Former city councilman Mike Gabbard and retired police officer George Yamamoto will face off in the Nov. 7 general election for the West O'ahu Senate seat that's been occupied by Brian Kanno since 1992.

Gabbard, a Republican, served on the Honolulu City Council from 2002 to 2004. He chose to forgo a re-election bid for a shot at the 2nd Congressional District seat that was won by incumbent Ed Case. He is perhaps best known as the founder of the Alliance for Traditional Marriage and Values, which led the fight to ban gay marriages in Hawai'i.

Yamamoto's political experience consists of seven years on the Makakilo/Kapolei/Honokai Hale Neighborhood Board. The Democrat recently retired from the Honolulu Police Department after 25 years on the force, including six as executive officer for the Kapolei police station.

Kanno, a Democrat, long led the Senate Labor Committee and has been a supporter of Senate President Robert Bunda. In the fractured 25-member Senate, the winner of the Gabbard-Yamamoto fight could be instrumental in deciding leadership matters.

The 19th Senate District encompasses the burgeoning Kapolei and Makakilo regions, as well as Kunia and Waikele. The 2000 U.S. Census numbers reflect the youthfulness of the district. While 13.3 percent of adults statewide identified themselves as 65 and older, 7 percent of 19th District adults described themselves as in that bracket.

The district also is among O'ahu's more affluent areas. The 2000 Census figures also show annual median household income for the district was $65,680 — higher than the $52,280 median income statewide.

Maeda Timson, a Makakilo resident for more than 35 years, said the region needs elected representatives who are cognizant of the area's rapid development and can minimize growing pains.

Campbell Estate and other developers of the area have been required to pay the government for roads, schools and other infrastructure in the area, but not enough of that money is returning to the community, Timson said.

"It just goes into this big account (the state general fund) that everybody enjoys," she said. The district, she said, needs lawmakers who will argue that most, if not all, of that money should be dedicated to the needs of the region.

Both Gabbard and Yamamoto cite traffic as the top concern for the district. They support the city's mass transit project and want to ensure it reaches Kapolei.

Yamamoto said private developers and the government need to be more responsive to growth in the region and how it affects traffic.

"We also have to ensure that the developers that are building there have a component of business and jobs so that we don't continue to go into town and contribute to the (traffic) at the H-1-H-2 merge," he said.

Yamamoto, who also spent time in HPD's traffic unit, said he will seek a committee assignment on the Transportation Committee as well as the O'ahu Metropolitan Planning Organization, which overseas road projects on the island.

Gabbard wants to reintroduce the concept of staggering work hours for government workers as a means of easing the traffic burden and explore the possibility of four-day workweeks where it makes sense.

He also wants to push the city to improve bus service to needy neighborhoods in his district, including Royal Kunia. And he supports the city's plans for an experimental ferry project that would run between Kalaeloa and Honolulu.

Gabbard, a lifelong educator and currently a part-time substitute teacher, said education also is a priority. While teacher salaries are dictated in large part at the bargaining table between state and union negotiators, he said he would encourage the state to use its general fund budget surplus to pay for larger raises.

"At the same time, we would like to see teacher accountability," Gabbard said. "Teacher performance should be judged on student progress from the beginning of the year to the end."

Yamamoto said he will lobby heavily for construction of the UH-West O'ahu campus. Once open, he said, it would also go a long way toward alleviating the district's traffic woes.

"That would bring jobs and opportunities for people in the area, and they won't be driving all the way to UH-Manoa." Yamamoto said.

He said he also will push for speedy construction of new schools in the Kapolei area, noting that the existing high, middle and elementary schools are already at capacity.

In the primary, Yamamoto beat runner-up Janice Salcedo Lehner by 25 votes in a three-way race that also included Chuck Anthony. Gabbard defeated Robert Fong by nearly 1,000 votes.