I really appreciate it. To these unbelievably strong and brave people, we will fight and we will win, and again, i say, your loved ones will not have died in vain. Believe me. Ok . Thank you, everyone. Thank you very much. [applause] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2016] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] cspans washington journal live every day with policy impacts that impacts you. Willg up, Eliana Johnson talk about the latest in campaign 2016, recent rolling polling, and key senate races. Then joe conason will talk about his book on bill clintons life postpresidency and his role in the Clinton Foundation and campaign 2016 be sure to watch cspans washington journal live, sunday morning at 7 00 a. M. Last july, hawaii congressman mark takai died at the age of 49 after a brief term in congress and a battle with cancer. Cspan sat down with congressman takai last year. It is about 20 minutes. Congressman mark takai of hawaii, representing the First District in that state. How many congressional districts are in hawaii . Two. We have four members of our delegation. Two senators and two congresspeople. What do you think of washington . I love it. If i did not live in washington, d. C. , i would go to the delegation every quarter. Never in my wildest dreams did i ever imagined that i would be sitting here as a member of congress. Becauseould visit them you were a member of the legislature . I was a member of the legislature and a member of the National Guard. There were a few opportunities to come to washington, d. C. , and it was always a treat. It is obviously a long way. Now that you are a member of the house, how often do you get back to the district . My family one of the first things that we decided once i decided to run for congress was where our family was going to stay. We have two very young kids, 13 and 12. The deal was that daddy works in d. C. , and my familys at home, so i try to go home as much as possible. Not only for my family, to see them, which is important, but also being a new member of congress, i think its important to go back home and make sure you work in the district or in hawaii, for me. One of the items you brought from your office is a picture of your family. Your family is back in hawaii. And thats very appropriate. Because that was the day that i made my decision to run for congress, august 8, 2013. What prompted that decision . There were a lot of people coming forward. Truthfully, the reason why im because unfortunately, the senator passed away. There was a lot of movement in that delegation because of that. Lleen hanubusa co decided to run for senate. There was a spot open. So, in 2013, august 8, we made that decision. How much convincing did it take your family . Ask the biggest decision was where they were going to live. I think once we got over that and they knew they were going to stay home with their friends and my wife and her family and my family, everything was all good at that point. Coming off, not long ago, a congressional recess. When you go back home, it is not just to go back to the sandy beaches back home, but also to work. Are you able to separate out your personal life and also attend to those things in the district . Believe it or not, i was in the legislature 20 years prior. There is almost no separation. Especially in hawaii. When you are out with your family, we have dinner, lets say at the closest Shopping Mall to our house, which is near pro harbor, parole near pearl harbor, pearl ridge. Im always working. Im always trying to spend time with my family. My kids grew up through dad being in the legislature and now they are growing up with me being in the congress. I go to the soccer games and the swing meets. The swimimm m meets. Always on. You spoke about being a member of the military. When did you begin serving . July 19, 1999. Did you serve in iraq . I served in kuwait as part of Operation Iraqi freedom. Im a proud member of the Hawaii Army National guard and right now serving as a Lieutenant Colonel. So, do you still have demands on your time for National Guard . Yes. The reason i know where i started, our anniversary is on that year. You have to have been anniversary date you have so many days of service. Mine is coming up. And i have to make sure it is a good year. And you are on the Armed Services committee. What would you like to have accomplished . I am proud of what we recently had accomplished. We spent the last four months working on the National Defense authorization act. Its a tough measure because it is all inclusive. At the same time, you work hard on it the first four months, then you get it done and you can move on to other things. We worked hard to introduce 29 amendments, of which 28 passed. So, we felt successful. You come in as a freshman member but do you think your time in the military got the year of the other members the ear of the other members of the Armed Services committee . I would think so. I sit next to another veteran, and seth moulton is alongside us as well. On the democratic side, theres a number of veterans and on the republican side as well. I think our main point and task is to make sure that our perspective, members of the military, and their perspectives, or heard. From an organizational standpoint, how does congress compared to the military . Thats a good question. No one has ever asked me that. I think in some ways it compares pretty well. Because everything in the militaries about leadership and chain of command in military is about leadership and chain of command. In congress, it is like that most of the time. In that way, we have a chairman running our committees. We have the speaker and the majority leader running the houses of congress. We have a general running the National Guard in hawaii, and everybody follows his direction. Ways, it is in some like that. But in others, there is much more flexibility