1X
Roth interviews Pat Saiki, the 1994 Republican candidate for governor and a former U.S. Representative, in a one-hour call-in special recorded while the HGEA government-worker strike is still under way. Saiki calls the strike "totally unnecessary," blaming the administration for failing to negotiate in good faith, and proposes reducing the state workforce—then estimated at 62,000—through attrition rather than mass dismissals. On education, she supports school-level autonomy and an appointed Board of Education answerable directly to the governor, pointing to 800 unbuilt classrooms and $200 million in appropriated funds sitting unspent in the pipeline. On housing, she argues that 50,000 lots statewide sit undeveloped for lack of infrastructure and proposes a government-private-sector partnership to finance it. Saiki supports the Brady Bill but opposes a handgun ban. On sovereignty, she defers to Hawaiian community consensus before committing to any model. On the economy, she cites Forbes and Money magazine surveys ranking Hawaii last among states for business climate, and calls for a strategic plan to reverse that image, emphasizing entrepreneurs and diversified agriculture as the path forward. She opposes legalizing gambling and supports building a convention center to stabilize tourism revenue.
Transcript
Read or download the full transcript (.txt). Speaker labels were assigned automatically and may contain errors.