Colleen Hanabusa

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Colleen Hanabusa (2011)

Colleen Wakako Hanabusa (born May 4, 1951 in Honolulu , Hawaii ) is an American politician of the Democratic Party . She represented Hawaii's 1st Congressional Constituency in the United States House of Representatives from 2011 to 2015 and 2017 to 2019 . She did not run for re-election in 2014 and 2018, but ran unsuccessfully for the US Senate and Hawaiian governorship .

Family, education and work

Hanabusa was born in 1951, the first of three children to a Japanese- American family from Wai'anae , just one year after their parents married. Her ancestors were Japanese emigrants who at the turn of the century found work on the sugar plantation of Wai'anae (Hawaii) , where the family still lives today. After the attack on Pearl Harbor , both grandfathers were temporarily interned and relocated; her maternal grandfather had started a Hongan-ji Buddhist mission. Colleen Hanabusa was raised by his wife while her parents ran a gas station in Wai'anae. She studied at the University of Hawaii , where she received a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Sociology in 1973 and a Master of Arts in Sociology in 1975 . In 1977 she graduated with a Juris Doctor from the William S. Richardson School of Law . In the same year she started working as a lawyer after her admission. Since 1993 she is from Honolulu Magazine out as a best of Hawaii's lawyers and was the 2009 American Bar Association with the Spirit of Excellence Award awarded.

She married former State Sheriff and businessman John F. Souza III in 2008 .

Political career

State Senator

Hanabusa was first elected to the Hawaii Senate in November 1998 . She represented the 21st constituency there until 2010, which includes her hometown of Waiʻanae as well as Nanakuli and Makaha . From 2003 to 2007 she was the Senate Majority Leader , that is, the leader of the majority party, before becoming Senate President in 2007. Hanabusa was the first woman to hold this office.

After her departure from the Senate, Hanabusa's vacant seat was filled by Governor Neil Abercrombie with Maile Shimabukuro , who until then had been a member of the Hawaii House of Representatives . Shan Tsutsui became the new President of the Senate .

Congressman 2011 to 2015

Hanabusa first applied for a seat in Congress in November 2002 . After the death of MP Patsy Mink , 44 candidates were on the ballot paper; this is possible under electoral law of Hawaii in by-elections. Behind the victorious Ed Case (43.7 percent) and Matt Matsunaga (30.5 percent), another state senator, she came third with 8.0 percent. When Case decided not to run again in the second constituency of the state in 2006 to instead run against US Senator Daniel Akaka in the Democratic Primary , Hanabusa tried a second time to get into the House of Representatives, but she lost in her party's primary elections against Mazie Hirono .

In May 2010, a by-election took place in the first constituency of Hawaii, which had become necessary after Neil Abercrombie stepped down from office in preparation for his candidacy for governor of Hawaii. Since there was again no restriction on the number of applicants, it was possible for both the liberal Hanabusa and its inner-party rival Case, a conservative Blue Dog , to pursue Abercrombie’s successor. The republican Charles Djou took advantage of the split within the Democratic Party : he won with 39.7 percent of the vote, ahead of Hanabusa (31.0) and Case (27.8).

Before the internal party primaries for the regular congressional election in November 2010 , Ed Case decided not to run again in favor of Hanabusa. This then had no trouble getting her party's nomination and prevailed in the actual election with a share of 53.2 percent against Djou (46.8), who she was able to replace in Congress on January 3, 2011. She was one of only three Democrats who were able to win a seat previously held by the Republicans in this - strongly Republican dominated - election; this also succeeded John C. Carney in Delaware and Cedric Richmond in Louisiana . Hanabusa was considered a favorite to succeed US Senator Daniel Akaka , who announced in 2011 that he would not run again in 2012 ; However, she announced in August 2011 that she would run for re-election in the House of Representatives. In the 2012 election , Hanabusa met Djou again and won with 55.45 percent of the vote. Hanabusa was most recently a member of the Armed Forces and Natural Resources Committees in Congress . Along with Mazie Hirono and Hank Johnson from Georgia , she was one of three Buddhist MPs and a member of the centrist New Democrat Coalition .

On January 3, 2015, she handed over her mandate in Congress to her successor, Mark Takai .

Application for the US Senate 2014 and other activities

After the death of the Senate President pro tempore , Daniel Inouye , on December 17, 2012, Hanabusa was considered the first candidate for his Senate mandate. Shortly before his death, Inouye had written to Governor Abercrombie in a letter expressing his wish to appoint the MP as his successor. The month before, the senior MP Mazie Hirono had been elected to succeed the no longer-running Senator Daniel Akaka. However, on December 26, 2012, Abercrombie did not appoint Hanabusa, but Brian Schatz , who had been Deputy Governor of Hawaii until then, to succeed Inouyes in the Senate.

