Sidewalks and Senator Hanabusa

Senator Hanabusa grew up in Wai`anae. "If you don't have some tie to having been born there, raised there, you don't know what it's like to be in a rural community," says Hanabusa. The Hanabusa's have lived in Wai`anae for four generations; Senator Hanabusa has a deep understanding of the district.

When Colleen was a kid and roller skating with her cousins in Kaimuki, she noticed something they didn't have in Wai`anae: sidewalks! You could say that sidewalks pointed Colleen Hanabusa to her career as a legislator. Until she noticed the sidewalks, she hadn't paid much attention to the differences between Kaimuki and Wai`anae. But after skating with her cousins, it wasn't long before she started to notice how really different things were.

In November 1998, Colleen Hanabusa, in her first run for public office, was elected to serve the people of the Twenty-First District as their State Senator. Since being elected, Senator Hanabusa has served as the Chair of the Senate Committee on Water, Land & Agriculture; Hawaiian Affairs (1999-2000), Vice-President of State Senate (2001-2002), Vice-Chair of the Senate Committee on Ways and Means (2001-2002), and Co-Chair of the Joint Senate-House Investigative Committee concerning the Felix Consent Decree.

She has shown herself to be a trusted leader who is absolutely unafraid to tackle even the most difficult and controversial issues. Aside from her duties as a State Senator, Senator Hanabusa is a one of Hawai`i's top attorneys with almost 30 years of experience and is a corporate officer in a family run corporation.

Read more about Senator Hanabusa in "Waianae Life" by Arthur Rath in Hawai`i Reporter.