Personal
Born Hilo, Territory of Hawai‘i, September 27, 1952
Eldest of six children of Jim (born Lihu‘e) and Suzanne (born Missouri) Case
Grandson of Hib and Betty Case of Kaua‘i (moved to Kaua‘i 1919)
Great-grandson of Judge Daniel and Kathryn Case of Maui
(moved to Hawai‘i 1896; Maui 1903-1946)
Married to the former Audrey Nakamura, daughter of Rev. James Saburo (born Honolulu) and Magdalene Hirata (born Kona) Nakamura
Four children: David (26), Megan (24), James (21) and David (19)
Education
Waiakea-Kai and Keaukaha Elementary Schools, Hilo (K-6th)
Hawai‘i Preparatory Academy, Kamuela (grad. 1970)
Williams College, MA (B.A. 1975)
University of California/Hastings College of Law, San Francisco (J.D. 1981)
Private Sector Experience
Attorney, Carlsmith Ball, Honolulu (1983-2002)
Partner (1989-2002)
Hawai‘i managing partner (1992-94)
Attorney, Bays Deaver Lung Rose & Holma, Honolulu (2007 - present)
Government Experience
Legislative Assistant, U.S. Congressman/Senator Spark Matsunaga, Washington, D.C. (1975-78)
Law Clerk, Department of Labor, State of Hawai‘i (1979)
Law Clerk, Hawai‘i Supreme Court Chief Justice William Richardson (1981-82)
Manoa Neighborhood Board (1985-89), Chair, 1987-89
Hawai‘i State House of Representatives, Manoa (1994-2002)
Chair, Committee on Hawaiian Affairs (1997-98)
Majority Leader (1999-2000)
U.S. Congressman (2002-2007)
Other Employment
Messenger/office boy; laborer/container yard, tire company, construction/masonry; “jackeroo” (cowboy)/sheep-cattle ranch; youth counselor/summer camp
Selected Awards
Legislator of the Year, Honolulu Weekly (1995)
New Economy Legislator of the Year, Hawai‘i Technology & Trade Assn. (2000)
Legislator of the Year, Small Business Hawai‘i (2000)
Aiting Kaibigan Progress Award, United Filipino Council Hawai‘i (2003)
Small Business Advocate, Small Business Survival Committee (2004)
Koa Award/Elected Official of the Year, Conservation Council for Hawai‘i (2005)
Hobbies and Interests
Outdoor activities, including running, bodysurfing and sailing
Reading, especially biography and history
Hawai‘i
Roots
In Hawai‘i since 1896. The best place for me to start is 1896, when my great-grandparents, Daniel and Kathryn Case, moved to Honolulu from Kansas. Both of Daniel’s parents were lawyers; his mother was the first female lawyer in Kansas, just one of a long tradition of strong and independent women in my family. Daniel was also a lawyer; we still don’t know exactly why they moved here, but maybe there were just too many Case lawyers in Kansas!
On Maui. Daniel and Kathryn lived in Honolulu for a few years. In 1903, they moved to Maui, where they spent the rest of their lives. Daniel practiced law for several years until he was appointed circuit judge on Maui by President Harding, eventually serving in that position for over 20 years. (After reappointment by President Roosevelt, he liked to joke that he was acceptable to both Republicans and Democrats.) On his passing in 1946, the Advertiser editorialized that “the Territory lost a citizen whose contributions to the welfare and development of the Islands were spread out over a multitude of activities.”
Daniel and Kathryn had three children: Althea (later Marrack); Cleo, later a much-beloved teacher at Roosevelt High School; and Hib, my grandfather. Hib graduated from the University of Hawai‘i, served with the Army in the First World War, married my grandmother, Betty, who had moved here from California to teach in North Shore public schools, and went into the sugar business, working his entire career for Grove Farm on Kaua‘i.
On Kaua‘i. Three sons were born to my grandparents in Lihu‘e and raised there. Bill followed his dad into the sugar business, working for C. Brewer his entire career on Kaua‘i, O‘ahu and the Big Island; he has passed away. Dan followed his grandfather and great-grandparents into law and continues to practice in Honolulu. Mary Ellen (“Casey”) Beck, Hib’s adopted child of his second wife, Marie, also a much-beloved teacher at Kaua‘i High, is a travel agent in Honolulu.
My father, Jim, served in the Navy during the Second World War and then went on to Harvard Law School. There he met my mother, Suzanne, who was attending Wellesley College and whose own roots lay in the Midwest. They returned to Hawai‘i in 1949 upon his graduation and over the objections of my Missouri grandparents (“you’re taking her where ..?”), which were reportedly overcome only upon a promise to them that she would graduate from college (and she did, earning her degree from UH in 1958 after having most of her children.)
