New District 40 features wide-open field

State Rep. Kymberly Pine has her sights set on the City Council. State Rep. Rida Caba­nilla Ara­kawa is running in District 41.

Reapportionment has left part of the Ewa area that they represented — the new House District 40 — up for grabs in the Aug. 11 primary.

Six Democrats are vying for their party’s nomination and the right to challenge the lone Republican candidate, Bob McDermott, executive director of the Hono­lulu Council of the Navy League, in the general election.

Asked why so many are running in District 40 for the $46,272-a-year job, candidate Romy Mindo had an easy answer: "No incumbents."

The new District 40 lies to the east of Fort Weaver Road and includes the communities of Ewa by Gentry, West Loch and Iroquois Point. The Navy’s West Loch ammunition area is farther east, along with undeveloped federal land.

The Democratic candidates also include Kurt Fevella, Chris Mana­bat, Rose Martinez, Sam Pule­tasi and Joseph Ratt­ner.

The city clerk’s office says there are 11,230 registered voters in the district.

The district leans Republican and is seen as a chance by the GOP to maintain its presence in the Demo­cratic-dominated Legislature.

Fort Weaver Road traffic is a perennial issue for the district, and the planned 11,750-home Ho‘o­pili proj­ect is just to the northwest.

Manabat, 27, an office manager at the state Capitol who is running in his first election, cited rapid growth and its effect on public infrastructure as the biggest problem facing District 40.

He said he’d like to see developers widen roads where possible.

Asked about Ho‘opili, Mana­bat said, "I’m not against development," but he added he hopes that road accessibility will be taken into consideration.

Manabat said he is against legalized gambling here because it "goes against what the true nature of Hawaii is."

Martinez, 54, a former House aide who works in sales and marketing for Spae International Communications, said the biggest problem in District 40 is "how do we balance development with creating jobs, providing adequate infrastructure, or improving/retrograding existing infrastructure and preserving the environment?"

Martinez said she will work to build private-public partnerships to find reasonable solutions.

She said she supports agricultural land, but since Ho‘o­pili would provide certain areas for agriculture and sustainability, she added that the developer "might as well" go ahead with the project.

Martinez also said she is against the state legalizing gambling.

Mindo, 75, a past state representative, former president of the Hotel Workers Union Local 5 and managing partner of R&R Ohana, also cited traffic as the biggest problem for the district.

"When I was in the House (of Representatives), I was able to get some funding to expand Fort Weaver Road and also the North-South Road," Mindo said.

Asked what he proposes to do about the current traffic situation, Mindo said, "If I get elected, that’s my first priority."

Mindo said the Ho‘o­pili development area "is all farmable land," and he’d prefer to see it be used for agriculture.

"If there’s any problems with our shipping lanes, what happens to the state (and its food supplies)?" he said.

Mindo said he does not support legalized gambling in the state.

Puletasi, 50, a former special agent for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ran for a state Senate seat in 2010. Pule­tasi said the state needs to reach agreement with the military to put a highway from the Iroquois Point Area to either Wai­pahu or the H-1 freeway through vacant federal land.

Asked about Ho‘opili, Pule­tasi said he’s undecided.

"I need to see what the majority feels and how that’s going to impact everything," he said.

Puletasi said the legalization of certain types of gambling in Hawaii would put it under state control and taxation, and eliminate organized-crime gambling rackets.

"Additionally, thousands of Hawaiians travel to Las Vegas every year to satisfy their urge to gamble," he said. "With legalization, that money would be spent in the state and benefit the local economy."

Rattner, 45, founder and CEO of West Oahu Hope for a Cure Foundation, which helps at-risk youth and young adults affected by HIV, AIDS, hepatitis or addiction, is running for office for the first time.

Rattner said with the price of food going up, 50 percent of land needs to be lived on, and the same percentage is needed to sustain the population through farming.

He said he’d like to see the Ho‘o­pili development amended to provide more land for agriculture.

Casinos should not be allowed in Hawaii, Rattner said, but he added that he sees no harm in store-bought lottery tickets like Powerball, with the state picking up revenue to be used for education improvement.

McDermott, 48, the Republican candidate, who served three terms as a state representative, said the biggest problem facing the district is its older schools, which are "in desperate need of renovation and detailed repair and maintenance."

He said the area needs the housing that Ho‘o­pili would provide.

"I support it," McDermott said. "I’ve got eight kids. I want them to live here."

McDermott said Hawaii should not have legalized gambling because of the state’s efforts to brand itself "as the land of aloha and creating a Hawaiian sense of place as we celebrate the host culture and the spirit of our people."

Gambling would bring a "crassness" to that image, he said.

Fevella did not respond to Star-Advertiser requests for candidate information.