Early life, education, and teaching career

Daniel Kahikina Akaka (Chinese: 李碩; pinyin: Lǐ Shuò) was born in Honolulu, the son of Annie (née Kahoa) and Kahikina Akaka. His paternal grandfather was born in China, and his other grandparents were of Native Hawaiian descent. His brother was Rev. Abraham Akaka. He served from 1945 to 1947. During World War II he served in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, including service on Saipan and Tinian. He worked as a welder and a mechanic and spent his final months of the war as a first mate on the vessel Morning Star.

Entering college (funded by the G.I. Bill), he earned a bachelor of education in 1952 from the University of Hawaii. He later received a master of education from the same school in 1966. He worked as a high school teacher in Honolulu from 1953 until 1960, when he was then hired as a vice principal. In 1963, he became head principal.

Early political career

In 1969, he was hired by the Department of Health, Education and Welfare as a chief program planner. Akaka then continued working in government, holding positions as director of the Hawaii Office of Economic Opportunity, human resources assistant for state Governor George Ariyoshi, and director of the Progressive Neighborhoods Program.

Akaka was first elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1976 to represent Hawaii's 2nd congressional district, comprising all of the state outside the inner ring of Honolulu. He was reelected seven times, all by wide margins.

U.S. Senate

Elections

Akaka was appointed by Governor John Waihee to the U.S. Senate in April 1990 to serve temporarily after the death of Senator Spark Matsunaga, and sworn into office on May 16, 1990. In November of the same year, he was elected to complete the remaining four years of Matsunaga's unexpired term, defeating Congresswoman Pat Saiki with 53 percent of the vote. He was re-elected in 1994 for a full six-year term with over 70% of the popular vote. He was reelected almost as easily in 2000. For the 2006 election, he overcame a strong primary challenge from Congressman Ed Case, then won a third full term with 61 percent of the vote. Akaka was one of two senators in the 112th Congress who were elected to the Senate multiple times after being appointed.

Tenure

Since 2000, Akaka has sponsored legislation, known as the Akaka Bill, to afford sovereignty to native Hawaiians. In 2005, Akaka acknowledged in an interview with NPR that the Akaka Bill could eventually result in outright independence.

The Akaka Bill has been supported as a means of restoring Hawaiian self-determination lost with the 1893 overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii, and would include giving up the ability to sue for sovereignty in federal courts in exchange for recognition by the federal government (but would not block sovereignty claims made under international law.) The bill has been criticized as discriminating on the basis on ethnic origin in that only Native Hawaiians would be permitted to participate in the governing entity that the bill would establish.

In April 2006, he was selected by Time as one of America's Five Worst Senators. The article criticized him for mainly authoring minor legislation, calling him "master of the minor resolution and the bill that dies in committee".

Akaka voted against authorization of the use of military force against Iraq.

In February 2009, a bill was authored in the Philippine House of Representatives by Rep. Antonio Diaz seeking to confer honorary Filipino citizenship on Akaka, Senators Daniel Inouye and Ted Stevens and Representative Bob Filner, for their role in securing the passage of benefits for Filipino World War II veterans.

On March 2, 2011, Akaka announced he would not be running for re-election in the 2012 U.S. Senate elections. He attended his final session in the Senate on December 12, 2012. He closed his speech with a traditional Hawaiian farewell, "a hui hou" (until we meet again).

Akaka returned to the Senate on December 27, 2012 to introduce the new junior senator, Brian Schatz, who had the previous day been appointed senator in place of the recently deceased Daniel Inouye.

Committee assignments

• Committee on Armed Services
  • Subcommittee on Personnel
  • Subcommittee on Readiness and Management Support
  • Subcommittee on SeaPower
• Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs
  • Subcommittee on Housing, Transportation, and Community Development
  • Subcommittee on Financial Institutions
  • Subcommittee on Securities, Insurance, and Investment
• Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
  • Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information and International Security
  • Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce and the District of Columbia (Chairman)
  • Ad Hoc Subcommittee on State, Local, and Private Sector Preparedness and Integration
• Committee on Indian Affairs (Chairman)
• Committee on Veterans' Affairs
• Congressional Task Force on Native Hawaiian Issues (Chairman)

Caucus memberships

• Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus
• Congressional Biotechnology Caucus
• Congressional Postal Caucus (Vice Chair)
• International Conservation Caucus
• Senate Anti-Meth Caucus
• Senate Army Caucus (Co-Chair)
• Senate Sweetener Caucus (Co-Chair)
• Senate Oceans Caucus

Electoral history

United States Senate special election, 1990: Hawaii
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Democratic	Daniel Akaka (inc.)	188,901	53.72
	Republican	Pat Saiki	155,978	44.35
	Libertarian	Ken Schoolland	6,788	1.93
Majority			32,923	9.36
Turnout			351,666

United States Senate election, 1994: Hawaii
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Democratic	Daniel Akaka (inc.)	256,189	71.8%
	Republican	Maria Hustace	86,320	24.2%
	Libertarian	Richard Rowland	14,393	4.0%
Majority
Turnout
	Democratic hold		Swing

United States Senate election, 2000: Hawaii
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Democratic	Daniel Akaka (inc.)	251,215	77.7%
	Republican	John Carroll	84,701	24.5%
	Natural Law	Lauri A. Clegg	4,220	1.2%
	Libertarian	Lloyd Jeffrey Mallan	3,127	0.9%
	Constitution	David Porter	2,360	0.7%

United States Senate Democratic primary election, 2006: Hawaii
Majority

Candidate	Votes	Percentage
Daniel Akaka	129,158	54.2%
Ed Case	107,163	45.0%

United States Senate election, 2006: Hawaii
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Democratic	Daniel Akaka (inc.)	210,330	61.4	-11.5
	Republican	Cynthia Thielen	126,097	36.8	+12.3
	Libertarian	Lloyd Mallan	6,415	1.9	+1.0
Majority			84,233	24.6
Turnout			342,842
	Democratic hold		Swing

[ Source: Wikipedia ]