UPDATE:  7/12/16 At last evening’s Young Dems South Maui Candidates forum, President Tim Lara announced another forum on 7/24 at 4:00 PM in Wailuku for that area’s (the 3 W seat) County Council seat, vacated by Mike Victorino. We remind everyone that race, as all 9 races, are vital to the S Maui Community. We are equally affected by ALL Council mmebers.

7/8/16   Our forums on July 19 (Primary) and October 18 (General) are not restricted by topics nor political affiliation. If you are on the ballot in one our selected races, you are invited. And our members have no restriction on topics for questions and discussions, but other forums do because they have their own agendas. We already advised the Young Democrats say no Republicans at their Monday one in Kihei, understandable as the are a political party

Now we see two more forums, these presented by the Hawaii Farmers United Union (HFUU) concentrating on sustainable Ag & food self-sufficiency, again understandable, as these are small farmers. KCA agrees these are very important issues, and we cannot reach everyone nor all topics, so we value these more specialized forums to educate Maui Community, and encourage participation.

So on THIS Wednesday 7/13 at 6 PM at the Tarvares Community Center in Pukalani, HFUU invites State Legislature candidates “who have competitive races in the 8/1316 election.” Then on July 27 at Baldwin H S in Wailuku also at 6 PM, they have Council candidates.

Thus our expectation is the State one would have more races, since that system is by party. So the primary for each party (Democrat anyway) eliminates all but one candidate, so two individuals make it competitive. Conversely for county council, if just two individual run, there is no primary contest, as both proceed to general election. Thus our guess is the July 13 event would include four “competitive,” with eight guys, and the Council one on July 27 would have just South Maui (4), “W3” (5) and Upcountry (4) with more individuals (13), but fewer contests(3). Of course this is if everyone participated, and HFUU agrees with our expectation.