My name is Joe Zuiker and I choose to run for Congress in Hawaii’s 2nd Congressional District. I am a Democrat who believes strongly in the spirit of Ohana: a sense of community that increases our mutual trust and societal benefit through assisting those who live and work around us.

In my life I have worked in many capacities. During the past fourteen years I have worked with over a thousand families throughout the Hawaiian Islands who were faced with serious injuries while at work. They needed help in acquiring quality medical assistance, monetary aid to keep their families together, and opportunities to return to work as quickly as possible. As their attorney, I made sure that they received the best assistance that was available on our Islands.

During most of my professional career I have been a community organizer, working consistently to advance the causes of those who are disadvantaged and the least among us. My work has given me the great fortune to assist community groups on a wide variety of issues including: public housing, worker injuries, wage disputes, funding for children with physical and mental disabilities, the needs of senior citizens and low income families, and counseling legal and illegal immigrants.

Over the course of my career, my work has centered on creating positive community and governmental programs and responses to all of these issues, assisting in the implementation of the law and finding humane solutions to problems faced by families in need.

In all of my work, since my days as a Peace Corp Volunteer in the Dominican Republic, I have been motivated by the belief that America, as a great nation, should be an example to the world in how its citizens and how its government responds to those in need. Our Congress, and our Nation, could learn a great deal from Hawaii’s residents, with their sense of Ohana and the traditional recognition of the need to protect the land and sea.

For most of my life I have been proud of my country’s generous response, as it has faced poverty, injustice, disasters, and humanitarian relief efforts at home and abroad.

These past several years, however, my previous optimism has abandoned me. As a nation we have watched with increasing alarm as the current administration and a rubberstamp Congress has turned a former budget surplus into a monstrous debt. During the past six years, the men and women representing us in Congress have claimed to revere “family values” while heaping billions of dollars of debt upon the shoulders of every child (and grandchild) in the Hawaiian Islands and throughout our Nation. We have watched with increasing alarm as our nation, a one-time leader in promoting human rights has elected leaders who refuse to immediately condemn the torture of foreign prisoners. We have watched with increasing alarm as our President has brought us into a war in Iraq that does not make us safer from terrorism but actually helps create more terrorists and increases our vulnerability to future attack as has been admitted by a number of our own top military commanders. The Iraq War is now our national disaster.

Looking at the present direction the leaders of our nation have taken us, there are two courses of action that we, as citizens and the Democratic Party, can take. We can either sit idly by while our nation continues to slide further away from the cherished ideals that America was founded on or we can stand up and be counted among the many Americans who refuse to accept the above abuses that have taken place in our name.

As a father of five sons and grandfather of ten children, I refuse to sit in the comfort of my home each night in what may be the hour at which our nation needs us the most. I believe that we can do as generations before us have done, and rise above these challenges, offering both wise solutions to present conflicts and winning and effective strategies to defeat those who would attempt to harm us within our own borders now and in the future.

For these reasons, I choose to run in the Democratic Primary for Congress.

Both literally and figuratively I will run my ideas around our islands to make sure that the constituents of Hawaii’s 2nd Congressional District will have the chance to hear my message without worrying about the taint of special interest and big money contributions that have so tarnished many representatives in our current Congress. As a candidate, I will not only talk about campaign finance reform, but will lead the way by example. Because I believe the high cost of elections and the need to take contributions from special interests will destroy our country if not corrected, I have chosen to limit all contributions to my campaign to two hundred dollars or less.

I am not afraid to limit my campaign contributions. I do not need $850,000. I do not need $500,000. I do not need $400,000. Instead, in a very public marathon, I will run around the shores and roads of Hawaii’s 2nd Congressional district, spreading my ideas around the Islands with sweat and determination and send my progress and ideas by email to all who care about our Nation and our Islands. I have already run 12 Honolulu marathons. I am not afraid to run.

By limiting the size of my campaign contributions, I am informing my future constituents and my opponents that if elected I will never be beholden to special interests, but will instead represent the interests of my constituents alone. As such, I will be able to guarantee family members working their second jobs in our hotels and restaurants or driving our city buses at 10 o’clock on a Saturday night that there is someone in Congress who remembers that all members of our community deserve to share the benefits of our society as well as the burdens of that society.

I am running for Congress because I believe that we must return to the common sense values that made America and Hawaii great in the first place. It is fair to say that Hawaii’s families struggling to meet the burdens placed upon them by Congress demonstrate greater common sense on a daily basis than do our own representatives in Congress. With my race for Congress I hope to restore common sense to the halls of Congress and bring the spirit of Hawaii to the mainland, where I know, with your support, the ideals of community, personal sacrifice, and responsibility can be returned to the national debate.