Before the by-election for Inouye's mandate in November 2014, Hanabusa challenged the interim mandate holder Schatz in the party’s internal primary and was supported by Inouye's widow and employees, but had to admit defeat to him.

After leaving Congress, Hanabusa returned to her employment law firm and became chairman of the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation (HART), a public body building a railroad in Honolulu . She also served on the Hawaii Gas Board of Directors from 2015 .

Congressmen 2017 to 2019

After her successor Takai's resignation due to illness, Hanabusa announced in early June 2016 that she would apply again for her previous mandate in the US House of Representatives in the November 2016 election . Political observers saw her as a clear favorite for re-election without a promising opponent; her voters were satisfied with her. Hanabusa announced that it would campaign for the political recognition of the Polynesian natives of Hawaii at the federal level and the protection of the archipelago as a strategic military post. After Takai's death in July 2016, the congressional mandate was temporarily vacant; the by-election took place at the same time as the general election on November 8, 2016 . The purpose of the by-election was the immediate replacement of the mandate for the time until the end of the legislative period on January 3, 2017. Hanabusa successfully ran in both elections.

Since she ran for the governor's office in the primary election in 2018 and could not run for election to the House of Representatives at the same time, she left Congress on January 3, 2019. Her successor was Ed Case .

Application for governorship 2018

Beginning of September 2017 it was announced that Hanabusa in the gubernatorial election in November 2018 for the post of governor wants to compete in Hawaii. In the internal party primary , she challenges the Democratic incumbent, David Ige , who in turn was nominated for the first time in Hawaii's history in 2014 by winning a primary against his party colleague Neil Abercrombie , who was in office as governor . In the area code on August 12, 2018, she was defeated by Ige with a low turnout with 44 to 51 percent of the vote. Ige named her as a possible lieutenant governor candidate in the November main election, but opted for former State Senator Josh Green.

Web links

Commons : Colleen Hanabusa  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Robert M. Rees: Queen of the Senate ( Memento September 27, 2011 in the Internet Archive ). In: Honolulu Weekly , June 12, 2002.
  2. ↑ a b About Me ( Memento from January 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ). In: Hanabusa.House.gov.
  3. ↑ Jim Dooley: Close Ties Between Congressional Candidate Colleen Hanabusa and Ko Olina Developer Rake in Funds. In: Hawaii Reporter , October 28, 2010.
  4. ^ Derrick DePledge: Case stuns with withdrawal from Hawaii congressional primary. In: The Honolulu Advertiser , May 31, 2010.
  5. ^ BJ Reyes: Hanabusa sweeps districts. In: Honolulu Star Advertiser , Nov. 4, 2010.
  6. ↑ Chad Blair: No Senate Run for Hanabusa. In: Honolulu Civil Beat , August 24, 2011.
  7. ↑ Hanabusa, Colleen. In: Our Campaigns.
  8. ↑ Alex Isenstadt: Colleen Hanabusa favorite for Daniel Inouye seat. In: Politico , December 17, 2012.
  9. ↑ Kyle Trygstad: Hawaii: Abercrombie Appoints Lt. Gov. Brian Schatz to Senate. In: Roll Call , December 26, 2012.
  10. ↑ Emily Schultheis: Inouye's widow endorses Hanabusa. In: Politico , May 3, 2013.
  11. ^ Result of the area code on August 9, 2014. In: Hawaii.gov.
  12. ↑ a b Lorin Eleni Gill: Honolulu rail chair Colleen Hanabusa to officially seek a return to Congress. In: Pacific Business News , June 1, 2016.
  13. ↑ Duane Shimogawa: Hawaii Gas names Hanabusa, Matsumoto, Ngo to board of directors. In: Pacific Business News , June 4, 2015.
  14. ^ Cathy Bussewitz: Former US Rep. Colleen Hanabusa announces congressional run. In: West Hawaii Today , June 2, 2016.
  15. ↑ Bill Dorman: Hawaii Gov. David Ige Is A Step Closer To A 2nd Term. In: National Public Radio , August 13, 2018.
  16. ↑ Kevin Dayton: Hanabusa to run for governor. In: Honolulu Star Advertiser , September 2, 2017.
  17. ↑ Hanabusa, Colleen. In: Our Campaigns ; Bill Dorman: Hawaii Gov. David Ige Is A Step Closer To A 2nd Term. In: National Public Radio , August 13, 2018.
  18. ↑ Hawaii Elections Guide 2018. In: Honolulu Civil Beat , September 5, 2018.
personal data
SURNAME Hanabusa, Colleen
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hanabusa, Colleen Wakako (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American politician
DATE OF BIRTH May 4th 1951
PLACE OF BIRTH Honolulu , Hawaii