In the primary election, the Alliance for Traditional Marriage sent out last-minute "help STOP same-sex 'marriage' " fliers to aid the candidacies of two Democratic challengers: Jan Yagi Buen, who defeated state Sen. Rosalyn Baker, and Pat McCain, who lost to state Rep. Kenneth Hiraki. Same-sex foes take
last stab at opponents
For today's general election, the single-issue political action committee is targeting three Democrats: state Rep. Hermina Morita, House candidate Iris Ikeda Catalani and Senate nominee Bob Nakata, who are facing Republicans Jay Furfaro, Charles Kong Djou and Joe Pickard, respectively, who have received alliance help.
The alliance, however, did back away from challenging Democrat Daniel Inouye, the longtime U.S. senator, whom it has branded as "pro-same-sex marriage" because he voted against the Defense of Marriage Act that Congress approved in 1996.
Alliance Chairman Mike Gabbard said his group's "preliminary" endorsement of Republican Crystal Young was dropped not because Inouye is virtually certain to win, but because Young, an astrologer, couldn't be reached.
"For all we know, she could be in favor of same-sex marriage," Gabbard said.
THIELEN FAVORS HEMP State Rep. Cynthia Thielen (R, Kailua) has been elected a director of the North American Industrial Hemp Council, which is seeking to win support for the plant as a versatile and environmentally friendly crop. The council has joined several Kentucky farmers in a federal lawsuit challenging the U.S. government's ban on growing hemp.
Although it has been grown for thousands of years and used for products such as shirts and particle boards, industrial hemp has not been embraced in recent decades because of its link to marijuana. Both plants come from the same "cannabis" species, but hemp has so little of the hallucinogenic substance THC that it cannot be used to get high.
Locally, Thielen believes that hemp can replace sugar and pineapple, the two crops that were the backbone of agricultural Hawaii, but which are now in decline.
Same-sex marriage:
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By Star-Bulletin staff