On the Big Island. Following Daniel and Kathryn's lead, my parents started off in Honolulu for a few years before moving to Hilo in 1951, where my dad joined a small law firm, the oldest in the state, with big dreams. (After almost sixty years, he still practices in Honolulu with that same firm, now Carlsmith Ball, one of Hawai'i's largest with nine offices on O'ahu, Maui and the Big Island and beyond Hawai'i, and where I worked for twenty years until my election to Congress.) They also wanted the same Neighbor Island upbringing for their children as he had had, and that's what they and we got. Their six children were born and raised in Hilo: besides me, the oldest, they are John (d. 2004), Suzanne (attorney and director of The Nature Conservancy in Hawai'i), Russell (an attorney in Idaho), Elisabeth (public relations in Honolulu), and Brad (an economist in D.C.)
A commitment to Hawai‘i. In their lives on the Big Island and Honolulu, my parents, besides raising six kids and leading full professional lives, followed their predecessors in emphasizing community service. My dad, for example, founded and served for a quarter century with the Association for Retarded Citizens/Hawai‘i chapter, dedicated to the welfare of children with severe disabilities. My mother, the first politician in the family, was elected twice to the Hawai‘i School Advisory Council in the ‘60s before earning a masters degree from UH in library services and working as a children’s librarian and school administrator; she has also volunteered her talents in countless capacities from President of the Waiakea-Kai Elementary PTA, to board chair of the Hawai‘i Theatre for Youth and trustee of Mid-Pacific Institute. No doubt their example led me to this basic life formula: seek knowledge and do good.
In our second century in Hawai‘i, the descendants of Daniel and Kathryn Case are well into five generations and around a hundred in number. While many of us have made their home here and some have gone on to full lives elsewhere, we all, I believe, carry with us that unbreakable bond to Hawai‘i and a sense of obligation to make it better.
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Formative Years
Big Island upbringing. I was born in the old Hilo Hospital, up by Rainbow Falls, on September 27, 1952. Most of my Hilo childhood was spent in Keaukaha, a diverse neighborhood along the ocean east of town. With virtually no TV reception (and, in our house, no TV at all!), no computers, video games, etc., we were left to our own entertainment, almost all of which was outdoors, whether surfing, or biking, or going downtown. To keep out of too much trouble, I also swam competitively, which I continued for eleven years through high school.
As a family, we took full advantage of all that the Big Island offered and still offers. And, to make sure we knew we were part of Hawai‘i, my parents showed us much of the rest of our home. Some early memories endure, like the huge bonfire all of Hilo turned out for the day statehood was declared. Others are harder, like the night in 1960 when we evacuated our home to the sound of the warning sirens, as we had many times before, only to return that next morning through a tsunami-devastated Hilo.
Years away/political beginnings. The next eleven years were spent mostly away from Hawai‘i in school, work and travel. While I was homesick and yearned to return throughout, this time was invaluable to understanding the rest of the world and preparing me for my life back home.
I attended Williams College in Massachusetts, graduating with a major in psychology in 1975. For a local boy the East Coast was a long way away both physically and culturally, with many puzzles like how much some cared about what religion and class you were and how focused some were on race. But I came to understand and appreciate mainland ways and can move comfortably among these diverse worlds.
In one of those twists of fate, my life changed unexpectedly and dramatically after graduation, when I went to work in Washington, D.C. for U.S. Representative and later U.S. Senator Spark Matsunaga as his Legislative Assistant. I had always known that my future lay at home and that it would include some form of public service, but Spark taught me the true essence of service to the public as an elected representative.
Not only did Spark entrust me with his Congressional efforts on the primary Hawai‘i issues of the time – economics and taxes, sugar and agriculture, Kaho‘olawe and Native Hawaiian rights, and energy and the environment – but he exemplified the principle that unselfish service to his “bosses”, as he called his constituents, could inspire confidence in government. I moved on after three years, intent upon a career in elective politics, and believing my capabilities would be strengthened by a law degree, which I earned from the University of California/Hastings College of Law in 1981.
My earlier years were also devoted to a passion for travel, for seeing the rest of our world and for gaining perspective on your own. Perhaps the trip that influenced me most was a low-budget six-month backpack through Asia, where I absorbed much from the ancestral homelands of many of Hawaii’s peoples and saw poverty that few in our country even imagine. These experiences have helped me to relate well to different peoples, to prioritize what’s really important, and to “think out of the box” when confronting challenges.
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Home: 1981 to present
Hawai‘i Supreme Court. Returning home in 1981, I was again fortunate to work my first year as law clerk to Hawai‘i Supreme Court Chief Justice William Richardson. Not only was this an invaluable experience in our judicial branch, but “CJ", like Spark, exemplified a commitment to true public service and to the law as the means to a better society, a lesson I have never forgotten.
Private lawyer.
