MEDIA RELEASE

The District V Council of the Hawaii Democratic Party met Friday, Dec. 27, to consider nine candidates who applied for the State House District 5 seat recently vacated by Rep. Denny Coffman.

The nine candidates who applied to be among the three nominees submitted to Gov. Neil Abercrombie for selection were: Abigail Au, Kaliko Chun, Richard Creagan, Barbara Dalton, Una Greenaway, Lei Kihoi, Gene “Bucky” Leslie, Michael Matsukawa, and Steve Sakala.

Thirteen members of the District Council participated in the ranking and selection process to determine the three nominees to the House Seat. Four members of the District Council – Creagan, Dalton, Greenaway, and Matsukawa – applied for the position and were recused from the meeting and the selection process.

According to District 5 spokesman John Buckstead, “the ranking and selection process maximized the preferences of the Council members, and folks were pleased that we are able to submit three well qualified nominees to the Governor and that the process of making the selection was very fair and transparent to the voters.”

The names of the three nominees will be released by the governor or the chairman of the Democratic Party of Hawaii.

With the opening of the Legislative session being less than three weeks away, a selection by the governor is expected soon.