Tourism-boosting ideas at forefront

Five candidates for Hawaii’s 1st Congressional District seat tried to distinguish themselves from each other on support for the tourism, military and construction industries at a forum at the Japa­nese Cultural Center of Hawaii on Tuesday night.

It was the first time that Charles Djou, the presumed front-runner for the Republican nomination, appeared with any Demo­cratic candidates. The four other candidates in attendance — City Council members Ikaika Anderson and Stanley Chang, state Sen. Will Espero and state Rep. Mark Takai — are all Demo­crats.

Takai said he would support tourism by advocating for the expansion of the tourism visa waiver program so that more visitors from other countries could find their way to Hawaii.

Takai said he would also "fight hard for more federal spending in construction, military, research and innovation research for Hawaii."

Chang said Congress has made poor decisions recently that have hurt Hawaii disproportionately, including increasing the airline ticket tax by more than 125 percent while cutting military retirement benefits and construction funding.

"It’s clear that we need somebody fighting year after year to address these priorities in a consistent and sustained manner," Chang said.

Anderson spoke of the need to ensure that the state maintains its military bases "at all costs" by fending off other states that might want to have them.

As for tourism, "we must be able to continue to promote redevelopment as well as new development of our tourism areas" in order to compete with other visitor destinations around the world, Anderson said.

Espero said the key way for the federal government to assist tourism in Hawaii is to "stay out of international wars as much as possible because we know how these worldwide conflicts impact tourism."

Espero said he would also want to support federal funding for "military housing, roads, bridges, senior care homes."

Djou said he strongly supports President Barack Obama’s "Pivot to the Pacific" initiative to shift more military and trade resources to the Pacific-Asian region, and he criticized Demo­crats for thwarting it.

He said he would advocate expanding the tourist visa allotment for China, "the fastest-growing market for international tourists."

All five candidates in attendance said they support continuing mortgage interest deductions and oppose any attempts by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to designate the entire state as a critical habitat.

State Senate President Donna Mercado Kim, whom polls show as the front-runner in the Demo­cratic primary, was scheduled to attend but issued a news release Tuesday afternoon announcing that she had contracted food poisoning and could not attend.

Honolulu Councilman Joey Mana­han, a Demo­crat, was invited but did not respond, a forum organizer said. Activist Kathryn Xian, executive director of the Pacific Alliance to Stop Slavery, said she was not invited.

The forum at the Japa­nese Cultural Center was sponsored by half a dozen construction and real estate-related groups. It was organized by the Building Industry Association of Hawaii.

CORRECTION: Donna Mercardo Kim issued a news release Tuesday saying she was unable to attend the forum. An earlier version of this story and the story in Wednesday’s print edition said the news release was issued Thursday afternoon.