In 1983 I joined Carlsmith Ball, where I practiced for twenty years, focusing on land and commercial law. I was made a partner of the firm in 1989, and in 1992 the firm asked me to serve as its Hawai'i managing partner, with day-to-day responsibility for what by then was one of the larger businesses in Hawai'i. This responsibility was not only invaluable to knowing what it takes to run a business and create jobs in Hawai'i, but also required difficult decisions as the firm, like everyone else in the private sector, struggled to adjust to the end of the Japanese investment boom. I came away with an enhanced commitment to living within your means, avoiding easy short-term decisions with harmful long-term consequences, and striving for the best but planning for the worst. These lessons have also served me well in my current practice with the Honolulu firm of Bays Deaver Lung Rose & Holma, which I joined on my return from Congress in 2007.
Politics. I had moved into Manoa when I came home and, in 1985, was elected to its Neighborhood Board, where I served for four years including two as Chair. In 1986 I ran for the State House of Representatives against the incumbent. Conventional political wisdom was that we had no chance to win (“you’re too unknown; you don’t have money; none of the political interest groups or bosses support you; you’re a haole in a majority Japanese district,” etc.), but I felt that people wanted a change and would be receptive to my candidacy. After a hard campaign focused for me on one-on-one contact, we came up short by 36 votes. In 1988, at my party’s request, I ran a grassroots campaign against the incumbent State Senator, losing by about 1% of the vote. These losses, while difficult, taught me three valuable lessons: don’t trust conventional political wisdom; trust voters to make the right decision in the privacy of the voting booth; and hard work and one-on-one contact is everything.
In 1994, I was elected to the State House of Representatives from Manoa. I was reelected three times, serving eight years in all.
In 2002, I made the difficult decision to leave the state legislature and run for Governor because I felt I had more to offer Hawai‘i. After a long and intense campaign, we fell short on primary night by about 1% of the vote (yes, I'm now the king of cliffhanger losses, although I really don’t want to go through it a fourth time!)
Six days later, the legendary Patsy Mink, U.S. Congresswoman from Hawaii's Second District, passed away tragically, creating a vacancy in both the then-107th Congress and the upcoming 108th Congress. I ran for both and prevailed in the winner-take-all special elections: one on November 30, 2002 (with 51% of the vote in a field of over 40); and the other on January 4, 2003 (44% of the vote in a field of over 40). In November of 2004, I was re-elected to a third term with 63% of the vote.
In 2006, I made my most difficult decision in politics: to leave what many considered a "safe" seat in Congress and seek election to the United States Senate against incumbent Sen. Daniel Akaka. I felt strongly that Hawai'i needed to begin its transition to the next generation of representation in the Senate, and that I could best contribute my background, experience and beliefs over that generation to addressing our country's challenges in the Senate. After a hardfought campaign providing Hawaii's voters with a real choice, 54% decided to return Sen. Akaka to office.
Despite its personal and financial consequences, I have never regretted the basic commitment to elective public service I made as a young man with Spark Matsunaga.
Family. I have had a full family life as well. My first marriage, which ended in 1998, produced two wonderful sons, James and David, now 20 and 18.
Back in the seventh grade at HPA I was smitten with a classmate, Audrey Nakamura, the daughter of Kamuela's Episcopal minister, James Nakamura (of Honolulu), and Magdalene (Hirata; of Kealakekua, Kona). While she now claims she was also "interested," I was apparently too dense to pick up on it then, and we didn't see each other again until 2000, as her own marriage, which had produced two great kids, David and Megan, now 25 and 23, was ending. We have been very happily married for eight years now, working our way through the joys and travails of raising kids. In Audrey, who has worked for almost thirty years as a flight attendant with PanAm and now United, I am blessed with a full partner whom I trust implicitly, and who has unfailing common sense, also relates well to different peoples throughout Hawai'i and beyond, and shares my commitment to public service.
Like others with growing children, our personal world until recently revolved around our kids. I coached youth soccer through a number of seasons, and tried to pass down the same outdoor-oriented upbringing my parents gave me. With two of our kids in graduate school, one in college, and one on his way to college, we are adjusting with mixed feelings to empty nest syndrome. In our free time, we enjoy the beach, reading, exercising and just being with friends, family and each other.
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Putting it All Together
Although I’ve had my share of challenges and failures, by any measure I have been fortunate. I was born to deep roots and raised in all of Hawaii’s wondrous diversity, yet have lived, worked and traveled elsewhere; from this comes not only an understanding of this unique and special place, but an ability to interact well with many different peoples, from wherever and whatever walks of life, and to see what works here and what can be improved. I have worked extensively in both the private sector and in government, where I have served at both federal and state levels and in all three branches; from this comes an ability to move easily between these worlds, to understand the impact of each on the other, and find ways for them to pull together for the good of all. In my personal life, I have known the same trials and joys of marriage and raising children as many others. If effective leadership is in part the ability to relate to and work with many others, I believe I have been provided it.
But central to my life have been these themes: Hawai‘i; family; community and public service. I was raised to take the sum total of all I have been given and to give it back. This is what I am doing, and this is what I will continue to do as long as I can
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