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Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen is headed into the November general election after leading Saturday's primary by more than 12 percentage points, according to the most recent preliminary voting results.
In a race where Bissen received 15,709 votes to Maui County Council Vice Chair Yuki Lei Sugimura’s 11,438, only 2.7% cast blank votes in the primary. In the Maui County Council races, blank votes ranged from 15.7% to 18.2%.
The third vote-getter, P. Denise La Costa, received 11.6%, or 3,940 votes -- votes that could shift elsewhere in the general election, along with those cast for the remaining mayoral candidates, who received a combined total of more than 2,000 votes.
La Costa has criticized both Bissen and Sugimura for a number of reasons, including Bissen's introduction of Bill 9, which would phase out transient vacation rental use in apartment districts, and Sugimura for failing to make firefighting improvements before the 2023 Lahaina wildfire.
La Costa said she knocked on 2,000 doors during her campaign.
"I'm disappointed that I lost," said La Costa, a former Maui Planning Commissioner and owner of a real estate brokerage business. "Anyway, I am not sure what is going to be next. I'm not a politician."
Sugimura looks ahead
Sugimura said she is happy to be one of two candidates running in the general election and focused on winning the election.
"I'm one of the two. We're doing good," she said.
Sugimura said she's talked with business owners who want to rebuild after the 2023 Lahaina wildfire and she wants to continue to meet with them to find a way of speeding up the pace.
"The people I am talking to have felt ignored, and some of them are residents that aren't able to rebuild and they are on the Front Street makai side. They're being told they cannot," she said.
Citing the approval of only five commercial permits, Sugimura criticized Bissen for prioritizing residential rebuilding while businesses have lagged behind.
"He should have focused on them simultaneously. It should have come back simultaneously or almost simultaneously," she said.
She said it was good to give residential rebuilding preferential treatment, but commercial owners are still waiting. "They've been waiting, and waiting and waiting. We want all of them to come back."
Bissen talks improvements
After the polls closed Saturday, Bissen appeared on Akakū, describing some of the major improvements under his administration, including his request for 29 firefighter positions and an increase in Maui Emergency Management Agency personnel from nine to 25, plus six positions added by the council.
Bissen said the county has added cameras in certain field locations to monitor potential wildfire areas and is moving the Maui Emergency Management Agency to an expanded location.
Bissen also noted that 600 houses have been rebuilt with 400 more under construction, and five commercial building permits have been approved with a couple more that are in progress.
He said close to 880 affordable and workforce housing units have been built in the last three years.
He added that the ʻUlu o Lele marketplace is set to open in September at the site of the former Outlets of Maui, allowing 17 businesses, including eight food trucks, to operate on a rotating basis with priority given to businesses affected by the fire.
"So there’ll be a lot of activity starting to come out," he said.
Housing, homelessness, transparency
Asked what issues drove them to vote in this election, residents cited homelessness, the lack of affordable housing and the rebuilding of Lahaina.
Outside the polling place at the Lahaina Civic Center, Kanani Higbee said she voted for Bissen.
"He seems like he may help get my family and I on Hawaiian homeland," said Higbee. "I've had to move nine times since the fire. It's been challenging."
She said her family lost multiple homes in the wildfire, and they've been waiting several generations to get Hawaiian Homestead housing.
Maui resident Patricia Noto said she voted for P. Denise La Costa because of her opposition to Bill 9.
"I clean vacation rentals, and what's happening now with Bill 9 will put me out of business," she said.
Noto said she also felt that the fire could have been prevented but improvements weren't made.
"Nothing was addressed so I think we need a different outlook," she said.
A West Maui voter who declined to identify himself said he voted only for state Rep. candidate Sne Patel because he's a leader who listens to residents about rebuilding the community.
Outside of the polling place at the Velma McWayne Santos Community Center in Wailuku, Kihei residents Vernon and Dawn Malubay declined to say who they voted for but said they are concerned about housing, homelessness, the drug crisis and corruption.
"Transparency is a big issue," said Vernon Malubay.
Lahaina fire survivor Clifton Akiyama, who is living now in Wailuku, said he was voting for Bissen.
"He worked for us in Lahaina. He shows up at all our meetings, and he's very helpful," Akiyama said. "I think he's doing a good job, and I want him to finish what he started."