My name is Joe Zuiker and I choose to run for Congress in Hawaii’s 2nd Congressional District. I am a Democrat who believes strongly in the spirit of Ohana: a sense of community that increases our mutual trust and societal benefit through assisting those who live and work around us.

In my life I have worked in many capacities. During the past fourteen years I have worked with over a thousand families throughout the Hawaiian Islands who were faced with serious injuries while at work. They needed help in acquiring quality medical assistance, monetary aid to keep their families together, and opportunities to return to work as quickly as possible. As their attorney, I made sure that they received the best assistance that was available on our Islands.

During most of my professional career I have been a community organizer, working consistently to advance the causes of those who are disadvantaged and the least among us. My work has given me the great fortune to assist community groups on a wide variety of issues including: public housing, worker injuries, wage disputes, funding for children with physical and mental disabilities, the needs of senior citizens and low income families, and counseling legal and illegal immigrants.

Over the course of my career, my work has centered on creating positive community and governmental programs and responses to all of these issues, assisting in the implementation of the law and finding humane solutions to problems faced by families in need.

In all of my work, since my days as a Peace Corp Volunteer in the Dominican Republic, I have been motivated by the belief that America, as a great nation, should be an example to the world in how its citizens and how its government responds to those in need. Our Congress, and our Nation, could learn a great deal from Hawaii’s residents, with their sense of Ohana and the traditional recognition of the need to protect the land and sea.

For most of my life I have been proud of my country’s generous response, as it has faced poverty, injustice, disasters, and humanitarian relief efforts at home and abroad.

These past several years, however, my previous optimism has abandoned me. As a nation we have watched with increasing alarm as the current administration and a rubberstamp Congress has turned a former budget surplus into a monstrous debt. During the past six years, the men and women representing us in Congress have claimed to revere “family values” while heaping billions of dollars of debt upon the shoulders of every child (and grandchild) in the Hawaiian Islands and throughout our Nation. We have watched with increasing alarm as our nation, a one-time leader in promoting human rights has elected leaders who refuse to immediately condemn the torture of foreign prisoners. We have watched with increasing alarm as our President has brought us into a war in Iraq that does not make us safer from terrorism but actually helps create more terrorists and increases our vulnerability to future attack as has been admitted by a number of our own top military commanders. The Iraq War is now our national disaster.

Looking at the present direction the leaders of our nation have taken us, there are two courses of action that we, as citizens and the Democratic Party, can take. We can either sit idly by while our nation continues to slide further away from the cherished ideals that America was founded on or we can stand up and be counted among the many Americans who refuse to accept the above abuses that have taken place in our name.

As a father of five sons and grandfather of ten children, I refuse to sit in the comfort of my home each night in what may be the hour at which our nation needs us the most. I believe that we can do as generations before us have done, and rise above these challenges, offering both wise solutions to present conflicts and winning and effective strategies to defeat those who would attempt to harm us within our own borders now and in the future.

For these reasons, I choose to run in the Democratic Primary for Congress.

Both literally and figuratively I will run my ideas around our islands to make sure that the constituents of Hawaii’s 2nd Congressional District will have the chance to hear my message without worrying about the taint of special interest and big money contributions that have so tarnished many representatives in our current Congress. As a candidate, I will not only talk about campaign finance reform, but will lead the way by example. Because I believe the high cost of elections and the need to take contributions from special interests will destroy our country if not corrected, I have chosen to limit all contributions to my campaign to two hundred dollars or less.

I am not afraid to limit my campaign contributions. I do not need $850,000. I do not need $500,000. I do not need $400,000. Instead, in a very public marathon, I will run around the shores and roads of Hawaii’s 2nd Congressional district, spreading my ideas around the Islands with sweat and determination and send my progress and ideas by email to all who care about our Nation and our Islands. I have already run 12 Honolulu marathons. I am not afraid to run.

By limiting the size of my campaign contributions, I am informing my future constituents and my opponents that if elected I will never be beholden to special interests, but will instead represent the interests of my constituents alone. As such, I will be able to guarantee family members working their second jobs in our hotels and restaurants or driving our city buses at 10 o’clock on a Saturday night that there is someone in Congress who remembers that all members of our community deserve to share the benefits of our society as well as the burdens of that society.

I am running for Congress because I believe that we must return to the common sense values that made America and Hawaii great in the first place. It is fair to say that Hawaii’s families struggling to meet the burdens placed upon them by Congress demonstrate greater common sense on a daily basis than do our own representatives in Congress. With my race for Congress I hope to restore common sense to the halls of Congress and bring the spirit of Hawaii to the mainland, where I know, with your support, the ideals of community, personal sacrifice, and responsibility can be returned to the national debate.