Elections 2022: Honolulu City Council District 2 has five candidates

First term 2018-2022 City Councilwoman Heidi Tsuneyoshi has chosen to run for Governor instead of running for a second term at Honolulu Hale.

City Council Candidates for Elections 2022

It’s interesting to note that Chad Tsuneyoshi, the husband of present City Councilmember Heidi Tsuneyoshi, filed to run for the same office at the very last minute. The couple recently underwent a divorce. However, political cynics question if this was a convenience for the gubernatorial candidate to not have to address any further background questions relating to Chad Tsuneyoshi’s past criminal record.

A question of his filing is whether Chad Tsuneyoshi thinks he could capitalize on the name recognition in Council District 2. Incumbent politicians always have a huge advantage in re-elections due to name recognition unless there is a huge monumental scandal or corruption. (However, incumbent CM Heidi Tsuneyoshi, has made some very troublesome decisions as the District 2 council member.)

Here is some information about Chad Tsuneyoshi from public records.

Apparently, Chad Tsuneyoshi has been working very hard with political campaigns, including Ernie Martin, Charles Djou, Trevor Ozawa, his wife’s city council campaign in 2018 and perhaps other candidates.’

Editor Andrew Walden from Hawaii Free Press described Chad Tsuneyoshi as such:

Convicted cocaine dealer Chad Tsuneyoshi is taking over as Honolulu Council Chair Ernie Martin’s Campaign Treasurer

My own personal experiences with the Chad and Heidi Tsuneyoshi were from my city council campaign in 2018. Chad Tsuneyoshi was managing his wife’s campaign.

We had one of the more nasty campaigns that included anonymous negative attacks through USPO mailings and email, stolen and vandalized political banners, mass facebook messaging behind our backs, social media trolls injecting fabricated rumours and smears in conversations, and so on.

This was a period that had one of those “in your face” tactics that everybody could logically guess which campaign camp the perpetrators were from. But nobody had the time or resources to get to the bottom of it.

UGLY TACTICS

CIVIL BEAT: Envelopes sent with no return address arrived at homes across north Oahu this summer. Inside were flyers criticizing the political record of Robert “Bobby” Bunda, one of four candidates in the Honolulu City Council District 2 race.

Dave Burlew, a Kahuku farmer also running for the seat, was shocked to receive one of these letters and even more surprised to find “VOTE DAVE BURLEW FOR CITY COUNCIL!!” at the bottom of the flyer along with his P.O. box number.

“That’s when it got ugly,” Burlew said.

Burlew said he does not know who is responsible for the flyers. Heidi Tsuneyoshi and Choon James, the two other candidates in the race, also say they have no knowledge of where the letters come from. “

Logic told us that Robert Bunda could not be the person to smear himself. Dave Burlew and I (Choon James) were friends with similar values. Both of us knew 100% we did not do that. So, who was left?

Unite Local 5 which endorsed Robert Bunda in 2018 had this to say:

“July 2018 – Some may disagree with our support of Bobby Bunda, and that’s ok. But we’re confident Bobby is the best candidate for Council District 2.

Bobby has never shied away from criticism, but he has also been subject to a series of unfair, illegal and anonymous mailers that do not reflect the values of our hard working families in District 2. The sender of these mailers want you to believe they came from Dave Burlew, another candidate in the race, but he sent a statement to the State Campaign Spending Commission saying he had nothing to do with the mailers.

Before you vote, or even if you have already voted, you should know the whole truth behind each candidate. Google search Heidi Tsuneyoshi, Dave Burlew, Choon James and Bobby Bunda and start learning the facts. Also, ask yourself which candidate has enough money to pay for an expensive mass mailing campaign and stands to gain the most from attacking Bobby Bunda?

Tsuneyoshi’s Donations for her City Council race included these:

Heidi Tsuneyoshi was one of the very few selected candidates who received donations from indicted organized crime boss Michael Miske. Tsuneyoshi did not respond to Civil Beat’s request for comment.

Tsuneyoshi also received $31,950 from Mitsunaga & Associates whose principals have recently been indicted along with City Prosecutor Keith Kaneshiro for charges of conspiracy and bribery practices.

Leave a Reply