Mufi, Neil and Duke Talk Tech

Mufi Hannemann, Neil Abercrombie and James "Duke" Aiona traveled to the Plaza Club — "the heart of Honolulu's Wall Street" — on the top floors of Pioneer Plaza Wednesday to share their thoughts on growing Hawaii's high-tech industry.

Their audience was a group of people who know what to do with money — the Hawaii Venture Capital Association. HVCA President Bill Spencer said tech businesses generate $3.5 billion annually in gross revenues.

As investors, lawyers, entrepreneurs, politicians and other well-connected audience members noshed on lunch and had their coffee, water and tea repeatedly freshened, the three candidates for governor talked tech.

What the audience heard from each candidate often overlapped — e.g., dual-use technologies for military and commercial purposes is the way to go, the governor's cabinet needs a techie-in-charge, the expiration of Act 221 tax credits for high-tech companies was a damn shame, the Hawaii Superferry fiasco could have been handled a lot better, the state needs to improve its education system to build its human capital, and "I've got the best track record on these issues and I'm the one you should put in Washington Place."

But the high-tech talk was also the first time this election that the top three candidates appeared together, which proved as interesting as what they had to say. Civil Beat assesses the campaign snapshot.

With no debates set yet, this may have been one of the few times we'll be able to contrast the candidates side-by-side.

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