“Good leaders are trailblazers, making a path for all others to follow. Great leaders, however, inspire their people to reach higher, dream bigger, and achieve greater. Perhaps the most important leadership skill you can develop is the ability to provide inspiration to your team. If you inspire them to reach for the stars, they just might bring you back the moon.” ~ Ilya Pozin “The challenge of leadership is to be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold; but not bully; be thoughtful, but lazy' be humble, but not timid; be proud, but not arrogant; have humor, but without folly.” ~ Jim Rohn

1. COLLEEN HANABUSA – GOVERNOR FOR HAWAI`I
Hawai`i has got to be preserved as the place that I grew up in, I love and I
cherish and I feel that the main reason why people want me to run is because
they feel that they're losing control over the Hawai`i that they all care about. It's
going to mean diferent things to diferent people but there's going to be a
common thread which is going to be that's the place that they want to see their
children and grandchildren to grow.
People want somebody who can make a decision. Someone who they feel they
have confdence in their experience. Confdence in their ability to basically stand
up for the state and I think that's what it's coming down to. It is public
confdence, someone who is a fghter, leader and able to tackle difcult problems.
My whole political career has lead to this point where I've asked the very question
as to how do I best serve the People of the State of Hawai`i.
BEN A Memoir, From Street Kid to Governor1
Hanabusa was born and raised in Wai`anae – a blue-collar, impoverished area
where the overwhelming majority of the residents are Hawaiian and where
families sufer from the highest incidence of social ills such as drug use, spouse
and child abuse, and other crimes and teen pregnancy in Hawai`i. As one of the
state's top labor lawyers, she could have easily aforded to move to a more
afuent neighborhood; that she continued to live in the area impressed me.
The late journalist Bob Rees once wrote that Hanabusa possessed “one of the
brightest minds” in the Legislature. I agreed. The Stanford Law School graduate
had emerged as a leader in the Legislature. She had carved out a reputation as
one of the state's top labor lawyers and counted the AFL-CIO among her clients.
Nevertheless, despite strong union opposition, Hanabusa had taken the lead in
passing bills that established the new State Health Employees Fund and repealed
the mandatory arbitration law which as written was stacked against the State. For
a frst-term senator it was a remarkable show of intellect and leadership.
1 Ben: a memoir, from street kid to governor ̶ By Benjamin J. Cayetano - Watermark
Publishing, Honolulu, Hawai`i. 2009. ISBN 978-0-9790647-0-8

2. I respected her for her leadership ability, I sensed that she was destined for
higher ofce one day.
_______________________
CONGRESSWOMAN TULSI GABBARD
January 24, 2018
We need a strong, decisive, dynamic leader here in the governor’s ofce to be
able to best serve and lead Hawai`i
Hanabusa ofers the strong leadership that Hawai`i “so desperately needs”
Hanabusa as Hawai`i governor would prove a strong leader on issues of
homelessness, afordable housing, infrastructure, the economy and food security
_______________________
The problem is, unless we can get our people to feel, 'OK, government can work'
we will never be able to turn this around, the focus now should be on restoring
public trust and confdence.
CONGRESSWOMAN COLLEEN HANABUSA
Gabbard Shakes Up Governor's Race By Endorsing Hanabusa
The congresswoman takes the unusual step of backing her D.C. colleague in the Democratic primary2
By Chad Blair, Politics and Opinion Editor
Honolulu Civil Beat
January 24, 2018, accessed February 5, 2018
http://www.civilbeat.org/2018/01/gabbard-shakes-up-governors-race-by-endorsing-hanabusa/
2 “This is only the second time that Gabbard, a three-term congresswoman, has made a
primary endorsement” ~ Congresswoman Colleen Hanabusa