COURTESY MARY ZANAKIS
Mary Zanakis spent two decades as a news reporter with KITV and KHON.
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Mary Zanakis, a former television reporter, said she intends to run in the Democratic primary for lieutenant governor.
Zanakis spent two decades as a news reporter with KITV and KHON. She won damages from KHON in 2003 after a federal jury ruled that the station had wrongly given her a new assignment and eventually fired her after she returned to work from maternity leave.
Zanakis, 56, operated a toy store in Kailua after she left the news media and is now a stay-at-home mother.
"I think I could contribute to the betterment of Hawaii’s people," she said. "I grew up here. I know the issues. I’m a single mom. I went to public school here. I have three children. And I know what the working people face.
"I think that there are a lot of tough problems out there," she said. "And I don’t have solutions for all of them, but I am a big proponent of collaboration."
Zanakis was married to the late Tom Pico Jr., an attorney and a Republican who ran unsuccessfully for several political offices.
State Sen. Clayton Hee is also challenging Lt. Gov. Shan Tsutsui in the Democratic primary.
Elwin Ahu, a former judge and senior pastor at New Hope Metro, is campaigning in the Republican primary.
Warner "Kimo" Sutton, who was co-chairman of former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum’s presidential campaign in Hawaii in 2012, said during the state GOP convention last week that he will run for lieutenant governor. Sutton said he would bring a "balance" to the GOP ticket that Ahu would not.