After losing by just 94 votes in 2020, longtime Hawaiian activist and community organizer Walter Ritte again is taking on incumbent Lynn Pualani DeCoite in the Aug. 13 Democratic primary — except challenging DeCoite for her Senate seat this time.
Asked why he is not running for DeCoite’s former House seat again, Ritte told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that he wants DeCoite out of office and is running as part of a hui of Molokai candidates who want to see dramatic changes for Molokai, including jobs to restore its reef, grow taro fields and to get water access to develop more Hawaiian home lands.
Ritte said he shares the same goals and plans for Molokai with Mahina M. Poepoe, a Democratic candidate running for DeCoite’s former House 13 seat, and incumbent Council member Keani Rawlins-Fernandez, who is running to continue to represent Molokai on the Maui County Council.
“I could have just retired,” said Ritte, 77. “I love working with the young people. The three of us are running together. We’re going to be working together, not against each other.”
In the 2020 Democratic primary, DeCoite received 3,252 votes, compared with 3,158 for Ritte.
Both live in Hoolehua, Molokai.
DeCoite did not immediately respond to a request for an interview about her Senate District 7 Democratic primary race against Ritte and Leo Kaniela Caires. Tamara McKay is running unopposed in the Republican Party primary and will face the Democratic winner in the Nov. 8 general election.
DeCoite is a third-generation homestead farmer. She went to Molokai High School and then Molokai Community College.
She is a mother of three and grandmother. DeCoite and her husband own and operate L&R Farms Enterprises LLC, where they grow Molokai purple sweet potatoes.
In February 2015, Gov. David Ige appointed DeCoite to the state House to represent Lanai-Molokai-Paia-Hana. The vacancy was created by the resignation of state Rep. Mele Carroll, who left for health reasons and later died.
Then in June 2021, Ige appointed DeCoite to the state Senate to represent Hana, East and Upcountry Maui, Molokai, Lanai and Kahoolawe. Sen. J. Kalani English had resigned a month before, citing complications from COVID-19.
English, at the time, was under federal investigation for public corruption.
Earlier this month English was sentenced in U.S. District Court to three years and four months in prison for taking $18,305 in cash and hotel rooms from a wastewater treatment and industrial machinery executive to support and kill bills and provide information between 2014 and 2021.
Senior U.S. District Judge Susan Oki Mollway also fined English $100,000, half of which is due within 60 days after sentencing, and levied a $100 special assessment. He must also forfeit $13,305 in bribes he accepted.
In appointing DeCoite to English’s Senate seat in 2021, Ige said at the time that DeCoite had impressed Ige with her passion on a range of Maui County issues, including drought, tourist congestion on Hana Highway and ways to increase COVID-19 testing.
Ritte’s organizing and activism goes back to the 1970s and more recently has involved protests over the proposed Thirty Meter Telescope atop Mauna Kea. He previously was elected to serve on the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.
For the future of Molokai, Ritte told the Star-Advertiser that he, Poepoe and Rawlins-Fernandez want to see:
>> The sale of Molokai Ranch to potential mainland investors who would then turn it over to local control. Molokai Ranch encompasses one-third of Molokai, and Ritte hopes to create jobs by restoring forests and controlling over-grazing, which is destroying the Molokai reef, “the longest contiguous reef system in the U.S.,” Ritte said. “It’s horrendous. We all grew up watching the reefs turn red.”
>> “A tremendous opportunity to grow starches in the form of taro” through four Molokai north shore valleys if they have access to 20 million gallons of water.
>> A plan to manage Molokai’s axis deer population.
>> A billion-gallon reservoir turned over to the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands to develop 27,000 acres of Hawaiian homestead lands and further create jobs.
“Molokai has no shortage of plans,” Ritte said. “But implementing those plans and bringing them up to date is what the community is doing right now.”
