Machado wins Molokai seat, Trask forces runoff

Office of Hawaiian Affairs Trustee Colette Machado garnered enough votes to win her Molokai seat outright in the primary election Saturday. Two other incumbents will face challengers in a general election runoff after neither received the majority of votes. The election comes at a pivotal time as self-determination for Native Hawaiians takes shape.

Machado, who has served on the OHA board for 20 years and previously as chairwoman for four years, received 52 percent of votes, excluding blank and over votes, after facing two challengers.

Machado said she has connected with many voters over the past two decades as a trustee.

“I think there’s a lot at stake,” Machado said Saturday. “People are seeing the real issues ahead for Native Hawaiians. I’m hoping that we can bring back people that are looking to stabilize the organization.”

Former Trustee Mililani Trask finished ahead of current OHA board Chairman Robert Lindsey, a retired Kamehameha Schools Land Assets Division director on Hawaii island.

Trask, a lawyer, received 44 percent of votes, and Lindsey, who has served on the board since 2007, received 42 percent.

When a candidate does not receive the majority of votes, the top two vote-getters face off in the general election.

“I’ve been very disappointed with what has happened at OHA,” Trask said. “It’s time to have a change, seeing many of the seats on OHA have been held for many years. I think that in these tough times some of the issues that I’ve been talking about are beginning to resonate.”

Lindsey said: “There’s a few projects on the Big Island that are still in progress that I would like to help bring to a close.” One project is a farming initiative on Hawaiian Home Lands in Waimea, he said. If re-elected in November, he said, he will not seek more terms.

Haunani Apoliona, who has served on the OHA board as an at-large trustee for 20 years, will face Kelii Akina, president of Grassroot Institute of Hawaii, in the general election.

Apoliona, former president and CEO of Alu Like who also served as the OHA board’s chairwoman from 2000 to 2010, and Akina, who ran for an at-large position two years ago, prevailed in a race of seven candidates. Apoliona took 41 percent of the votes and Akina with 22 percent.

Dan Ahuna, the Kauai incumbent, ran unopposed and was elected at the close of candidate filing in June. Ahuna, a Kapaa resident, has served on the board for four years and is a teacher at Kauai High School.

OHA, a public agency that advocates for Native Hawaiians, is governed by nine trustees, four of which are at-large positions and five from the island districts — Oahu, Hawaii Island, Maui, Molokai and Lanai, and Kauai and Niihau. All voters statewide are able to cast ballots in the OHA elections. Trustees are elected to serve four-year terms with no term limits.

In 2013 the state Legislature changed a law that introduced the primary election process to OHA trustee elections. Prior to the 2014 primary election, the top vote-getters in the November general election were declared the winners.