hunterbishop.com

Interesting Hawaii County Council races developing in at least five districts could have a big impact on the nine-member panel next year.

Emily Naeole's re-election bid in the Fifth District is a featured event here of course with former Ethics Board chair Wayne Joseph and Kale Gumapac now running to unseat her.

In the Sixth District, including Kurtistown, Mountain View and Volcano, Ka'u and South Kona, incumbent Bob Jacobson faces a tough challenge from Guy Enriques, who opposed Jacobson's preservation plan at Punalu'u.

The campaign for Stacy Higa's Fourth District seat (South Hilo), which he's vacating to run for mayor, has his aide Andy Baclig, newcomer Dennis "Fresh" Onishi  and restaurateur Rhonda Nichols vying to replace him.

In the Eighth District (North Kona), fiery former Councilman Curtis Tyler joins Kelly Greenwell and Deborah Hecht in the race for the seat being vacated by mayoral candidate Angel Pilago.

And then there's the Third Council District, which includes Keaau, Kurtistown, Orchidland and Mountain View, where incumbent J Yoshimoto could see his re-election hinge on a replay of the controversial county-wide smoking ban. It was Yoshimoto's bill, which was passed over Mayor Kim's veto last month.

Yoshimoto was a low-profile first-year Councilman until proposing the smoking ban, which raised howls of protests. Now the bill's biggest public opponent, Clifford Souza, who said people opposed the Council's smoking ban by six to one, has pull papers to run for Yoshimoto's seat. So I guess we'll get to see how Souza's 6-1 assertion holds up in an election.