and freedom being in the legislative branch and in congress because i , would not necessarily tell the general no, but in some cases, you can tell leadership. I am a democrat, proud democrat. I can tell leadership and leadership for lucy leader pelosi no in some cases, and its ok. Host could you see yourself in a leadership position in a committee or other areas . Rep. Mark takai absolutely. Fortunately, this year, i serve as a Ranking Member on a on contracting in the workforce and a Small Business committee. So we were very fortunate. I am definitely privileged to have the opportunity to be a lead democrat on a subcommittee right now. In the future, i think it is important for hawaii. Our family, when we made the decision, i told them, along with my Close Friends and supporters, that the commitment to run for congress in this particular seat, especially for a small delegation like we have in hawaii, is a longterm commitment, and if given the privilege of serving for many years, i think it is important for us to build seniority in the house. Host a lot of the Committee Hearings are covered on cspan and the cspan networks. Do you ever get frustrated with the limited amount of time you get to ask a witness a question, typically Something Like five minutes . Is that just not enough to get your question answered . Rep. Mark takai being in the Hawaii State Legislature where there was no limit, i appreciate the limit. The Armed Services committee with nearly 70 members, if everybody had an unlimited amount of time, we would be there for days. So, i think over time, congress has developed this time limit, a policy of five minutes, and in some cases in terms of the floor one minute, i think if you cannot Say Something within the one minute on the floor, if you cannot Say Something in five minutes in committee, then you have got to rework your message. Host going back to your campaign and that august, 2013, decision to run, how wellfunded were you at the time . How much of it was a concern, and how do you typically continue your fundraising . Rep. Takai well, we started from nothing. We were very much the first time running a congressional race. A federal race. So we started from scratch. I learned early on that in order to win a congressional race, you have to put together a great team, and i credit Tammy Duckworth with really helping me through that. Tammy and i are college classmates, and i credit myself for helping her get to run for congress in 2008, and we helped her again in 2012. I was here for her confirmation hearing when she was assistant secretary for the v. A. Im very close to her. She told me, mark, dont worry. I will let you have my whole team, and you will run with my team, and we will work hard to raise money. I did not have to worry about the creation of a team because tammy helped me there. Every member of her team, media, poll, print, even fundraising was her team, so we did that, and we just focused on fundraising. Like i said, we started from nothing. We were trying to raise about 1 million for the primary. We came in a little bit short, butat delayed our tv buys we had one solid month of tv and that got us over the top. Incredible, we started 20 point points down. We won by 18 points. So we swung that by 38 points. It was a lot of work. Host does it feel like you have to continuously fund raise . Are you able to focus on the legislative work or the constituent work as much as you would like to . Takai is the unfortunate nature of the job. But we are spending a considerable amount of time fundraising and networking and developing relationships both here in d. C. And also in hawaii. You know, but its expensive to run a congressional campaign. Our entire Campaign Last year cost 1. 8 million, so we ran a general Election Campaign that cost over 1 million. Most of that goes to tv, and if you take a look at the market in hawaii, it is a lot cheaper than anywhere else, so we are buying a point at Something Like 100, where some of the big markets are spending up to 1000 per point. Yet we need that tv. We are going to keep on raising money, because it is important for us to get that message out. Host what one aspect of hawaii do you think your fellow members typically do not get about the state . Rep. Takai that is a good question. I had the opportunity to travel to asia with pelosi. There were 10 of us. It was a bipartisan delegation. I was the only freshman. I had the honor of representing not only the freshman class but also Armed Services. I think through just that visit and the visit to the Pacific Command, to get the Pacific Command brief, surprisingly, members many senior of our delegation were unaware of the importance of hawaii being the strategic hub and headquarters for military across across asia, the pacific, and the indian ocean, so i think that in and of itself is important to talk about, because i constantly am talking to colleagues and inviting them to hawaii and letting them know how important, strategically important, hawaii is for the United States. Host reading about your background, i see that you were one of the in hawaii to buy a first nissan leaf alternate fuel vehicle. What prompted that decision . Rep. Takai well, that goes back to truthfully, that was that goes back to me being deployed in the middle east in 2009. Hawaii is a very beautiful place, but we have our challenges. We are what i call the most isolated populated land mass in the entire world, and because of that, the need to be more sustainable is critical. The cost of living is high in hawaii, i believe mainly because of the fact that we are not as sustainable as we need to be, so i served in the middle east. I looked around and kind of wondered why we were fighting a war half a world away from hawaii, and i realized it was partially because of oil, black gold. So, when i got home, i told my wife, we have got to put these panels on our roof, and