2 councilmembers
get free rideKobayashi and Garcia need
one vote each to retain their seatsChallengers emerge in Legislature
2 to challenge Blundell
Full list of the candidates
Who's running unopposed
Two sitting City Council members face opponents in this year's elections while two others have no opposition.
Candidates met yesterday's deadline to file nomination papers in the five Council races. Opponents will face incumbent Council members Barbara Marshall and Romy Cachola. Council members Ann Kobayashi and Nestor Garcia have no opposition.
Also, five candidates have filed nomination papers to run for the City Council seat being vacated by Councilman Mike Gabbard.
Gabbard is running as a Republican to try and unseat Democratic U.S. Rep. Ed Case in the 2nd Congressional District (rural Oahu-neighbor islands).
The candidates running for Gabbard's seat in Council District I, which covers Ewa to Makua, include a resort executive, a political newcomer with deep political roots, a councilman's aide, a community activist and the former chairwoman of the Waianae Coast Neighborhood Board. Traffic congestion, infrastructure needs, job creation and the location of a new landfill are expected to be hot issues during the campaign.
The five candidates are:
>> Todd Apo, 37, Ko Olina Resort corporate operations vice president, who hasn't run for office since he was student body president in his senior year at the Kamehameha Schools. Apo also attended Brown University, where he received a master's degree in business administration, and the University of Hawaii, where he obtained a law degree. He is married with two children.Both Manaku and Rezentes ran for the seat two years ago.Apo was a member of a citizens' panel that recommended four landfill sites for Oahu, a list that didn't include the current landfill site of Waimanalo Gulch.
>> Shane Peters, 30, who is making his first run at elected office but has politics in his veins.
Peters' family includes stepfather David Hagino, a former state representative, and uncles Gerald Hagino, a former state senator, and Henry Peters, a former state House Speaker and Bishop Estate trustee. He also is the grandson of former Hawaiian Homes Chairwoman Hoaliku Drake.
Peters recently resigned his post as manager of the Capitol's public access room to campaign.
He attended Hawaii Preparatory Academy on the Big Island and Sarah Lawrence College in New York, where he obtained an arts degree.
>> Patty Teruya, 49, Gabbard's legislative aide, who has a family connection to Duke Kahanamoku.
The Farrington High School graduate also worked in the Neighborhood Board Commission Office for eight years and has been on the Waianae Coast Neighborhood Board since 1994 and a Leeward Coast resident for 27 years.
>> James Manaku, 58, a community volunteer and past member of the Waianae Coast Neighborhood Board.
>> Cynthia Rezentes, 52, an engineer by training who has been on that neighborhood board since 1997, four as chairwoman.
In two other Council matchups, incumbent Cachola is being challenged by Rocky Ricarte of Salt Lake for the Council District VII seat, which covers Kalihi to Halawa Valley. And incumbent Marshall will go up against Merrily "Leigh" Prentiss and Richard MacPherson in the race to represent Council District III, which runs from Waimanalo to Kaneohe.
A candidate in a district must get 50 percent of the votes plus one vote in the Sept. 18 special, nonpartisan election, to win the seat outright. If not, the top two candidates move onto a runoff election Nov. 2.
Incumbents Kobayashi and Garcia need only one vote in the primary to win a four-year term.
State Elections office
www.hawaii.gov/elections
Hawaii Democratic Party
www.hawaiidemocrats.org
Hawaii Republican Party
www.gophawaii.com
