Three candidates are vying for control of a newly formed House district that includes part of Hilo, Waiakea, Keaukaha and Keaau.
Before a redistricting cycle in 2020, most of Hilo and the surrounding neighborhoods was part of House District 2, represented by Hilo Rep. Chris Todd, a Democrat.
However, after the redistricting, Todd’s seat, along with Keaau and parts of Puna as far south as Ainaloa, is now part of House District 3, with Todd fighting off a pair of challengers to keep his post.
Todd is running for his fourth term in office, and pointed to his years of experience as an advantage over his Democrat challenger Shannon Matson.
Since being appointed in 2017, Todd said he has fought to get more state resources allocated to the Big Island. The representative named successes such as has pushing the state’s Child Welfare Services program to open new case worker positions for the Big Island, and establishing a pilot program with the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands to eliminate invasive gorse on Maunakea.
If reelected, Todd said he wants to focus on rectifying a legislative failure from earlier this year: a bill that Gov. David Ige vetoed that would have allowed lessees of state agricultural park leases to get extensions.
“I really want to push on the ag park issue if I’m elected, because we’re going to lose a lot of farmers if we don’t do something about that soon,” Todd said.
Meanwhile, Todd said that the state has failed to adequately address the inevitable impacts of climate change and needs to prioritize resources to protect coastal zones from sea level rise and policies that would require all newly built buildings to be capable of withstanding hurricanes.
Todd also said state government needs to focus on alleviating the cost of living in Hawaii, calling it a “big crisis facing all families.” He said state leaders need to find a way to disincentivize the housing speculation that drives home prices out of reach of local families.
For her part, Matson agreed that the cost of living is a crisis facing everyone in the state, but disagreed that Todd, a Hilo resident, is the best candidate to represent a district that now includes much of Puna.
“Frequently, there are rural communities who are represented by incumbents who only live in more populated areas,” Matson said.
Matson, a Hawaiian Acres resident, said Puna and other parts of the island are woefully lacking in infrastructure — her subdivision features “75 miles of unpaved roads,” she said — and added that the lack of genuine representation in government by rural residents only contributes to growing inequity in how infrastructure is distributed.
Matson said her history of volunteer work — with programs such as the Hawaii Island Sierra Club, Hilo Pride Parade, the Women’s March and more — gives her perspective on how difficult it is for Puna residents to connect with services they need, as well as the ability to advocate for resources to address those difficulties.
For example, Matson said that the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of the Roe v. Wade decision on abortion has highlighted how little reproductive health services are actually available in the state, let alone the Big Island. Although Ige said following the decision that he would protect abortion rights, Matson said many services and procedures are simply not available in Hawaii, with patients having to travel out of state.
“As a person who can reproduce, I obviously think it’s very important to have that access,” Matson said, before calling for funding and resources for a reproductive health facility on the Big Island.
The third candidate for the House 3 seat is Devin Shaw McMackin, representing the Aloha ‘Aina Party. Because there are no Aloha ‘Aina legislators in office, and because legislative committees have to include legislators from all political parties represented in office, McMackin said that, if elected, he would be in a prime position to advocate for wide-ranging reforms.
At the center of McMackin’s positions is the need for housing reform. Like Todd and Matson, McMackin said there is a lack of affordable housing for local families, but he identified a specific solution.
“If we can get all the (Department of Hawaiian Home Lands) beneficiaries off the waitlist and onto homesteads, that would be a big step,” McMackin said. With 28,700 Native Hawaiians currently on the list, McMackin said, clearing the list entirely would reduce competition for affordable housing.
Meanwhile, McMackin said he wants to tighten the state’s standards for police certification — the Hawaii Law Enforcement Standards Board has been unable to establish minimum police certification and training standards for more than four years.
Despite their differing outlooks and backgrounds, all three candidates took similarly measured stances on a divisive issue: the Thirty Meter Telescope and the value of astronomy on Maunakea.
All three candidates tempered their remarks by voicing support for astronomy in a general sense, but all three ultimately concluded that the TMT project is not right for the Big Island.
“Do I support it at the cost of arresting hundreds of our Big Island family members? No,” Todd said.
Matson said her father helped build the W. M. Keck Observatory and so she has directly benefited from astronomy. However, she went on to say that the University of Hawaii and other state agencies “haven’t been doing a good job of stewardship,” and that she doesn’t trust that the newly formed Maunakea Stewardship and Oversight Authority will be any different.
“I don’t see a path forward for TMT,” Matson said.
McMackin said astronomy is important to Native Hawaiian culture, but concluded that it can be conducted without desecrating sacred places.
“We’ve got to fix our house first before we even think about building something else up there,” McMackin said.
Todd and Matson will face off in the Aug. 13 primary, with the winner facing McMackin in the Nov. 8 general election. Representatives serve two years.
Email Michael Brestovansky at mbrestovansky@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
