Email Nancy Cook Lauer at ncook-lauer@westhawaiitoday.com.
By NANCY COOK LAUER
Stephens Media
Another member of the county Redistricting Commission is running for the County Council district he helped draw.
Dru Mamo Kanuha announced Thursday he will run for the newly created County Council District 7, representing downtown Kailua Village and the Kona area from roughly Kainaliu north to Kona’s Old Airport. The seat for the district formerly known as South Kona is wide open, as redrawing the map has moved incumbent Councilwoman Brenda Ford to an expanded Ka’u/South Kona District 6.
Kanuha told Stephens Media that he sees nothing wrong with running for the district he helped create. He said he hadn’t planned on running for County Council while he was on the commission, but his experience meeting with the public and hearing from the communities excited him about the council.
“It sparked an interest,” Kanuha said. “There’s a whole new council coming up on this island and it’s exciting to be part of it.”
Another member of the Redistricting Commission, District 1 Commissioner Valerie Poindexter, last week pulled nomination papers for the Hamakua District she helped draw. Like Kanuha, Poindexter doesn’t see any conflict in running.
Members of the county Redistricting Commission are not barred from running for election in the district they just created. Commissioners on the state Reapportionment Commission, which draws maps for the state Legislature and Congress, are not allowed to run for election to those seats for four years.
But Kohala Councilman Pete Hoffmann, who is term-limited, thinks there’s at least a perception of a conflict of interest when redistricting commissioners run for the seats they create. He said he’s proposing a charter amendment to make commissioners sit out two years before running for County Council. The bill will likely be heard next month, he said.
“All nine redistricting commissioners could legally run for County Council,” Hoffmann said. “I have no reason to suspect they wouldn’t be good council members if elected. But that’s not really the question.”
The Redistricting Commission, in drawing council maps for the next decade, gave great leeway to the district representatives to draw the lines, saying they knew their communities best.
Kailua-Kona resident Enock Freire, who ran unsuccessfully for the District 7 seat in 2012, said he’s not running this year, but he’s “overjoyed” that Kanuha is running.
“I’ve been encouraging him for a while,” Freire said. “I think he’s the right guy.”
Kanuha’s roots run deep. His family has lived for generations in the region near Kailua Bay and is known for its stewardship of the land, Kanuha said.
He attended Kahakai Elementary School and Kealakehe Intermediate and High School and graduated from the University of San Diego in 2002 with a B.A. in Political Science and a minor in Business Administration.
Kanuha is employed by Kamehameha Schools-Land Assets Division, Hawaii Island, focusing on water and agricultural resources. He is a founding member of The Betty Kanuha Foundation Inc., a nonprofit supporting literacy and cultural programs for the youth of Hawaii Island.
Email Nancy Cook Lauer at ncook-lauer@westhawaiitoday.com.