Tina Wildberger will vigorously represent us

In January 2012, The Maui News ran a story that shocked South Maui: The biggest retail shopping mall in the county was going to be built on ranch land mauka of Piilani Highway near the Kihei high school site. No one in the community knew anything about it.

So the Kihei Community Association held a public meeting at which now state House candidate Don Couch and then Planning Director Will Spence stood before a packed house and told worried citizens that the project was fully entitled, nothing could be done about it, and chastised us for not speaking up when we supposedly had a chance.

This was entirely false — the state Land Use Commission had approved the site for development of a light industrial park.

Neither Couch, Spence, the mayor nor others in the Arakawa administration had any interest in abiding by the LUC order, or the Kihei Community Plan for that matter. After a contested case hearing before the Land Use Commission, it predictably found the project to be in violation of its 1995 development order.

No way should anyone in south Maui vote for Mr. Couch for state House District 11, a company man. And now he’s masquerading as a Democrat after being a longtime registered Republican.

We have a solid state House District 11 candidate, Tina Wildberger, a true Democrat, who will vigorously represent us, the people of South Maui, with energy, integrity and conscience. Say good-bye to Mr. Couch.

Mark Hyde Kihei