As rumors swirl about who will and won’t be on the mayoral ticket in 2016, two Big Island figures have confirmed they are considering a run for county’s top post.
As rumors swirl about who will and won’t be on the mayoral ticket in 2016, two Big Island figures have confirmed they are considering a run for county’s top post.
Former Kohala Councilman Pete Hoffmann and Puna Sen. Russell Ruderman say it could be months before they make a final decision. Candidate filings open Feb. 1, 2016.
Hoffmann, 74, said he has been approached by community members asking him to run, and thinks his eight years on the County Council help position him with the background and experience for the job. But he doesn’t want to enter the race if he determines between now and September that it would be a waste of time and resources.
“It’s easy for us running for office to be swept up in an exaggerated sense of our own popularity,” he said in a phone interview Wednesday. “People have come up to me and said, ‘you have to run,’ but I want to make sure it’s not just a few people I have met at lunch.”
Hoffmann, of Waikoloa, announced he is considering a run at a private gathering in mid-June. He plans to host additional talk-story sessions around the island to help determine if a mayoral candidacy would make sense. He will not make a final decision before September, Hoffmann said.
Hoffmann said the county must take a strong role in relieving the affordable housing crunch and give more assistance to nonprofits in food distribution. A growing number of children on the island are food insecure, he said.
“The nonprofits are doing a good job but they need support,” he said.
Hoffmann is against waste-to-energy as a solution to the Big Island’s solid waste problems. The island likely is to enter a period of surging development, and Hoffmann said he isn’t anti-development but wants to see projects that meet the needs of developers and the community.
Although the dispute about the Thirty Meter Telescope is taking place on lands under state jurisdiction, Hoffmann said he would like to see the county engage more in discussions as a stakeholder.
Hoffmann said his decision on whether to run will not be influenced by other candidates entering the race because he doesn’t see himself as running against other candidates, nor against the current administration.
“I want to run for effective solutions going into the future,” he said.
Hoffmann has served on the University of Hawaii Board of Regents and has continued as a substitute teacher at Waikoloa schools and as a member of the board of directors of the West Hawaii Community Health Center since he was term-limited on the council in 2012. A retired U.S. Army colonel, Hoffmann received the Outstanding Older American Award for the County of Hawaii in 2013.
Ruderman said the mayor’s seat is one of several options he’s considering, but it is too early to go into further detail. Ruderman is the president and founder of Island Naturals organic and natural foods, with stores in Kailua-Kona, Hilo and Pahoa. A state senator representing Puna and Ka‘u since 2012, Ruderman was instrumental in passing legislation creating a farm-to-school program within the Hawaii Department of Agriculture last session, and pushed for truth-in-labeling as chairman of the Committee on Agriculture. Ruderman lost that seat in a power shakeup that also saw the removal of Kona Sen. Josh Green from the chairmanship of the Committee on Health.
Ruderman was named the Hawaii Small Business Person of the Year, and was honored last month in Washington, D.C., by the U.S. Small Business Administration.
Email Bret Yager at byager@westhawaiitoday.com.