Congressional District 1 Candidate Steve Tataii

Republican Steve Tataii is facing off against Democrat Neil Abercrombie and Libertarian Li Zhao for the office of U.S. Representative from District 1 (urban Honolulu).

Unique strength: Close knowledge of the Iraq problem

Mr. Tataii, an American citizen of Kurdish ethnic origin, has lived in Hawaii since 1976 and holds degrees in political science and math from the University of Hawaii. He is a veteran of the Kurdish liberation wars and speaks six languages, four of which are spoken in the region in and around Iraq.

In Iraq, the Kurds and the Arabs are the two main ethnic groups. The Arabs further are distinguished by their membership in the two major sects of the Muslim religion, Sunni and Shia. Says Mr. Tataii, “The Kurds are the most ancient ethnic group in the region. Their homeland was usurped by artificially created countries: the Arabic Iraq regime (Sunni & Shia Muslim sects) invading South Kurdistan, the Persian empire (Iran) taking East Kurdistan, Turkey occupying North Kurdistan and Syria invading West Kurdistan. They did this officially at the 1923 Lausanne Conference when country boundaries were redrawn by the colonial powers of Great Britain and France. The two nations had left Kurds unprotected after they failed to implement the Kurdish, Armenian and Azeri countries that had been created at the earlier (1920) Treaty of Sevres of the League of Nations.

“This has kept the Kurds in a war for independence up to the present time, while Armenia and Azerbaijan obtained their independence soon after the fall of the USSR under Mikail Gorbachev in 1989.”

Steve is the author of three books on the Iraq War, all published in early 2006.

If elected, Steve says, he would be the only Kurdish-American member of Congress.

He has a detailed plan to extricate the U.S. from the Iraq War sooner rather than later. This includes restoring the Kurdistan nation in northern Iraq and leaving southern Iraq Arabian. The U.S. would work with the two nations to deal with foreign terrorists and reconstruction of their damaged infrastructure, then gradually pull out, which Steve estimates may take one or two years.

Tataii says that as he was standing in line to file his candidacy papers earlier this year, one of the other candidates, also in line, said, “You’re running for office only to help the Kurds.”

Replied Tataii, “That’s part of it, but that’s not all of it. . . . If I’m elected, all of my colleagues in Congress would expect me to at least educate them about the Kurdish issue to bring the war to an amicable ending.” Steve says this would save lives and hundreds of billions of dollars.

If elected, a top issue, in addition to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, would be the economy

Steve says that if elected, the economy is a top priority. “This war has taken a heavy toll on our economy.” An amicable end to it would save many billions of dollars.

Part of his economic initiative is the promotion of a strong agricultural base in Hawaii. “I have promoted diversified agricultural products,” he says. Now that our sugar is gone and our pineapple industry is a shadow of what it used to be, Steve would work on promoting a spectrum of produce rather than the two major crops of Hawaii’s past. It would promote self-sufficiency for Hawaii and minimize long and inefficient supply lines from far away places, he explains.

He believes that Hawaii is perhaps the most ideal state in the Union for alternative sources of energy. He would like to put the graduates and younger people of Hawaii to work in solar, wind and ocean energy projects. He would work to improve the economy with such projects so that the people of Hawaii can remain here instead of having to leave the state to find a job, and he would look to minimize the importation of mainlanders for work that could be done with local talent.

Why does Steve say that he was robbed of victory by Abercrombie in 2002?

Hawaii voters recall that Patsy Mink entered the hospital in 2002, an election year for her (as it is every two years for congressional representatives). Although the people of Hawaii knew she was in the hospital, there was mysteriously almost no news on her condition from her or the hospital (Straub) during the period she remained there, about a month. With the election close at hand, people needed to know if she was fit to campaign and fit to serve. Doctors at Straub who were interviewed later said that it was their understanding that Mink had been on life support. Mink's family said nothing during her illness, except for a brief statement through her congressional office saying the family just wanted to have their privacy.

But Neil Abercrombie “lied through his teeth in front of television cameras” and assured the people of Hawaii that Mink was recovering, says Tataii. Neil was not the only one: others, such as Hawaii Democratic party chairwoman Lorraine Akiba, told the media that Mink was recuperating and wanted to continue her campaign. But Neil Abercrombie, say informants, was the main source of the false information.

Had Mink's true condition been announced from the start, Tataii would have automatically won the primary and gone unopposed in the Democratic party to the general election, he says.

Steve explains that he would have faced a Republican candidate in the general, but that candidate would not have been supported by Democratic voters and so would have had little chance of winning. He adds that Hawaii has always elected a Democrat for Congress in District 2.

Says Tataii, “Neil Abercrombie told the head of the Hawaii Office of Electons, Dwayne Yoshina, not to disqualify Patsy Mink and not to remove her name from the primary election ballots.” Tataii says election law HRS 11-117-b clearly instructs that disqualification notices will be posted prominently on all polling places if the name of a candidate disqualified because of total incapacitation or death is on a printed ballot.

Tataii held three meetings with Yoshina, demanding that our election laws not be violated. Tataii’s campaign supporters and committee attended the meetings with him. But Yoshina did nothing. Says Steve, “Yoshina later publicly admitted to the media that it was Neil Abercrombie’s instruction to him that he do nothing.”

What happened to the debate with Abercrombie?

Steve has been asking incumbent Neil Abercrombie to participate with him in a debate for the benefit of Hawaii voters. Neil has said publicly that he is willing to do so.

However, Steve can be seen waiting for Abercrombie to show up at a scheduled debate on Olelo. Abercrombie did not appear and did not later offer any reasons for his nonappearance to Steve.

Says Steve, “He is using the same cowardly tactic of ‘inaction’ that he used back in 2002.”

Wrap-Up

“In the 10 terms Abercrombie has been in Congress," observes Tataii, "he has represented special interests for the most part and the people have always come second.

"I will work for all people across the board: special interests, middle class, poor, everyone. My opponent has not been doing that.

“Neil does not understand the Iraq or the Afghanistan War. He does not speak the languages of the region, while I speak four.

“Please do not waste your vote on Mr. Neil Abercrombie. Vote for me, Steve Tataii, so that I can go to Washington and change things for the better.”

Links

Let Mink Rest With Honor, Not be Dishonored by Vultures 10/1/2002 Hawaii Reporter article

Checkmate 10/2/2002 Hawaii Reporter story on Democratic political maneuvers during Patsy Mink’s illness and after she passed away

Playing Politics with Mink 10/1/2002 story by Lee Cataluna on Democratic political maneuvering during Patsy Mink’s illness and after she died

Forget holding Nov. 5 special election 10/8/2002 Gwendolyn Mink, Patsy Mink’s daughter, decries the Democratic political maneuvering after her mother’s death

Steve has filled in the Political Courage Test at VoteSmart.org, which allows voters to understand where he stands on many important issues. Opponents Neil Abercrombie (Democrat) and Li Zhao (Libertarian) have not.

Steve Tataii’s 3 books

Steve Tataii videos on Olelo on Demand Look for “US House 1 Debate Pt 1,“ “ US House 1 Debate Pt 2,” and “Tataii for Congress” on the list. At the time of this writing they are 2nd, 3rd and 4th from the top of the list. The video segments are 27 minutes each.

Tataii for Congress website

Steve Tataii on the issues (video, about 5 min) (“Not Found” may appear on the right, but the video should nevertheless appear after a short wait)

Steve Tataii HPI candidate entry