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In the race for Hawaii County’s nine Council seats, all of the six incumbents were reelected Saturday.
Heather Kimball in District 1; Susan Lee Loy in District 3; Ashley Kierkiewicz in District 4; Matt Kaneali‘i-Kleinfelder in District 5; and Holeka Goro Inaba in District 8 each held the majority of votes over their only opponents, receiving the 50%-plus-one needed to avoid a general election battle and setting each of them up for another consecutive term.
The District 9 Council seat was left vacant after incumbent Herbert (Tim) Richards III ran for a state Senate seat. There, Cindy Evans held more than 50% of the votes over her two opponents, setting her up to take on the upcoming term. Evans hopes to find programs and initiatives that will address affordable housing, the rising cost of living, access to child care and inadequate public transportation.
The most crowded field of candidates was in District 2, where there were five contenders. Jennifer Kagiwada and Matthias Kusch were neck and neck on Saturday evening, making them the likely two candidates to move on to the November general election. Kagiwada and Kusch both said their priorities would be to address affordable housing, while Kusch added that he would also like to reduce homelessness and increase residents and visitors in Downtown Hilo.
The second printed vote count on Saturday showed that in District 6, the top two candidates out of four were Michelle Galimba and Colehour Bondera, with Henry Cho III trailing closely behind.
Incumbent Rebecca Villegas was the only candidate running in District 7 and will take the Council position for the upcoming term. In her previous term, she has focused her efforts on finding solutions for homelessness and has worked on legislation to protect county parks and roadways from the use of toxic herbicides, according to her candidate website.
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