Veteran Maui state lawmaker is leaving Senate after 30 years
Rosalyn “Roz” Baker was first elected to the House in 1988
After 30 years in public service, longtime Maui legislator Rosalyn “Roz” Baker confirmed Thursday that this is her last session.
Bedecked in lei on the Senate Chamber floor during the last day of the legislative session on Oahu, Baker told her colleagues, “I had the privilege and the pleasure of serving in the
Legislature, my community and my state for 30 years. And I told somebody I think that is long enough.”
“But maybe I’m having second thoughts,” Baker added with a laugh as her colleagues also chuckled.
Baker, a Democrat, represents Senate District 6, encompassing South and West Maui. She is the chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection, vice-chairwoman of the Health Committee and also a member of the Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs Committee.
She is also the co-chairwoman of the Senate Women’s Legislative Caucus and has fought for women’s rights throughout the years.
The veteran lawmaker, who has represented Maui in the Legislature for more than 25 years, said she will not miss the airplane commute from Maui to Oahu for the sessions.
“But I will definitely miss all of you, and the good work we all done together to solve the problems that we confront,” she told fellow senators. “Whether we have to go and beg from the Ways and Means chair for something going on in our district, or whether it’s working on the bills that are going to enable things to happen.”
Baker once served as chairwoman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee from 2007 to 2008.
She could not immediately be reached after the floor session on Thursday.
The rest of Maui County’s Senate delegation expressed thanks and sadness over Baker’s departure.
“All year long as Roz talked about maybe leaving, I never really believed her. And it’s because I’ve always seen Representative Baker, Senator Baker, in public service,” said fellow Maui state Sen. Gil Keith-Agaran on the floor. “Since I returned home to Maui, she has always been one of those constants that you see and the thing about Senator Baker, Mr. President, at one time she has served every single community in our county. She was a senator in every district over all the different redistricting during her time.”
“Whichever community she served, she always put her heart into it,” Keith-Agaran said.
He also joked that the filing deadline for her reelection had not come yet.
Keith-Agaran pointed out that Baker always did her homework and if she had a bill that you were going against, “I knew that was coming back to me,” he said.
Sen. Lynn DeCoite thanked Baker for her representation when Baker represented DeCoite’s home island of Molokai years ago.
DeCoite, who now represents East and Upcountry Maui, Molokai, Lanai and Kahoolawe, recalled that Baker had put agriculture at the “top of her chain.”
“How is that feisty lady doing in the Senate?” DeCoite’s father would ask of Baker.
“She is still kicking butt,” DeCoite would reply.
Baker previously told The Maui News that she got her start in politics after joining a movement on her college campus to lower the voting age from 21 to 18. The day it was
ratified as the 26th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution on July 1, 1971, was a moment Baker would never forget and inspired Baker to later serve in public office.
She was elected to the state House of Representatives in 1988, representing a district that included West Maui, Molokai and Lanai at the time. In 1993, then-Gov. John Waihee appointed Baker to the Senate to serve a district that covered Maui, Molokai, Lanai and part of Central Maui. She was elected to the Senate from 1994 to 1998.
Baker later served as Maui County economic development coordinator under former Maui Mayor James “Kimo” Apana from 1999 to 2002 before returning to state politics, winning election to the Senate to represent South and West Maui in 2002.
As a cancer survivor, Baker has been a longtime volunteer with the American Cancer Society. She has also served on several national committees, including the Subcommittee on Pediatric Emergency Care of the Institute for Medicine, according to the Hawaii State Legislature website.
Baker is originally from Texas. Prior to moving to Hawaii in 1980, she was a lobbyist for the National Education Association in Washington D.C.
In a text message Thursday evening, Baker said she will remain on Maui, saying “it is my home.”
“Not sure what my next adventure will be,” Baker added.
However, she pointed out that in the near future, the Senate will have a special session to confirm judges later this year. She also hopes to visit her sister who lives in Vienna, Austria.
As of Thursday evening, only two candidates had filed their papers to run for Baker’s seat — current Maui Democratic State House Rep. Angus McKelvey and Republican Philip Raya.
Potential candidates who have pulled papers but not filed are Democrat Shaina Forsyth and Republican Sheila Walker.