Longtime Democrat and former state Rep. David Tarnas is attempting a comeback to elected office in the state House district that includes Kohala and portions of North Kona, but to succeed he would have to bounce longtime state Rep. Cindy Evans out of office in the Aug. 13 primary.

Evans, 63, is part of the House leadership team that pushed a new law through the Legislature in 2015 authorizing Gov. David Ige to privatize three state-run hospitals in Maui County. That effort has been bitterly opposed by the United Public Workers union and the Hawaii Government Employees Association.

Both of those unions have endorsed Tarnas, who said he opposes further hospital privatization right now. The public hospitals are in “dire straits,” Tarnas said, but said he wants to make improvements and build efficiencies into the existing system.

Evans is seeking an eighth term in the House, where she has risen to the post of majority floor leader for the Democrats. Her responsibilities there include quarterbacking House floor sessions, preparing summaries of bills for her fellow Democrats and running the closed-door caucuses where the Democrats decide how to handle bills that are positioned for final votes.

She has held that post for six years, and is also a founder and co-chairwoman of the Outdoor Heritage Caucus, which brings together lawmakers who want to support outdoor recreation.

Evans is married to Rick Evans and is a full-time lawmaker. She has a bachelor’s degree in business management from Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash., and previously worked for AT&T for 13 years. She also worked for more than a dozen years in three departments of Washington state government, which she says gave her a depth of understanding of how state government functions. She moved to Hawaii in 1998.

Evans said her key accomplishments include helping to fund the newly established Hawaii Community College Palamanui campus in North Kona and improvements to the Kawaihae recreational harbor. Those include a new waterline, a floating dock, bathrooms and a paved access road.

She also cited an assortment of projects for the schools in the district, including funding for a new classroom building at Waikoloa Elementary School this year and for a new classroom building at Waimea Middle School last year. Plans for a new classroom building at Kohala Middle School are also in the works, she said.

In addition, she worked to obtain funding for the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority, and has been laying the groundwork for a veterans center in West Hawaii. Site selection for that project is in the works, she said.

Looking ahead, Evans said she wants to complete her six-year effort to establish a library at Waikoloa and also wants to help promote agriculture.

“I’ve been in the middle of this, and I’m going to continue to be in the middle of supporting our farmers,” she said. That effort will involve providing funding to develop water systems for agriculture, and support for farmers to help them comply with federal food safety regulations without increasing the cost of locally grown food, Evans said.

She also supports “efforts to continue to look at the safety of agricultural practices and the use of pesticides.” Evans was endorsed by the Hawaii Center for Food Safety, which has been lobbying against genetically modified crops and pressing for stricter regulation of pesticides in Hawaii.

Other endorsements include the Hawaii State Teachers Association, Hawaii Island Contractors Association and Hawaii Association of Realtors.

Tarnas, 55, is a Waimea resident who has lived in the district for 30 years; he and his wife, Carolyn Stewart, raised their children, Jesse and Maya, there. He was elected to two terms in the House, and served from 1994 to 1998 until he lost to Republican Jim Rath. Now that his children are grown, Tarnas said he is ready to return to public office.

Tarnas and Stewart have an environmental consulting business that handles permitting, environmental impact statements and planning for government agencies and private clients statewide, including residential and commercial developments.

Tarnas said he is usually the point person in interacting with stakeholders to be sure the issues surrounding each project are addressed.

Projects he worked on include the Kiholo State Park Reserve plan and the Thirty Meter Telescope. Tarnas also helped develop the fuel supply plan for a biofuels power plant under construction in East Hawaii called Hu Honua Bioenergy.

A state lawmaker can serve as “an advocate for our constituents, and an advocate for those industries that are a good fit for our community, and I think that’s important, and I think that there’s been a lack of that kind of advocacy and a lack of involvement of elected officials in helping to bridge this gap that’s between those who are opposed and those who are advocates,” he said.

Tarnas is active in community organizations, serving on the Hawaii County Agricultural Commission, and as the Hawaii County Democratic Party chairman from 2013 to 2015. He also plays the flute at community art events, he said.

During his four years at the state Legislature, Tarnas sponsored a bill to establish the West Hawaii Regional Fishery Management Area, which protected portions of the coastline to give fish stocks a chance to recover.

“It was successful,” said Tarnas, who was endorsed by the Sierra Club of Hawaii. “We have now 15-plus years of data showing that because of these management measures, we have increased the fish populations in our coral reef areas, and the fisheries for aquarium fish collecting has dramatically improved,” he said.

In the future, Tarnas said, he wants to focus on getting state government to strengthen a sustainable agricultural industry that includes both large-scale “industrial agriculture” and small-scale distributed production.

That would include both food and energy crops as well as genetically modified crops “that are very appropriate for this island, but we just have to do it in the right way so we protect the environment,” he said.

Tarnas said he also believes astronomy is important for the economic future of Hawaii, but it too must be done in a way that protects the environment and cultural resources.

Tarnas is also enthused about ocean science and technology, and says the Legislature should get more involved in that industry to encourage investment in environmental monitoring and open-ocean aquaculture.

“There’s too many folks in state government who are trying to avoid conflicts rather than get actively engaged in resolving the conflicts and moving forward,” he said. “We have to produce more of the food and energy on this island, and I think the ocean is going to play a critical role in that, and I think the rest of the world will look to Hawaii to see how we do it.”