Video by David Corrigan | Voice of Stephanie Salazar

A familiar face in Puna’s political scene was present at last Saturday’s Geothermal community meeting in Pahoa.

Emily Neaole, the former Puna Councilwoman who was unseated by Fred Blas this past election, made some interesting hints about her own political plans in the near future.

“I’m even thinking about running for state senate,” Naeole said to the crowd during a public question and answer session with geothermal energy royalty panelists, “because we gotta take care of business. I want to speak to Kokubun (former state senator) and Hanonhano (state rep) to see if we could bring some of money from the state royalty to Puna. Never happened. So somebody gotta make it happen.”

State Senater of the district, Gil Kahele, and State Rep. Faye Hanoho, were both in attndance, but had left before Naeole’s statement.