Election season is right around the corner and their is much buzz about who will be the next mayor, state representatives, and county council members. With the purpose of informing the general public about where each of the local candidates stand, Waimea Community Association held a non-partisan informational Candidate Forum at the HPA Taylor Commons on the evening of July 7th.
A view of the event from the HWMO informational booth.
HWMO Community Outreach Coordinator, Pablo Beimler, set-up a booth to share with the nearly 100 attendees and candidates information on wildfire readiness. Many took home Native Firewise Plant bookmarks and Ready, Set, Go! Guides.
Candidate for State House of Reps, David Tarnas, addresses questions posed by community members during speed-dating.
Along with having an informational booth, HWMO was a co-sponsor of the forum with North Hawaii Rotary, Hawaii Preparatory Academy, Waimea Middle School, Friends of the Future, Malaai School Garden, Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, and Blue Zones Project - North Hawaii.
Most of the event consisted of a “speed-dating” session where people broke into small groups and asked questions one on one with each candidate. The candidates were:
* Hawai’i County mayoral race: Pete Hoffman, Harry Kim, Wally Lau, and Shannon McCandless
* Hawai’i County Council District 9: Tim Richards and Margaret Wille
* State House District 7: Jeffery Coakley, Cindy Evans, and David Tarnas
Pablo sat in at one of the tables as each candidate visited, eager to hear their take on emergency management issues and have wildfire be a topic of discussion.
We were excited to see democracy in action and we hope you will be, too, this election cycle.
Important election dates
July 14th - voter registration deadline
August 6th - application for absentee ballot deadline
August 13th - primary election
