HONOLULU – The Hawaii Lodging & Tourism Association -the state’s largest private sector tourism organization with 700 members representing more than 50,000 hotel rooms and nearly 40,000 lodging workers – recently announced its endorsements of candidates seeking office in November’s General Election.

HLTA President and CEO Mufi Hannemann said, “HLTA’s endorsements include candidates we supported in the Primary Election as well as those who had automatic berths in November’s races.

“These selections were based on a comprehensive process that involved invited candidates completing a tourism-centric questionnaire on issues of importance to our industry, evaluations by our state endorsement committee and county chapters, and final approval by our statewide board of directors. Our decisions were based largely on island-by-island grassroots input from those most familiar with the candidates and their records.”

The Hawaii Lodging & Tourism Association reaffirmed its support for endorsed candidates who won their respective races in the Primary Election. Hannemann said, “For the executive level, we’re carrying forward our endorsements of Governor David Ige, Maui mayoral candidate Mike Victorino, and Kauai mayoral candidate Derek Kawakami, all of whom came through in impressive fashion in August and head to the General Election this November, where we’ll also be backing Senator Josh Green in his pursuit of the lieutenant governor’s seat.”

In addition to its County Council endorsements made in the Primary Election, HLTA extended its support to Rick Nava in Maui County, Rebecca Villegas in the County of Hawaii and Kelly Kitashima in the City and County of Honolulu.

Listed below are the Hawaii Lodging & Tourism Association’s 2018 General Election endorsements for Maui races: Senate District 7, J. Kalani English; House District 8, Justin Woodson; House District 9, Kyle Yamashita; and Maui Mayor, Mike Victorino.

For the Maui County Council seats, the HLTA endorsements are: Rick Nava, West Maui; Alice Lee, Wailuku-Waihee-Waikapu; Alan Arakawa, Kahului; Kelly King, South Maui; Mike Molina, Makawao-Haiku-Paia; Yuki Lei Sugimura, Upcountry; Riki Hokama, Lanai; and Stacy Helm Crivello, Molokai.

The Hawaii Lodging & Tourism Association is a nonprofit statewide trade organization of lodging properties, lodging owners and management companies, suppliers and related firms and individuals.

Founded in 1947, it is now the state’s largest private sector tourism organization.

Today, HLTA consists of 700 members representing more than 50,000 hotel rooms and nearly 40,000 lodging workers.