Ashley 4 Puna

[kalakoa]

Just be concerned about the competency and the positions of the respective candidates.

Why?

Seriously: why bother? Competence will be hamstrung by the fossilized representatives of our obsolete government. Examples from today's news:

http://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2018...ll-fields/

One of Kenoi's parks, financed by $3.3M bond debt, and unusable due to flooding that was apparently a complete surprise to the consultants who designed it.

http://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2018...g-permits/

The system has been down for a week. Maybe we should have IT look at it, figure out how long it will take to fix.

http://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2018...committee/

Senator offers substantive bill to begin addressing an actual concern that directly affects his constituents. It goes nowhere. There's always next year...

[Chunkster]

Competence will be hamstrung by the fossilized representatives of our obsolete government.

Indeed. The fact that Ohara is being promoted by a stalwart of the hidebound, union dominated Hawaii Democratic Party should be of concern to us. If you look at all the "Worst" lists that we consistently land on (business, education, value for tax dollar paid, and so on), it doesn't take a genius to figure out that our monopoly party state and local government is to blame.

Before I moved here 15 years ago, I was a card carrying Democrat in a purple state. Now I am an independent, given that the Republicans are no better. I wish we had a Centrist movement to get behind. County elections are supposed to be non-partisan, but the tentacles of the Dems are obvious if you pay attention. It's all fixed, so while what kalakoa says about "why bother" is a reality, the good old boys and girls would love us to stop annoying them and stop voting. I will continue to vote for anyone who yanks their chain, and it might be a Frankie Stapleton's fashion model this time. Hopefully, some other candidates will emerge.

[kalakoa]

I wish we had a Centrist movement to get behind.

I'm hoping for critical mass on some manner of Virtual Private Community.

The idea is simple: government is broken, so route around it.

Example concept: "Flash Market". Everyone converges somewhere and starts trading out of the back of their vehicles, and the whole thing evaporates before the police can respond -- depending where this happens, you've got at least an hour or two, or maybe all afternoon. No taxes, no fees, no regulations.

[BillyB]

"Example concept: "Flash Market". Everyone converges somewhere and starts trading out of the back of their vehicles, and the whole thing evaporates before the police can respond -- depending where this happens, you've got at least an hour or two, or maybe all afternoon. No taxes, no fees, no regulations."

What an excellent idea! It would be good for more than an hour or two however. Thirty years is closer to the actual reaction time of the County.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

Ms. Kierkiewicz has shown us nothing at this point.

Driving home the other evening it struct me that Ashley has (or someone has) put a lot of effort into her campaign signs. Professionally designed, professionally photographed, the clever "Ashley 4 Puna" slogan (a play on words that she's both running in District 4 / Puna, and is for Puna). She has T-shirts too.

But yet, she's spent no time telling us her plans for Puna, and what she feels are her top priorities for Puna.

I don't know what usually compels a person to run for public office, but I'd like to think that in the course of their every day activities they see things around them that could be improved, or they feel they have some ideas that might make their extended neighborhood a better place to live. I'd like to think they arrived at their decision to run for office based on a set of clearly defined concepts and goals.

I'd feel more comfortable knowing a candidate would consider it more important to emphasize and lead off with those good ideas first, maybe then follow up and think to themselves, "if I'm really going to do this, bring my message to the people, I'll need need some well crafted yard signs and T shirts too". Perhaps Ashley may have placed the cart before the horse?

Portion of Hawaii’s drinking water that comes from underground wells : 9/10
Gallons of raw sewage that leak into the ground from Hawaii cesspools each day : 53,000,000 - Harper's Index

[Frankie Stapleton]

I am not, have never been, and never plan to be anyone's campaign manager. I do what little I can to support candidates whose views reflect issues I care about but primarily I'm more committed to reporting and good journalism, particularly on a local level where it is almost nonexistent. I'm a retired journalist, have had a front row seat on modern Hawaiian history since arriving in 1970 from the East Coast where I was a reporter on The Daily Press in Newport News, VA.

After getting my journalism degree at UH-Manoa in 1973, I was the assignment editor for KITV news in the mid-70s, then did some Hawaiiana TV shows for the State DOE before being hired as an investigative reporter for the Hawaii Tribune-Herald in 1977. I've written for the Trib, (20 years), the Star-Bulletin and a few magazine articles over the years.

I went back to school in the year 2000 to get my teaching certification and taught public school in Kamuela from 2000 to 2006, when I generally retired from teaching and reporting so I could exercise my rights as a citizen to publicly engage in promoting important local and national issues, something reporters and teachers are prohibited by their employers from doing.

The first exercise of that was taking part in the Puna Community Development Plan starting in August 2006. It was the presidential election of 2008 that first got me involved in the Democratic Party. I essentially dropped DemParty involvement following the May 2016 County Dem Party convention in Kea'au. It's all been a learning process and still is.

I don't know where regular posters here on PW get their information but they certainly don't know diddly about me.

[kalakoa]

Thirty years is closer to the actual reaction time of the County.

It only took two years to shut down the End Of Road Market.

[Rob Tucker]

I always pay close attention to what Frankie Stapleton has to say.

[Chunkster]

I freely admit that all I know about Frankie Stapleton's politics is what she had posted on Punaweb in the past. Some of that seemed like enthusiastic support of the Democratic Party such as invitations to the Grand Rally as well as other items. In view of her update above, I apologize for referring to her as a "stalwart" of said party. Now that I've helped hijack this thread, I would like to ask her if her departure from said party activism was on general principles like my own, or was it due to something that happened at the convention she mentions?

[Petard]

Maybe not a campaign manager, but what about being someone’s campaign vice chair and chief spokesperson? https://joy4puna.com/join.html