Editor’s Note: In July 2012, Civil Beat sent six questions to each of the candidates registered to run in the Aug. 11 primary for Hawaii State House of Representatives District 40. Three out of seven candidates responded, including Bob McDermott. The questions and answers are reproduced below in full. Read responses by his competitors, Joe Rattner and Rose Martinez. Kurt Fevella, Christopher Manabat, Romy Mindo, and Sam Puletasi did not send in their questionnaires. Click on each topic listed below to read Civil Beat’s question and McDermott’s response.

• General Excise Tax
• Environmental Regulatory Review
• Gambling
• Sunshine Law
• Best and Worst Legislation
• Overlooked Issue

Preferred Candidate Name: Bob McDermott

Senate/House District Number: House District 40

Date of Birth: 08/05/1963

Place of Birth/Hometown: Lanesdale, PA

Current Profession/Employer: Executive Director of the Navy League

Education/Alma Mater(s): Chaminade University, BA and MBA

1. With the exception for Honolulu rail, the state has not raised the general excise tax in decades. Would you consider increasing the GET to help the state meet its budget demands?

No, I would not. We just absorbed some 600 million in new taxes in the last two years. We have to look at a reasonable warm body policy based on attrition, retirement, and right sizing. Also, we must be frugal and smart with the tax payers money.

Providing pre-school for kids who live on the beach is a nice idea, but it is a waste of money. Mom and Dad need to be able to afford a place to live first! These types programs exist and have received tax payer funding. ↩ back to top

2. Lawmakers proposed relaxing environmental regulatory review to spur development and job growth in the 2012 session, and the issue is expected to resurface next year. Where do you stand?

This will not happen. But what can happen is to create a sense of urgency in the bureaucracy. Hold you hearings, gather public input, that is democracy, then make a decision. These issues too often are left to languish on a bureaucrats desk for MONTHS at a time. ↩ back to top

3. Gambling — are you for it or against it? If not, why not? If so, what type of gambling and with what kind of restrictions?

No. We have spent a good 80 years branding ourselves as the Land of Aloha and creating a “Hawaiian Sense of Place”, as we celebrate the host culture and the spirit of our people. The overall crassness of gaming, the bells, buzzers, neon, etc, is not a fit with our brand. Economically, It would hopelessly muddle our marketing message and irrevocably destroy our brand. ↩ back to top

4. The Sunshine Law is a hallmark of an open democracy accountable to its citizens. Yet, the Legislature exempts itself from this requirement. Do you support more transparency in government operations, or are there legitimate reasons to conduct some of the people’s business behind closed doors?

Of course more transparency, only the brain dead would answer otherwise. ↩ back to top

5. What is the best legislation — and worst legislation — that the Legislature has approved in recent years? Please explain.

The best legislation: Common sense issue that affects all – no texting while driving. It saves lives.

Worst: Civil Unions.

Civil Unions gave “all rights and benefits of marriage” to same sex couples. If you disagree with this, you are labeled a hater, a bigot, ignorant, or unenlightened. Non-sense.

The state has a compelling interest in providing a healthy, wholesome, nurturing environment for the children in their custody due to parental abuse. When those children, who are damaged both literally and figuratively, are placed into the foster/adoption pool, the state has a moral obligation, responsibility, a duty to ensure that they are placed in the most optimal situation possible – clearly, that is with a loving mom and dad.

These children are already at a disadvantage, they deserve the highest degree of normalcy and order possible. It is beyond dispute that a loving mother and father provide the best chance for children to be successful. I speak not from idle chatter heard in the faculty lounge, but from real life experience in these issues.

Despite the dedicates of the PC police, there is absolutely a difference between the nurturing, love and tenderness that a mom can deliver and that of two men who practice homosexuality. In fact, science tells us that a child cannot be created without a male and female. So why would we ever obligate a child to an artificial situation where they will never ever have a mother or father to speak of? Who speaks for the child? Do they have a choice in the matter?

Imagine for a moment, a loving husband and wife go into to adopt a child, next to them are two men who practice homosexuality. All things being equal, if the Judge says, I think the child would do better with a mom and dad, he is now a bigot. In my view he is exercising common sense.

Adults pushing this issue have overlooked the impact upon children. This should be a child centered issue, not an adult center issue based on a life style that they choose based on psychological behavior and not genetics. This entire debate misses the question, who speaks for the Kids? I will. ↩ back to top

6. What is an issue that you would champion at the Legislature — one that perhaps has not received much attention, or an issue that is important to your district?

In my view it is twofold. First, the schools are older and in desperate need of renovation, and detailed repair and maintenance. Facilities and school campus grounds that look terrible reflect poorly on the school and can be a contributor to an overall attitude of benign neglect. It sends a subtle message to the students that you really are not that important to us. That is unacceptable.

In my first stint as a Representative, I took no prisoners and did not care whose feathers I ruffled, and we got results. Emergency repairs were made and the media focused on this very important issue giving its due. I will do it again.

The second issue is ensuring that infrastructure continues to be made a priority for this fast growing community. Roads, schools, libraries and other forms of infrastructure have real impacts on real people each and every day. The leeward area needs to area needs to stay ahead of the curve or we will surely suffer like we did before Fort Weaver Road was finally widened. I will work tirelessly to see our transportation infrastructure is state of the art and makes people’s lives better. ↩ back to top