Major changes are in store for the 2007 Legislature at the State Senate and State House. Many of the top leadership positions in both the Senate and House have changed. Senator Colleen Hanabusa, formerly the Senate Judiciary Chair, is now Senate President. She succeeds Senator Robert Bunda, who served as Senate President for the last 6 years.

Committee chairs in the Senate include Roz Baker for Ways & Means, Clayton Hee for Judiciary & Labor, and Brian Taniguchi for Commerce, Consumer Protection & Affordable Housing. Senator Russell Kokubun continues as chair for Water, Land, Ag & Hawaiian Affairs; J. Kalani English ‚ Transportation; Suzanne Chun- Oakland for Human Services/Public Housing; Carol Fukunaga ‚ Economic Development / Taxation; Norman Sakamoto ‚ Education; David Ige ‚ Health; Clarence Nishihara ‚ Tourism / Government Operations; Lorraine Inouye ‚ Intergovernmental Affairs / Military; Wil Espero ‚ Public Safety; and Ron Menor ‚ Energy & Environment. Two sub-committees were also created and they are Legislative Management chaired by Donna Mercado Kim, and Capitol Improvement Projects chaired by Shan Tsutsui.

My previous committee assignments have been changed also. I'll be a member of the Senate Commerce, Consumer Protection & Affordable Housing Committee, Economic Development & Taxation, Water, Land, Ag & Hawaiian Affairs and Human Services / Public Housing.

In addition to Senator Hanabusa as President, the Senate Leadership includes Donna Mercado Kim as Vice President, Gary Hooser as Majority Leader and David Ige as Majority Floor Leader. The Senate Minority Leader remains Fred Hemmings; Paul Whalen is Minority Floor Leader and Michael Gabbard is Minority Policy Leader. Democrats retain their 20 to 5 majority in the Senate.

Speaker of the House, Rep. Calvin Say will continue house leader. There are 43 Democrats to the 8 Republicans, a loss of 2 for the GOP.

Several House committee chairs have changed, the most notable being Marcus Oshiro taking over as chair of the House Finance Committee, replacing longtime Rep. Dwight Takamine, who remains in the house with no leadership position. Other notable positions in the House include Jon Riki Karamatsu as Vice Speaker, Kurt Caldwell as Majority Leader, Blake Oshiro as Majority Floor Leader and Lynn Finnegan as House Minority Leader. The House Minority now consists of 7 female legislators to the one lone male, Rep. Gene Ward from Hawaii Kai who was re-elected after Bud Stonebraker's retirement.

Only 52.7% of Hawaii's registered voters showed up to vote in this year's general election. Voters re-elected Governor Linda Lingle, and U.S. Senator Dan Akaka to new terms. Four out of the five proposed Constitutional Amendments were also passed by the voters. OHA, BOE, legislative seats and charter issues were also on the ballot.

Go to www.capitol.hawaii.gov for more info on the State Legislature. Opening day for the 2007 State Legislature is Wednesday, January 17.