The Waimea Community Association will host virtual candidate forums next week as local primary elections approach.

Virtual forums scheduled for 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday, June 23, and Wednesday, June 24, will introduce candidates running for County Prosecutor, as well as those in the races for Hawai‘i County Council seats representing District 1 and District 9. Forums will be broadcast via Facebook “Live.”

The format will include back-to-back interviews followed by questions submitted ahead of time by the community. Questions may be submitted to WaimeaCommunityAssociation@gmail.com starting Wednesday, June 17.

Dates, times, races, and candidates (alphabetically) include:

• Tuesday, June 23, from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. — County Council District 9, which incorporates all of North Kohala and most of South Kohala including Waimea’s “dry side” west of Pu’unani IV and White Road, plus Kawaihae, Puako, Waikoloa, and Waiki’i. Candidates expected to participate include Philip (Ippy) Aiona, Ranae Keane, and Dr. Herbert (Tim) Richards. Then, from 6-7 p.m., candidates for County Prosecutor who are expected to participate include Jared Auna, Christopher Bridges, and Kelden Waltjen.
• Wednesday, June 24, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. — County Council District 1, which incorporates most of the Hāmākua Coast, plus “wet side” Waimea east of Pu’unani IV and White Road. Candidates expected to participate include Elroy Juan, Heather Kimball, Jaerick Medeiros-Garcia, Jaclyn Moore, Bethany Morrison, Monique Perreira and Dominic Yagong.

Go to www.Facebook.com/WaimeaCommunityAssociation at around 4:55 p.m. on the day in question and watch for a link that will be posted at the start of the program. All WCA virtual meetings and forums are recorded and saved to Facebook for viewing after-the-fact. They are also uploaded to YouTube and can be watched by going to the community association website, www.WaimeaTown.org.

Future Candidate Forums

WCA will also be holding another virtual forum spotlighting two seats for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA). The date is not confirmed. The format will be revised to accommodate all 18 of the candidates in these two races — one for the Hawai’i Island seat and one at-large seat. All voters across the state vote in both of these races. Due to time constraints, there will be no Q&A session included in the OHA forum.

WCA hosted a series of three virtual forums June 8 through June 10 with 15 of the 16 candidates for Hawai’i County Mayor. Taped replays of these forums are available on both Facebook and the association’s website.

For more information about WCA candidate forums, go the websites linked in the article above or send an email to JamesHustace@gmail.com.