Former City Councilman Stanley Chang and two first-time candidates — a doctor and a dentist — are vying for the chance to replace the lone Republican in the state Senate.

Dr. Michael Bennett, an ophthalmologist, Dr. Richard Y. Kim and Chang are running in Senate District 9, which stretches from Diamond Head and Kahala to Hawaii Kai.

Sen. Sam Slom, 74, has represented the area since he was first elected in 1996, and is unopposed in the Republican primary. He weathered coronary bypass surgery in April.

Chang, 33, who grew up in Kahala, represented East Honolulu on the City Council from 2011 through 2014. He earned his undergraduate and law degrees from Harvard and has worked as a real estate attorney and consultant.

“I think our community really needs somebody who listens and who can get the job done,” Chang said. “In the 2010 campaign I knocked on 19,000 doors. The overwhelming No. 1 issue that people raised with me was road maintenance.

“I was able to lead the charge to triple the road maintenance program and have many key communities in East Honolulu repaved. It’s that kind of effectiveness that I’d like to bring to the state Senate.”

Chang also cited his efforts to ban smoking at certain beach parks, later extended islandwide.

These days the top issue that comes up when Chang goes door to door is homelessness, which he says requires a multifaceted approach. While on the Council, Chang sponsored a bill to ban sleeping or lying on sidewalks in Waikiki. He said that has helped ensure public access but that more needs to be done to deal with the root of the problem.

“We need more shelter,” he said in a phone interview. “We need more affordable housing. We need more good job options. Probably most importantly, we need better drug and substance treatment and better psychiatric care options and availability for the homeless.”

Bennett, founder of the Retina Institute of Hawaii, decided to run for office because he thinks it’s important that people who have experience in real-world jobs take a turn at the Legislature, rather than deferring to politicians-for-life.

“Once you’ve succeeded in business and learned your lessons in business, you should try to give back to society,” he said. “It should be a limited time. You give back, you help, then you get out of the way and make room for the next person.

“Politics is not a business per se, but if we would run it more as a business and brought efficiency back into the system, we would have more money to apply where it is really needed,” Bennett said.

He also considers homelessness a complex issue, encompassing folks with mental health or drug problems, and people who want to work but can’t find jobs, as well as “nomadic roamers.” He thinks the system should help people who are willing to work.

“If we want to subsidize anything, we should subsidize those people that are working that are barely making it,” he said. “We have to somehow reward those people that are really willing to work and to drive and build our society.”

The Kahala resident founded Project Vision, which gives free eye screening to children and is now an independent charity. He has crossed the Molokai Channel on his paddleboard and competed in many Ironman triathlons.

Kim, the third candidate, an Aina Haina resident, declined to be interviewed by the Honolulu Star-Advertiser because he believes the newspaper is biased because a columnist wrote about the race but left him out.

In public postings on his Facebook page, Kim says he is running to promote the aloha spirit and improve mental health in Hawaii, and that he will rely on common sense as his guide.

He would like to create a nonprofit “Aloha Department” bringing together “well respected, retired kupunas from diverse racial and ethic groups, guiding us under only one name and one spirit, Aloha Spirit.”

“Aloha Department will be independent, financially as well as from any government influence,” he wrote. “It will not impose any new tax to People of Hawaii, since it will be supported by anyone (everyone) visiting our island paradise.”

Kim, 55, received his doctorate in dental surgery from Columbia University in 1993. He said he works as a traveling dentist.

“I am not getting any endorsement like other career politicians,” he wrote. “My motto is No Endorsement, No Special Interest, No Cronyism. So, I can get into legislature with a very neutral (clean) position.”