2026 General Election County Council District 4

[HiloJulie]

Suddenly not attending candidate forums is a disqualifier? How about that!

[Obie]

LLoyd has been endorsed by Ikaika and that may be enough.

Eileen was on the council for 2 years and was voted out for introducing a bill to outlaw rooster farms.
Eileen also caught a lot of flack for speed bumps on Papio street in Hawaiian Beaches.

Some people have long memories.

The rooster farms were a very big deal and cost her the election.

I know Smiley very well and will ask her when I get back on island Tuesday. She was married to a Hawaiiian until he passed away.
I also personally know Eileen and have my own opinion of her.
I don't know Lloyd but have plenty of friends who probably do.

At this point I believe Eileen may be in the best place now,, Malama O Puna.

[ironyak]

kalianna - ironyak, Iʻm not sure which forum you are referring to an 7/22 but I can say that he definitely did not attend the HPP candidates forum and from what others have told me, he did not attend the Pahoa gathering either.
On July 22, a District 4 Candidate Forum was held at the The Stables in Hawaiian Shores. Here's an image from that event with Lloyd, Eileen, Tam, etc all at the same table, so your "Lloyd did not participate in any of the community talk stories with the other candidates, only his own, by himself" looks to be an incorrect overgeneralization.

And I donʻt want anyoneʻs rights to be controlled, but a candidate running for office who sees a supporter posting derogatory comments may want to ask that supporter to stop "helping".
I have no idea what has been said between Mr. Enriquez and Mr. "Simshaw", but unless Lloyd is some sort of NLP hypnotist, he can't control what others do. However (with plenty of joking snark) the expectation that political candidates should be dictating to others what they can and can't do makes perfect sense coming from an O'Hara supporter. ;)

As Ilagan apparently did skip these candidate forums, yet won his primary easily, and those that attended some of the forums like Lloyd are in a run-off, and those that attended near all of them like Tam lost outright - it appears that attendance at candidate forums and debates is inversely related to electoral success in Puna.

Having put in some time at The Hub during the 2018 eruption, I'm familiar with most of the candidates and individuals involved and have at least a passing knowledge of the incidents from that time that seems to motivate some of the current disagreements. Obviously everyone should vote for whoever they think best represents their interests and should promote those candidates as they see fit. I'm not sure why there is an interest in driving the discussion into mudslinging mainland-style negative campaigning, but maybe it's just become an expectation and norm for modern politics - but it doesn't have to be a part of Puna campaigns IMO.

To co-opt a catchphrase - Stay classy Punaweb!

[kalianna]

I stand corrected, ironyak. I didnʻt know about the Stables event and Iʻm glad Lloyd agreed to go to that one.

[HiloJulie]

In as much as O'Hara did indeed ruffle the feathers on the rooster farm stuff, that indeed lost her votes but also gained her votes, however, to me the real reason she lost that Council election was her false, malicious, unfounded and absurd accusation that the HUB organizers and volunteers were stealing and mismanaging the donated goods and items.

By the time the political winds died down, and the County realized its impotence in dealing with the humanity issues of the lava flow, the HUB organizers and volunteers had won the hearts and minds of the populace. O'Hara didn't stand a chance after that.

[Obie]

O'Hara was doomed by the rooster farm debacle well before the Hub debacle.
O'Hara's positiion from todays Trib :
“The top priority for this district is addressing our deficient infrastructure — roads primarily and alternatives to Highway 130 specifically — as well as tackling public safety challenges by improving the officer-to-population ratio, which is one of the worst in the state and providing our (Hawaiʻi Police Department) with new technologies to assist their work,”
Highway 130 is a State Road, the County can't do much about it although they should have never permitted the dozens of driveways along 130 and they continue to permit them.
Hire more police ? Does she know of a hidden cash of gold somewhere?

O'Hara and Tam are the only two that I am aware of engaging in mainland negative campaigning.
Tam even had his own forums and invited Greggor so he could rake him over the coals about the launch ramp.

Greggor ran his election just like his last one and used Town halls to find out what the people want and to communicate with them.

[ironyak]

kalianna - I didnʻt know about the Stables event and Iʻm glad Lloyd agreed to go to that one.
No worries - I had heard Lloyd was at a HPP event and had interpreted that to mean the July 8 Meet the Candidates / Reverse Town Hall event, but it sounds like you were there and he was not, so they must have been referring to one of those solo appearances. We're all just working with partial info so, like they say, have to watch out and not assume.

As for The Hub, it was pulled together and kept working through the ongoing daily efforts of many volunteers like Lloyd who gave their time, energy, and expertise, without seeking any recognition, to provide food, clothing, toiletries, support with moving belongings, information about people's homes, and daily updates on the location of the lava fronts, to those displaced, and really anyone in need. In my experience, it represented some of the best of Puna, and its ability to pull together and provide for the entire community to meet the needs while the County largely floundered in their response. Anything, and anyone, that can actually improve the County to better serve the community is a potentially a hopeful change IMHO.

But whether it's O'Hara or Enriquez will probably come down to whether the actual not-so-silent majority of District 4, some 16,000 of them alone sharing the same few addresses in HPP, will speak in one voice, and on November 4th declare - it's morning again in Puna, cock-a-doodle-do. ;)

[HiloJulie]

But whether it's O'Hara or Enriquez will probably come down to whether the actual not-so-silent majority of District 4, some 16,000 of them alone sharing the same few addresses in HPP, will speak in one voice, and on November 4th declare - it's morning again in Puna, cock-a-doodle-do. 

Yes, it will be interesting to see if those 16,000 plus speak with the same tongue as Civil Beat reported back then:

Big Island: Newly Elected Council Members Face A County In Turmoil - Honolulu Civil Beat

A poignant snip:

"O’Hara hurt her chances at re-election by making unsubstantiated theft allegations against the all-volunteer operators of Puuhonua o Puna Information and Supply Hub, an effort Kierkiewicz helped start to aid victims of the Kilauea volcano eruption."

Or has their long memories have somehow faded...