Norman Sakamoto (born May 22, 1947) is an American politician who served as a Democratic member of the

Hawaii Senate The Hawaii Senate is the upper house of the Hawaii State Legislature. It consists of twenty-five members elected from an equal number of constituent districts across the islands and is led by the President of the Senate, elected from the membe ...

from 1996 to 2010. He represented Hawaii Senatorial District 15, comprising the communities of

Aliamanu Salt Lake is a neighborhood of Honolulu, Hawaii on the island of O‘ahu. The area is also known as Āliamanu after a nearby crater, although Salt Lake itself is in a crater called ''Ālia pa‘akai'' — meaning "salt pond" in the Hawaiian ...

, Foster Village,

Halawa Halawa () is a census-designated place (CDP) in the ‘Ewa District of Honolulu County, Hawaii, United States. Halawa Stream branches into two valleys: North and South Halawa; North Halawa is the larger stream and fluvial feature. Their conflue ...

, Hickam,

Kalihi Kalihi is a neighborhood of Honolulu on the island of Oʻahu in Hawaiʻi, United States. Split by the Likelike Highway (Route 63), it is flanked by downtown Honolulu to the east and Mapunapuna, Moanalua and Salt Lake to the west. Kalihi is th ...

, Lower

Aiea The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is an intergovernmental organization that seeks to promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy and to inhibit its use for any military purpose, including nuclear weapons. It was established in 195 ...

, Mapunapuna,

Moanalua Moanalua is a valley, a stream, an ahupuaa, and a residential neighborhood in Honolulu, Hawaii. The valley extends inland from behind Āliapaakai crater (Salt Lake) to the crest of the Koʻolau Range. Neighboring areas include Māpunapuna and S ...

Pearlridge Pearlridge Center is the second largest shopping center in Hawaii, after Ala Moana, and is Hawaii's largest enclosed shopping center, located in Aiea. Opened in 1972 and expanded in 1976, the enclosed mall is split into three "phases" (Uptown, Down ...

, and

Salt Lake A salt lake or saline lake is a landlocked body of water that has a concentration of salts (typically sodium chloride) and other dissolved minerals significantly higher than most lakes (often defined as at least three grams of salt per litre). ...

on the island of

Oahu Oahu () (Hawaiian language, Hawaiian: ''Oʻahu'' ()), also known as "The Gathering place#Island of Oʻahu as The Gathering Place, Gathering Place", is the third-largest of the Hawaiian Islands. It is home to roughly one million people—over t ...

. He is a former candidate for

Lieutenant Governor of Hawaii The lieutenant governor of Hawaii ( haw, Hope kiaʻāina o Hawaiʻi) is the assistant chief executive of the U.S. state of Hawaii and its various agencies and departments, as provided in the Article V, Sections 2 though 6 of the Constitution of H ...

. Sakamoto was the chairman of the Senate Education And Housing Committee, the Vice-Chair of the Higher Education Committee, and a member of the Commerce and Consumer Protection Committee. He previously served as the chairman of the Education & Military Affairs Committee, the Majority Policy Leader, the chairman of the Education Committee,

Majority Whip A whip is an official of a political party whose task is to ensure party discipline in a legislature. This means ensuring that members of the party vote according to the party platform, rather than according to their own individual ideology ...

, and Majority Floor Leader.

Early years

Sakamoto was born in

Honolulu Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...

, attended Palolo Elementary School and graduated from University Lab School. He graduated from the

University of Hawaii at Manoa A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

with a BS in Civil Engineering in 1969. He graduated from the

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univ ...

with a master's degree in Civil Engineering in 1970.

Career

Sakamoto is a registered civil engineer and a licensed general contractor, and worked for the City and County of

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

and the

United States Army Corps of Engineers , colors = , anniversaries = 16 June (Organization Day) , battles = , battles_label = Wars , website = , commander1 = ...

. He returned to Hawaii in 1973, joined his family's construction firm, and then formed SC Pacific Corp in 1985 with architect Vaughn Miyauchi. In 1994, he was elected President of the Building Industry Association of Hawaii.

Hawaii Senate

In November 1996, Sakamoto was elected to the

from the 15th District. The 15th District includes

, Foster Village,

, Hickam,

, Lower

, Mapunapuna,

, and

. He has been re-elected three times. In the Senate, Sakamoto has taken credit for The Reinventing Education Act of 2004, the Hawaii 2050 Sustainability Initiative, and a ban on children riding in the back of pickup trucks. He serves on the UH Board of Regents Candidate Advisory Council.

2010 Hawaii State Lt. Governor Campaign

Senator Sakamoto ran for Lieutenant Governor of the State of Hawaii in the 2010 Hawaii Lt. Gubernatorial Election. He lost the Democratic Primary Election on September 18, 2010.

References

External links

Senator Norman Sakamoto
official website
Hawaii State Legislature - Senator Norman Sakamoto
official Hawaii Senate website
Norman Sakamoto for Lieutenant Governor
official campaign website
Project Vote Smart - Senator Norman L. Sakamoto (HI)
profile {{DEFAULTSORT:Sakamoto, Norman 1947 births Living people People from Honolulu University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa alumni Grainger College of Engineering alumni American civil engineers Hawaii politicians of Japanese descent Democratic Party Hawaii state senators