{"id":870,"date":"2026-06-03T04:11:41","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T04:11:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hawaiimovinginsider.com\/?p=870"},"modified":"2026-06-03T04:11:41","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T04:11:41","slug":"former-council-member-challenges-chair-in-east-honolulu-rematch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hawaiimovinginsider.com\/?p=870","title":{"rendered":"Former council member challenges chair in East Honolulu rematch"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<section>\n<p>HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) &#8211; Former Honolulu City Council member and attorney Trevor Ozawa announced Tuesday he\u2019s running to reclaim the District 4 East Honolulu council seat.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/hawaiimovinginsider.com\/?p=868\">Spotlight Now: What to expect with hurricane season underway<\/a><\/p>\n<p>His campaign sets up a rematch against current council chair Tommy Waters.<\/p>\n<p>Ozawa and Waters, both Kamehameha Schools graduates, have faced off before in a series of close races.<\/p>\n<p>Ozawa beat Waters in 2014 by 41 votes, then won again in 2018 by 22 votes. But the Hawai\u02bbi Supreme Court later invalidated those results, triggering a special election \u201cdo-over\u201d that Waters won in 2019.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>Now, Ozawa says he\u2019s ready for another run, arguing his campaign is focused on \u201cmaking government work for local families again\u201d and bringing \u201curgency\u201d and \u201ccommon sense\u201d back to the district.<\/p>\n<p>He also questions City Council raises and whether Waters should seek a third term.<\/p>\n<p>Waters says he welcomes the challenge. \u201cI welcome him to the race. It\u2019s going to be a spirited race,\u201d Waters said. \u201cI just hope that we can keep it clean\u2026 and just run a fair, clean race.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The race also comes as questions have surfaced about the letter that led to the city clerk clearing Waters to run again. <\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/hawaiimovinginsider.com\/?p=867\">First Alert Forecast: Heavy rain possible for parts of the state today, drier windier conditions due on Wednesday<\/a><\/p>\n<p>HNN has learned the objection that prompted the clerk\u2019s determination came from Chris Butt, a longtime Waters supporter and past campaign donor. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt sounds unbelievable, but, you know, I guess I would say, it kind of makes you question what the intent is, whether it was to really educate people, whether it was to help people, whether it was to trick people, I\u2019m not sure,\u201d said Ozawa.<\/p>\n<p>Waters said Butt wrote the letter himself after Waters explained the process and said he did not engineer it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI pointed out what that process was and Chris took that and did the letter himself, so we got a determination and it feels good,\u201d said Waters. <\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m pretty confident based on my reading of the law that I\u2019m eligible to run for another term,\u201d he added. Waters says his priorities include lowering sewer fees, finding a new landfill, easing traffic, and continuing to walk the district.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/hawaiimovinginsider.com\/?p=865\">Woman arrested in connection to fatal Wahiawa stabbing; second suspect wanted<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The primary election is Sat. Aug. 8.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former Honolulu City Council member Trevor Ozawa is looking to reclaim his East Honolulu seat, challenging current chair Tommy Waters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":869,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Former council member challenges chair in East Honolulu rematch - Hawaii Moving Insider<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/hawaiimovinginsider.com\/?p=870\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Former council member challenges chair in East Honolulu rematch - 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