Big Island Mayor Mitch Roth and Kimo Alameda Head to Runoff Elections

Early election results suggest there will be little change on the Hawaii County Council this year, but the race between Big Island Mayor Mitch Roth and psychologist Kimo Alameda is headed to a runoff in the fall.

Roth, who is seeking a second term as county executive, received nearly 39% of the vote in the early election, while Alameda received just under 28%.

Well behind Roth and Alameda were Hilo businesswoman Breeani Kobayashi with 20% and Seaula “Junior” Tupai with 11%. Tupai was the Republican Party’s candidate for lieutenant governor in 2022, but the race for county mayor is nonpartisan.

Three lesser-known candidates in the mayoral race were Daniel Cunningham, Kavin Kahikina and Yumi Kawano, who received less than 1%.

Hilo Councilwoman Jennifer Kagiwada easily won the byelection, taking more than 64% of the vote in four districts covering downtown Hilo, Waiakea Uka and Kaumana.

Kagiwada’s closest competitor was Blaine Bautista with 18%, followed closely by Gary Napoleon Jr. with almost 12%. Grace Manipol had less than 6%.

In West Hawaii’s District 8, which includes parts of Kailua-Kona and Waikoloa, Councilman Holeka Inaba also appeared to be on track to win re-election in the primary against Caryl Burns. Inaba had 71% in early results, while Burns had less than 29%.

Any candidate who wins more than 50 percent of the vote in Saturday’s Big Island mayoral or council primary will be elected in a runoff election. In races where no candidate receives 50 percent of the vote, the two candidates with the most votes will advance to a runoff in the general election on Nov. 5.

The percentages in this article were calculated after removing blank votes and unnecessary votes.

Roth had a hard time winning a majority of votes in this year’s primary election due to the relatively large field of candidates in the mayoral race and the opposition of several public employee unions.

Roth served as the elected Hawaii County Attorney from 2012 to 2020 before successfully running for mayor in 2020. Alameda is the former Director of Aging for the Hawaii County Office of Aging and the former CEO of Bay Clinic Health Center.

Both Roth and Alameda are Hilo residents who ran civil campaigns, but the race was overshadowed by tragedy this spring. Alameda’s wife, Star, 55, was found unresponsive in the couple’s home and died May 3 after emergency personnel were unable to revive her.

Alameda’s campaign went on hiatus for a while, but on June 8 he announced he was resuming his campaign for mayor.

Hawaii’s public employee unions typically support incumbents, but Alameda this year had support from the Hawaii State Police Officers Organization, the United Public Workers union and the Hawaii Government Employees Association.

Unions have been pushing the state and counties to pay tens of millions of dollars in bonuses for work performed by thousands of their members during the pandemic, but Hawaii County, under Roth, has so far refused to accept the payments.

This has been a sore point for the unions, because each has specific provisions in their contracts that call for hazard pay in certain circumstances. Unions have reached settlements or won arbitration decisions on hazard pay on other islands.

Roth considers this year’s Point in Time data on homelessness in Hawaii County a key achievement for his administration, as it showed a 28 percent drop in the number of homeless people on the island over the past year.

He also cites improvements to the county’s historically inefficient building permitting process, as well as a history of paving more than 70 miles of roads since 2020. He also says his administration has made significant progress in increasing the supply of affordable housing in the county.

Alameda counters that the county’s initiative to allocate millions of dollars in additional funding for homeless programs — which many believe has helped lower the homeless population — actually originated in the Hawaii County Council.

He also questioned whether the changes the Roth administration made to the building permitting process had been as effective as Roth suggests.

On the hot topic of the Thirty Meter Telescope, Roth said the project should have been done while Alameda and his family protested the TMT in 2019. However, Alameda said that a lot has changed in recent years and he might be open to the project if the community agrees, if certain conditions are met and if the project is “done fairly.”

Most of the current Hawaii County Council members appeared to have comfortable leads in their races, according to early results. The only exception was West Hawaii County Councilwoman Cindy Evans, a longtime state representative who trailed in early results in District 9.

James Hustace led the race for the district council seat that includes Waimea, Waikoloa and Hawi with more than 43% of the vote. Evans had less than 39% in early results, while Michael Konowicz had 17%.

Council Speaker Heather Kimball appeared to win the early election in District 1, which covers the Hamakua Coast, with nearly 54 percent of the vote.

Brittany Anderson had nearly 29%, while BJ Penn, a former mixed martial arts fighter, had 17%.

In West Hawaii, Councilwoman Rebecca Villegas also appeared to be on track to win the primary in the five-way council race in District 7, which includes Keauhou, Holualoa and part of Kailua. Villegas had more than 55% in early results, while her closest rival Zahz Hewlen had 13%.

Also running in the race are Joshua Montgomery with 10%, Wesley Moore with almost 12% and Jennifer Wilkinson with 9%.

Dennis “Fresh” Onishi, who previously served four two-year terms on the County Council, also appeared to win election to the Hilo council seat for District 3, which includes Keaukaha, Panaewa and parts of Waiakea.

Onishi, who served on the board from 2008 to 2016, was leading in the first print of the evening with almost 53%, followed by Kelton Chang with almost 22%. Kaloa Robinson had 19% in early results, followed by Leomana Turalde with 6%.

Council member Michelle Galimba also appeared to be on track to win re-election in the four-candidate race in the massive District 6, which stretches from the Volcano area through Pahala, South Point and Hawaiian Ocean View Estates to Kealakekua.

Galimba was leading with 56%, while her rival Marie Burns had 5%; Kyle Jones had almost 10%; and Ikaika Kailiawa-Smith had almost 29%.

Councilmember Matt Kanealii-Kleinfelder led in a tighter five-candidate race in Upper Puna’s District 5, which includes Keaau, Hawaiian Acres and Mountain View.

Kanealii-Kleinfelder received nearly 45%, while his primary opponent, former county Department of Public Works Director Ikaika Rodenhurst, had nearly 26%. Also in the race were Aaron Tolentino with more than 22%; Sysha-Marie Torres with 3%; and Haylie Taylor with 4%.

Councilwoman Ashley Kierkiewicz, representing Ward 4 in Lower Puna, did not have an opposing candidate this year.