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Editor’s note: For Hawaii’s Aug. 13 Primary Election, Civil Beat asked candidates to answer some questions about where they stand on various issues and what their priorities will be if elected.

The following came from Emil Svrcina, Republican candidate for state Senate District 18, which includes Waipio, Crestview, Royal Kunia, Mililani, Waipahu and Akupu. The other Republican candidate is Mary Smart.

Go to Civil Beat’s Election Guide for general information, and check out other candidates on the Primary Election Ballot.

1. What is the biggest issue facing your district, and what would you do about it?

Election integrity. Act 136 (mail-in ballot) has to be reformed. It promotes criminal corruption. Chief Elections Officer Scott Nago has to be fired. This is causing candidates to be nominated and elected.

Also, children being masked outside of their classroom, deprived from oxygen, slowing their brain development, because of the DOE superintendent Keith Hayashi. Does he have a federal or UN funding incentive to do that?

2. Many people have talked about diversifying the local economy for many years now, and yet Hawaii is still heavily reliant on tourism. What, if anything, should be done differently about tourism and the economy?

Hawaii should be a high-tech hub (doing more with less), and a shipping hub if the Jones Act is reformed. The “Hawaii-grown” label will become a much better label than “organic,” benefiting our own local production of food.

We have to end this “pay to play” scheme corrupt Hawaii politicians created for themselves, forcing now un-American regulations on local vacation rental providers, only to promote the hotel industry unions and their advocates like recycled politician Mufi Hannemann.

Welfare reform. Specialty production of titanium. A new ferry system. Common-sense solutions.

3. An estimated 60% of Hawaii residents are struggling to get by, a problem that reaches far beyond low income and into the middle class, which is disappearing. What ideas do you have to help the middle class and working families who are finding it hard to continue to live here?

Promote personal freedom. Let people grow, prosper and thrive. Get government out of the business of running businesses and picking the winners and losers (as they did in the last two years under their medical fascism).

4. Hawaii has the most lopsided Legislature in the country, with only one Republican in the Senate and only four in the House. How would you ensure there is an open exchange of ideas, transparency and accountability for decisions? What do you see as the consequences of one-party control, and how would you address that?

Republicans in name only are in the executive committee of the Hawaii Republican Party. We have to get rid of this “controlled” opposition first to get rid of this current 68-year-old monopoly of Democrats in Hawaii.

5. Hawaii is the only Western state without a statewide citizens initiative process. Do you support such a process? 

Yes.

6. Thanks to their campaign war chests and name familiarity, incumbents are almost always re-elected in Hawaii legislative races. Should there be term limits for state legislators, as there are for the governor’s office and county councils? Why or why not?

Election integrity first. Control the funding of campaigns. Term limits last.

7. Hawaii has recently experienced a number of prominent corruption scandals, prompting the state House of Representatives to appoint a commission tasked with improving government transparency through ethics and lobbying reforms. What will you do to ensure accountability at the Legislature? Are you open to ideas such as requiring the Sunshine Law and open records laws to apply to the Legislature or banning campaign contributions during session?

Yes, yes, yes.

8. How would you make the Legislature more transparent and accessible to the public? Opening conference committees to the public? Stricter disclosure requirements on lobbying and lobbyists? How could the Legislature change its own internal rules to be more open?

Just make sure every legislator sticks to their oath (or is removed immediately by grand jury) and demand more transparency, including information about their bonds. More town halls. Conduct a forensic audit of rail. Lobbyists have to go — they are there for themselves not for “we the people.”

9. Hawaii has seen a growing division when it comes to politics, development, health mandates and other issues. What would you do to bridge those gaps and bring people together in spite of their differences?

Common sense solution: show respect to the frustration of Hawaiian people in regards to what happened here unlawfully in 1893 by the U.S. corporations. Life of this land will perpetuate in righteousness again.

10. The coronavirus pandemic has exposed numerous flaws in Hawaii’s structure and systems, from outdated technology to economic disparity. If you could take this moment to reinvent Hawaii, to build on what we’ve learned and create a better state, a better way of doing things, what would you do? Please share One Big Idea you have for Hawaii. Be innovative, but be specific.