House Democrats
finish choosing
their leaders
Takamine will head the Finance
By Craig Gima
Committee and Oshiro will chair
the Judiciary Committee
Star-BulletinDemocrats in the state House of Representatives have selected their leaders and made a few surprise choices: A neighbor island attorney to head the Finance Committee and a nonlawyer to be chairman of the Judiciary Committee.
Big Island Rep. Dwight Takamine (D, Hilo) will be the chairman of the Finance Committee, which is in charge of the state's $12 billion, two-year budget and sets policy on state spending. Takamine is an attorney specializing in labor issues and has been chairman of the Labor Committee.
Rep. Paul Oshiro (D, Ewa Beach), a property management executive, was named to head the Judiciary Committee. It has been 14 years since someone who is not an attorney has been chairman of the committee that handles many of the Legislature's controversial issues.
In the next session, the committee could be called upon to hear bills on same-sex marriage, domestic partnerships, assisted suicide, tort reform, and mandatory sentencing for repeat offenders.
When asked about how he feels about the controversial issues, Oshiro said: "When bills come up or when we meet with our majority caucus and we discuss the issue we'll come together with a consensus and move forward as best we can."
Other leaders named yesterday after a House Democratic caucus include:
Takamine was selected chairman of the Finance Committee because of a long-standing tradition in the Legislature of having a neighbor island representative as chairman when the House speaker is from Oahu, said Speaker-elect Calvin Say (D, Palolo).Vice Speaker: Rep. Marcus Oshiro (D, Wahiawa).
Takamine's previous experience on the Finance Committee was in 1985 and 1986 when he was a member under then-Chairman Ken Kiyabu.
Say's first choice for the position, Rep. Bertha Kawakami (D, Hanapepe) did not want the job and will remain vice chairwoman.
Takamine said it is too early to talk about what he hopes to accomplish as finance chairman.
"The economy is clearly the major issue," he said.
Say said he plans to talk this week with former House Speaker Joe Souki (D, Wailuku), who has not decided if he will accept a newly created position of speaker emeritus to serve as an ad hoc member of all committees and to advise Say on operations.
The next step is for the House leadership to meet with the committee leaders and work on setting priorities for legislation, Say said.
Say said the House will be more open to participation and cooperation between Democratic members than in the past.
"We are charting a new course in the way the state House of Representatives does its business," he said.
The power to refer bills to committees will be spread out among House leaders, and committee chairmen may have to defend to other Democratic members decisions to not hold hearings or to kill a bill.
"Our intention is to get away from the idea of essentially bottling up good ideas that may have a minority view that opposes them. We want to have that debate," Case said. Another change is to incorporate the Hawaiian Affairs Committee into the Judiciary Committee.
Case, who was chairman of the Hawaiian Affairs Committee, said Hawaiians made it clear last session that they need to reach a consensus on issues within the community before the Legislature gets involved.
Here is a list of House committee leadership: Who's in charge
