Six Hawaii Reps Could Face Incumbents Next Year
Under new for Hawaii, six incumbent state representatives would end up having to square off against another incumbent in next year’s elections.
The released on Wednesday for new state House and Senate districts. The committee’s plans draw 51 House and 25 Senate districts by shifting around borders to reflect population growth over the past decade and to include military and college student populations, which previously weren’t counted.
Although current lawmakers’ home addresses are not part of the , Civil Beat has confirmed that under the proposed draft, two incumbent West Oahu representatives, two incumbent East Oahu representatives and two incumbent Big Island representatives would face one another in next year’s elections. The number of House and Senate seats in each of the four counties won’t change under the new plans.
The technical committee of the Reapportionment Commission reported that it could not agree on a single proposal for Hawaii’s two Congressional districts, and instead put forward two options.
The full commission is expected to approve three draft plans — one House, Senate and Congressional plan — at its .
The following six House representatives would be placed into the same district under the plan:
East Oahu
- Mark Hashem — currently represents District 18: Hahaione, Kuliouou, Niu Valley, Hawaii Loa Ridge, Aina Haina, Wailupe, Kahala
- Barbara Marumoto — currently represents District 19: Kaimuki, Waialae, Kahala
West Oahu
- Rida Cabanilla — currently represents District 42: Waipahu, Honouliuli, West Loch, Ewa
- Kymberly Pine — currently represents District 43: Ewa Beach, Iroquois Point, Puuloa
Big Island
- Mark Nakashima — currently represents District 1: North Kohala, South Kohala, Hamakua, North Hilo, South Hilo
- Jerry Chang — currently represents District 2: South Hilo, Waiakea High, Kaumana, Keaukaha
The proposed Senate districts would not affect incumbent senators.
Commission Chairwoman Victoria Marks stressed that the proposals are not final.
“We will be acting on the proposed plans at the Aug. 5 meeting. From there it will go out for public hearings,” Marks said. “There’s nothing final about this; it’s a step in the process.”
The commission is under a to approve three draft plans by Sunday. After public hearings, it has until Sept. 26 to file final proposals with the Chief Elections Officer, who then has until Oct. 10 to publish the plans.
The draft plans released Wednesday include non-resident military personnel, college students and felons in the base population.
Commission member Dylan Nonaka, who is on the technical committee, said the group could not draw up another set of proposals that don’t count military and college students because it lacked data from the military.
Amid threats of legal challenges to the commission’s decision to include non-resident military, Marks had previously recommended the panel draw up various scenarios to be safe.
“There have been comments made about the commission ignoring the public,” Nonaka said regarding the proposals reflecting plans with military included. “I know that that’s not true. From a practical standpoint, to this point we have been unable to do that … We wouldn’t be able to meet the deadline … even if we wanted to (extract the military population).”
David Rosenbrock, redistricting project manager with the Office of Elections, said he is still awaiting population data from the Department of Defense. He said he hasn’t received a breakdown of active-duty residents and non-residents, as well as where these individuals live.
Here’s an overview look at the proposed House and Senate districts for Oahu.
