Rep. John Mizuno, who has served portions of Kalihi and Kamehameha Heights for a decade, is being challenged in the Democratic primary this year by political newcomer Ikaika Hussey for the House District 28 seat. The winner will go on to face Carole Kaapu, a Republican who told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser last month that she isn’t actively campaigning for the seat.

Kaapu unsuccessfully ran for the House seat in 2010, 2012 and 2014. She said she put her name on the ballot this year to give voters more choice.

Hussey hasn’t served in elected office before, but he’s known in local media, political and activist circles as founder of The Hawaii Independent, an online commentary and news site focused on local politics.

Hussey is also publisher of Summit Magazine, which is billed as a “magazine of ideas, style and smart living.” He’s married to Marti Townsend, director of the Hawaii Sierra Club.

Hussey, who says he offers a “more progressive choice” to district voters, is among a number of new candidates running for office this year who were active in Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign in Hawaii. Hussey says he helped craft Sanders’ political platform for Native Hawaiians, which was included on Sanders’ campaign website.

Hussey has scored the endorsement of Unite Here Local 5, which represents hotel workers and has a track record of environmental and social activism, at times siding with causes that run counter to the union’s own self-interest — such as opposing the expansion of Turtle Bay Resort.

Mizuno still leads when it comes to union support, however, attracting campaign donations from ILWU Local 142, which represents agricultural workers and general trades; Ironworkers Union Local 625; the Hawaii State Teachers Association; and the Hawaii Carpenters Market Recovery Program, a PAC affiliated with Pacific Resource Partnership, which represents the construction industry.

Mizuno received $9,320 in campaign contributions from 47 donors between Jan. 1 and June 30, according to data from the Campaign Spending Commission. By comparison, Hussey raised $3,500 from four donors during the same period.

If elected, Hussey says, district residents will get someone who “supports extending the social safety net, is a champion of environmental and social justice and has had a 20-year career of being someone who is a fighter for those who need to be defended.”

He says he wants to work to raise teacher salaries, develop export-oriented industries in Hawaii to boost and diversify the economy, increase job and public-ser-vice opportunities for Kalihi youth and deepen public participation in the democratic process.

“Our state has very low turnout, and Kalihi is among the worst,” he said. “Having a robust and vigorous challenge in our little district will help us to increase turnout.”

Hussey also takes issue with a couple of the more controversial bills that were passed by the Legislature this year and supported by Mizuno. One bill, which has been signed by Gov. David Ige, allows Alexander &Baldwin to continue stream diversions in East Maui while challenges to its request for a long-term lease are resolved by state officials. Native Hawaiian and environmental activists, including Hussey’s wife, organized protests throughout this past legislative session to try to kill the bill.

Another measure, which Ige recently vetoed, would have allowed companies such as Airbnb to act as tax collection agents for the state. While the bill could help the state collect millions in taxes annually that are going unpaid by transient accommodation operators, it would also undermine an existing law aimed, in part, at cracking down on the illegal vacation rental market.

Hussey said he would have voted against both bills.

Mizuno takes umbrage with the notion that he’s not a progressive lawmaker.

As for the Airbnb bill, he said there were complex arguments on both sides of the measure. Ultimately, he said he voted for it because it would allow the state bring in tax revenue while leaving enforcement against illegal rentals to the counties.

As vice speaker of the House, he also pointed out that House leadership supported both measures and that the leadership team generally votes in lockstep. “If leadership goes up, we all go up,” he said.

He says he has a strong track record of supporting progressive issues. He was among 18 sponsors in 2014 of a bill to protect hundreds of acres of land owned by Turtle Bay from development. He called it “one of the biggest bills ever passed to keep the country country.”

Mizuno also pointed out that he backed a bill requiring the state electrical utilities to convert to 100 percent renewable energy by 2050 and a bill this year that provides financial support to a Big Island dairy.

He says he was championing progressive causes before Sanders ever ran for president. He points out that he sponsored a bill in 2007 that provided universal health care to Hawaii children.

“So when Sanders talks about universal health care — I did that nine years ago,” he said.

Funding for the insurance program was later cut off by former Gov. Linda Lingle.

He emphasizes that he isn’t far left on everything.

“You can’t just say free lunches for everyone and free this. In some aspects it is good; in others you begin to go toward socialist,” he said. “In some aspects that is good, if you have universal health care that saves money and provides quality care to everyone — that is a good idea. But you always have to balance business (interests), too.”

Mizuno said that some of the top issues facing his district are weak infrastructure, the need for affordable housing, homelessness and youth gang violence.

In addressing homelessness, he says he supports the idea of “safe zones.” Mizuno also supports “return to home” programs that reconnect homeless with family on the mainland, to which he’s donated some of his own money and airline miles. He estimates that he’s helped fly 25 homeless people out of Hawaii.