The new congresswoman from the 1st District of Hawaii is Colleen Hanabusa, a Democrat who won the seat in 2010. Hanabusa is a Yonsei, a fourth-generation American of Japanese ancestry. Both of her grandfathers were among the more than 100,000 Japanese-Americans forcibly relocated and interned after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor during World War II. She was raised on a sugar plantation by her maternal grandmother while her parents worked long hours running a gas station in Waianae. She learned the value of hard work, she said, adding that “chipping in to get people through a hard time is very much a part of the plantation lifestyle.” While young, she learned ikebana, the Japanese art of flower and plant arrangement that has a strong spiritual component. In ikebana, she says, if the core piece isn’t well placed and balanced, the arrangement falls apart. “What I learned from that has always stuck with me,” Hanabusa says. She graduated from the University of Hawaii with a bachelor’s degree in economics and sociology and a master’s degree in sociology, and went on to get a law degree from the William S. Richardson School of Law. Read More

The new congresswoman from the 1st District of Hawaii is Colleen Hanabusa, a Democrat who won the seat in 2010. Hanabusa is a Yonsei, a fourth-generation American of Japanese ancestry. Both of her grandfathers were among the more than 100,000 Japanese-Americans forcibly relocated and interned after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor during World War II. She was raised on a sugar plantation by her maternal grandmother while her parents worked long hours running a gas station in Waianae. She learned the value of hard work, she said, adding that “chipping in to get people through a hard time is very much a part of the plantation lifestyle.” While young, she learned ikebana, the Japanese art of flower and plant arrangement that has a strong spiritual component. In ikebana, she says, if the core piece isn’t well placed and balanced, the arrangement falls apart. “What I learned from that has always stuck with me,” Hanabusa says. She graduated from the University of Hawaii with a bachelor’s degree in economics and sociology and a master’s degree in sociology, and went on to get a law degree from the William S. Richardson School of Law.

Elected to the Hawaii Senate in 1998, Hanabusa served for 12 years, rising in 2007 to Senate president and becoming the first woman to lead either house of Hawaii’s legislature. One of her signature issues was education, including the creation of charter schools for underserved children and improving special-education programs. Hanabusa, who regularly joins Republican colleagues on a local conservative talk radio show, says that her legislative experience “taught me cooperation and the ability to collaborate.”

When 10-term Rep. Neil Abercrombie left Congress to run for governor in 2010, Hanabusa was the early favorite of the state’s Democratic establishment in the May special election. But former Rep. Ed Case also jumped in, disrupting the plans of kingmaker Sens. Daniel Inouye and Daniel Akaka, both Democrats who backed Hanabusa and held a grudge against Case for challenging Akaka in the Senate primary in 2006. With Case siphoning off Democratic votes, Hanabusa finished second to Djou. He won 40% to Hanabusa’s 31% and Case’s 28%.

Djou had to run again in November to earn a full, two-year term. Hanabusa came back for a rematch, and this time, Case stayed out. Hanabusa sailed to an easy victory in the primary, and then had a one-on-one shot at Djou in the general election. Both she and Djou were well financed, with about $1.7 million each. Hanabusa was a stand-up supporter of Obama’s policies while many other Democrats in tough contests distanced themselves. She was a robust defender of the health care overhaul that Democrats pushed through Congress, calling health care a “right” and the legislation a first step toward universal health insurance. Obama’s $787 billion economic stimulus bill worked, she said, and “kept people working and put money in people’s pockets.”

Her positions stood in sharp contrast to Djou’s. He attacked “wasteful” federal spending and supported a constitutional amendment to require a balanced budget. He also said he would seek a moratorium on congressional earmarks. He is more moderate on social issues, and was one of only five House Republicans to back repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” legislation barring openly gay men and women from the military. The Honolulu Star-Advertiser pointed out that there have been only two Republicans to represent Hawaii on Capitol Hill since statehood—Rep. Pat Saiki and the late Sen. Hiram Fong—and both were moderates. This time, Hanabusa won, 53% to 47%.