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After the sudden death of former Representative Kieren Graveshaw, a special election was called by the Legislature to fill the vacant seat. Voters will be going to the ballot box again on the 14th of November.
For more on the election, head to politics.shout-news.com
We asked each candidate to provide a statement on why they want to be elected to the State Legislature and serve as you next State Representative.
Here are the candidates, listed in order of their registration.
Tommy Merlin
This candidate is yet to respond to Shout News’ request for information. Please check back at a later date.
Hanji Takemura
Hello San Andreas, my name is Hanji Takemura and I am running for the open seat for State Representative. A little bit about be, I have lived in this fine state for about two years now where I have been a member of the Public Defender’s Office, a Doctor at Pillbox Medical Center, and more recently I have took a step back and have been working at Noodle Exchange feeding the people of this fine state the best ramen money can buy. I have seen good people go from being someone who followed all the laws to a criminal, I feel given the opportunity to help those less fortunate than myself I could do great things.
During my time at the PDO I saw many cases come across my desk and many different kinds of people step into the office. It was the first exposure I got to some of the issues in the State and I learned that the justice system was not working to the best of its ability. That is one thing I plan to look into if I am elected into office is how I as a State Rep can help that process better for all.
While I worked at Pillbox I learned many things about the people in this fine state. I heard so many stories and learned so much about the citizens in the state. One of the biggest things I learned was a distaste for the law enforcement in the state. My goal is to see what I can do to help reform that and get citizens and LEOs on the same page and have a better relationship and image of each other.
Some of my goals if elected are to help make the FOIA process more streamlined as I have heard many people express that they have not submitted them because they feel it is either difficult to understand or they submit them and then hear nothing back. I also plan to work closely with DOCL and Zimports to see what I can do to make those processes better for business owners all over the state. I will be working with DHS to look into more options for affordable housing and how one can get said housing as I feel many do not know how to go about that. One of my last big things I would like to try and do is options for rehabilitation beyond the prison for those who have committed crimes and are looking for a fresh state but do not have a good support network or options to do so.
I would like to close this little about me by saying that I am just a guy that saw an opportunity to try and help those who may just be coasting through life like myself, the one who may not be the loud person and extroverted. Let me be your voice in government, together we can have our voices heard.
James Hill
While I am very much looking forward to working closely with the incumbent State Representatives, I would say that there is a lack in experienced legal persons in the legislature to deal with the technicalities required for good law-making. As a draftsman I believe that my skills would be very suitable to assist drafting with other representatives’ legislation. There is traditionally a big emphasis on ‘Representative’ but not so much in ‘Legislation’ which is something that must be given a degree of importance.
I have occupied roles at Hunt & OHagen as an Associate Attorney, in the Public Defenders Office, becoming a Senior Public Defender, as a Court Clerk with the San Andreas Judiciary, and more recently starting my own firm; Nexus Legal Consultancy, where I have been deploying many of my skills developed over a wide variety of practice fields to my clients to ensure high levels of client care.
My main commitments for this cycle is comprised of three goals:
- To critique bills while they are in the drafting stage;
- To ensure proper wording is provided to ensure that these bills work as intended;
- To draft and pass a bill for a Civil version of the Speedy Trial Act so that civil cases can be brought through quickly; and
- To have a constitutional amendment relating to the duties of the State Attorney.
While these are my main goals, I am excited to work on other bills and to work closely with other departmental heads to ensure that appropriate bills are brought through and that these bills are capable of being used effectively.
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