Politics on Maui: “People-Power” Drives Progressive Candidates’ Newly Formed ‘Onipa’a 2022
By Deborah Caufield Rybek
Maui’s progressive movement has a problem once thought to be inconceivable: Political power, and how to keep it.
For decades, island progressive candidates have pounded on the doors of power, noses pressed against the glass, as they clamored for a seat at the table. Some election years, maybe one or two would slip into a County Council seat, but never in enough numbers to make a real difference politically.
That all changed in 2020, when enough progressives were elected to the Maui County Council to upset the balance of power and become the majority. Kelly Takaya King, Gabe Johnson, Tamara Paltin, Keani Rawlins-Fernandez, and Shane Sinenci transformed the nine-person council into one with a solid five-member progressive majority (with Mike Molina a pretty regular sixth vote). They had huli’ed the vote; they were finally in charge.
Same cause, new direction
But progressives’ former election clarion calls: “Vote for Change,” “Huli the Vote,” “’Nuff Already” are obsolete in 2022. Their solution to that problem arrived recently with the launch of ‘Onipa’a 2022, a hui of eight Maui County Council candidates who are determined to continue a progressive course. The group includes incumbents Johnson, Paltin, Rawlins-Fernandez, and Sinenci, and newcomers Noelani Ahia, Nara Boone, Jordan Hocker, and Robin Knox, who will hold a series of rallies around the island in the run-up to the general election on November 8.
‘Onipa’a is the Hawaiian word meaning “steadfast, immovable, resolute.” “’Onipa’a is to be steadfast in the pursuit of justice, regardless of the gale force winds that try to uproot us,” Rawlins-Fernandez said in a news release announcing the group’s formation. She called the candidate hui “unprecedented” and one that “was inspired by our community demonstrating how powerful our voices are when used as one.”
The group’s message: Vote for us, or risk losing the “community-guided” achievements we’ve made during the past two years. (Read the whole article)