Fukushima said in January that he is willing to climb every hill on Kauai to knock on every door to get his message out.

The 55-year-old Kapaa resident has spent the past 10 years helping to raise his children after serving as a County Council member for 15 years, from 1981 to 1996.

“I knew somewhere, sometime, I would be back in politics,” Fukushima said. “Ten years has been a long time. It was good to step away from it, bring a (different) outlook.”

The landscape contractor and yard designer said he is looking forward to a positive campaign against incumbent Bryan Baptiste.

“Word of mouth will be very important,” Fukushima said. “These legs are going to do a lot of walking.”

The three major issues affecting Kauai, as Fukushima sees it, are traffic, property taxes and affordable housing.