Norman Sakamoto

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Categories: Hawaii stub | Hawaii Democrats | 2007 Hawaii Legislature | Homophobes | Anti Choice

Senator Norman Sakamoto was first elected to the Hawaii State Senate of the Hawaii State Legislature in 1996 and served the 15th Senatorial District until 2010 when he ran unsuccessfully for Lt Governor of Hawaii. The 15th Senatorial District includes the Moanalua, Salt Lake, Foster Village and Pearl Harbor areas on the island of Oahu, in the state of Hawaii.

Sakamoto previously worked for the City and County of Los Angeles and the United States Army Corps of Engineers. He returned to Hawaii, and in 1985 formed SC Pacific Corp.

During the 2004 Legislative session, Sen Sakamoto backed what eventually became Act 51. This new law gives school principals more control of spending on their campuses, budgets according to individual student needs and creates school community councils to give local input into each school's academic and financial plans.

Lt. Gov. Mazie Hirono signed the Hate Crimes Bill into law June 13, 2001. The new law calls for tougher sentences for perpetrators of hate motivated crimes and also provides a mechanism to compile, track and analyze hate crime data in Hawaii. Sen Norman Sakamoto along with Republican senators Fred Hemmings and Sam Slom were the only senators to vote against the Hate Crimes Bill in the senate.

Sen. Norman Sakamoto is a member of the evangelical missionary wing of the Methodist Church. Sakamoto says that the Bible condemns homosexuality, and that this was part of his thinking in voting against hate-crimes legislation that would have included homosexuals.

Sakamoto has a poor environmental voting record according to the Hawaii Chapter of the Sierra Club (see below).

Senator Sakamoto was also against the medical marijuana bill that passed and became law in 2000.

External Links

• Norman Sakamoto (Hawaii State Legislature)
• Hawaii poised to become medical marijuana state -- Sakamoto is against medical marijuana -- The Senate has approved the measure and Cayetano has said he would sign it (mult-sclerosis.org)

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