubernatorial candidate Rep. Neil Abercrombie. 

  Congressman Djou, his wife Stacey, Stephan Edwards and his brother Ryan of Systemcenter

Hawaii Right to Life, in partnership with Pearson Foundation of Hawaii, invites you to a special pro-life presentation and charity benefit featuring the Reverend Monsignor Ignacio Barreiro Carámbula, Chaplain of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI.

"National Democrats have already blown over $530,000 in this race in a desperate attempt to mislead Hawaii voters and distract them from examining Colleen Hanabusa's record. Every dollar spent has been to distort Congressman Djou's record while no dollar was spent promoting anything positive about their "second favorite" candidate."

Washington- Democrat Congressman Chet Edwards (D-TX) recently admitted that his vote for his party’s failed trillion-dollar stimulus may cost him an election. His startling admission should have Democrat candidates like Colleen Hanabusa – who also supported the legislation – worried that they too will share the same fate.

As thousands of voters in Hawaii's First Congressional District are readying themselves to cast votes in the General Election, one of the main candidates will be unable to cast a vote for herself. Voters should ask, why is Colleen Hanabusa running for a Congressional seat that represents an area she doesn't live in?

[Colleen Hanabusa]  "I can tell you right now, in government I don't think there's waste, per se.”

[Charles Djou] "You know that's not true. Our government is wasting billions of dollars. We may be the first generation in American history to leave the next worse off.

 Warning.  This video contains adult material.

“Today marks the start of a new Federal fiscal year.  Congress just closed one of the most fiscally irresponsible sessions in modern American history, spending an inordinate amount of money, running an unprecedented budget deficit—without turning the economy around."

There was one disappointing occurrence last night, however.  One of my supporters, while setting up for the event, saw a white van with the license plate NDU-549 stop across the street from Hau'ula Elementary while a passenger jumped out and stole a few of my signs.  A police report has been filed so any information you may have will be helpful to the HPD.

I have had nearly $1,000 worth of signs stolen so far.

Last night, even though I was in Washington, D.C., I was able to talk with over 3,000 residents in my district, my "bosses" in Hawaii's First Congressional District. I heard from you about your concerns on many issues: from jobs, to the economy, to taxes, healthcare and the size of government.

However, we have just received from a highly reliable source a description of Kiewit's soil testing, which apparently reveals how Kiewit was able to offer the lowest bid on the project and why the cost may be increasing...

“No one denies that the current valuation of Chinese currency is troubling and remedial actions must be taken. While I support a free-floating currency exchange between the United States and China, this legislation will not affect the trade deficit and will not create American jobs. Instead, this bill would hurt more than it would help our nation and Hawai‘i.

“This measure will harm U.S.-China relations, hurt international commerce and, most troubling for Hawai‘i, impair the emerging Chinese visitor market in Hawaii."

“The Community Awareness Act requires applicants for grant assistance under section 811 of the Cranston-Gonzalez National Affordable Housing Act to hold public meetings regarding such applications. I introduced the legislation in response to recent events in the Ewa Gentry community, which is in my district. I hope that this legislation will receive bipartisan support and swift action.”