she said, what . I said, we are going to make electricity from the sun. She thought i was crazy. Two months after that, she was telling her friends, you know what, our electric bill is zero. Its unbelievable. Mark, we put these things on our roof, and now we are not paying electricity. Well, around that time, nissan could logrly adopters onto the internet and order their car. So, i ordered the car. Like you said, i was one of the first host what year was that . Rep. Takai five years ago from now, so 2010. I am on my third leaf. Every two years, i get a new one, so i just picked up my third one in april. Host does it feel like other members of your state, other hawaiians have picked up this that picked up that trend in terms of alternative energy . Rep. Takai if everybody could, we would harness the sun. Not everyone is as fortunate as my family. Because we live in a singlefamily home, and we own our home. So we have some challenges. Some renters and people who live in town homes do not have the opportunity i have. So even in the legislature, we are pushing for these measures that would do more for the community as a whole and move us toward sustainability as quickly as possible. Host most mainlanders come to hawaii either on vacation or when the military. You were born and raised in hawaii. What took you from hawaii to the mainland first . What was your first trip back to the mainland . Rep. Takai you know, that was probably when i was five years old to go to disneyland in california. A lot of people travel to california from hawaii, and many people still go to disneyland. That was probably my first trip. But i started swimming when my family was living in guam. Host competitively. Rep. Takai competitively. So, swimming brought me to the mainland probably twice a year. Host did your dad work in the military . Worked for my dad the federal government. We were stationed and treated like military from about fifth grade to seventh grade. We lived in guam. Host you mentioned senator inouye. You brought a picture along. Tell us about this. Parents bought it at a democratic auction. Host tell us about the people in the auction. Rep. Takai on the far left is senator inouye, then the congresswoman from hawaii, and on the far right, another senator from hawaii. Host a state senator . No, a u. S. Senator. Rep. Takai no, these are members of the congressional delegation. I tell this story almost every day about what its like to be here representing hawaii. I have many stories about senator inouye and about patsy, but i talk about being on the shoulders of people like them, you know, and you know it because we all work here, but the halls of congress, especially capitol hill, its a very different place at night, you know, when all of the tourists, all of the tour groups are gone. And we are walking to and from votes in the capital. I heard stories of senator inouye talking about these long nights in the capital. In fact, he had his office as Senate President pro tem in the capital, and it is just a surreal experience to be walking through the halls and just hearing your footsteps and realizing that these people who came before me also represented the state of hawaii. In fact, senator inouye was the first elected member of congress, and he came right after hawaii became a state. Host are their traditions in the hawaiian delegation that most people wouldnt know about, a piece of million of memorabilia or something that is passed down from member to member regardless of their party . Rep. Takai nothing has been passed down. We have gone into the cage upstairs. That has some memorabilia from other members, and i pulled out some of the portraits and the artwork from previous members, but i think in terms of hawaii, we are very proud of the fact that people love us for our macadamia nuts and chocolate. Think when we i think when we talk about hawaii and being on the hill, there is almost an expectation that you either come with a lei, wearing a lei, or you come with chocolate covered macadamia nuts. Host thats what your fellow colleagues rep. Takai yeah. So i bring them out once in a while. Host you talked about what you would like to do on the Armed Services committee. More broadly, how long do you hope to serve, and what are your broader goals in congress . Takai im 47 now. I was elected in the state legislature and served for 20 years, and as i mentioned earlier, the commitment that our family has made, if given the opportunity and privilege, to put in another 20 years, so that would make me 67. That is not too old. So, yes, if given the opportunity to stay here, i think it is critical for hawaii, and specially especially in this particular seat, to develop seniority. And as you know, for the most part, this place works on seniority. Host you talked about serving on a College Newspaper and being a Political Science major. What about your kids, what are they interested in, and what would you like to see them do . Rep. Takai i would like to see them not get into politics. I tell young people, you can always run for politics later, but get a life, get a job, raise your family. Maybe a few years down the road, possibly come back and run for office. I hope they dont have aspirations to follow me right out of college, because it was really tough for my wife and me early on. Host but then you do not have a chance to meet george takei. Tell us that story about the campaign. Rep. Takai mark takano is a member from california, a sophomore. He and i met through Tammy Duckworth. It was duckworth, honda, and takano supporting takai. Mark takano knows george takei, and george endorsed me in the primary. The headline read, takei and takano endorse takai. And its really funny. People to this day get us confused, just by name. Takei is it takei or takai or takano . All three of us get confused. We have the pleasure now of calling ourselves friends, and, in fact, i am going