The Democratic primary for the Senate seat that runs from Palolo to Diamond Head will feature three-time incumbent Sen. Les Ihara Jr. and Board of Education Chairman Randall Yee.

The winner of the primary will face either Gladys Gerlich Hayes or Michael "Big Mike" Palcic, two Republican candidates who previously ran for office without success.

Senate District 9 is comprised of a series of older neighborhoods that are undergoing a gentrification of sorts. Subdivisions built in the 1950s or earlier are slowly giving way to newer homes.

According to the 2000 Census, the median age in the district was 43, higher than the 36 median for the entire state. The district is also heavily Asian. Of the reported 46,862 people who lived in the district in 2000, 71.7 percent checked off as being Asian or part-Asian, higher than the 58 percent reported statewide.

Darlene Nakayama, a Palolo resident the past 23 years, said the aging community needs elected representatives cognizant of those demographics and who can articulate how best to address its concerns at the Legislature.

"We're looking for someone who can spearhead some programs and services to help out our elderly because our elderly population here in Palolo and the greater Kaimuki area is getting higher and higher," said Nakayama, administrator for Palolo Chinese Home the past three years. "We need legislation to bring resources to the services we need in this area."

Nakayama said the community also needs representatives who can support public schools in dire need of more resources. "Our schools are challenged, so we are looking for someone who can really support the schools," she said.

Those concerns are not lost on the candidates.

Ihara said one of his top priorities is fighting for "an aging-in-place system" of programs under the Executive Office on Aging that would benefit the community and the state.

Such programs would include a range of services from long-term care options to basic support for seniors in need of something as simple as yard work, said Ihara, who has been in the Legislature 20 years, including eight years in the House. Many pieces of the puzzle are already in place, he said, but such efforts need to be coordinated.

"When you're older, you don't know who to trust," he said. Collective, private, nonprofit organizations could be contracted that would, in turn, hire people who could provide services for seniors, he said.

Yee, the son of former state lawmaker Wadsworth Yee, is forgoing a re-election bid to the school board to run for the Senate.

"I feel that I can do more for education at the next legislative level," said Yee, who ran unsuccessfully for the City Council, the state House and the Board of Education before winning a BOE seat in 2002. "While it's been a very good learning experience on the Board of Education, it really does come down to funding and who decides the funding."

Making both the Department of Education and the school board more autonomous also are initiatives Yee wants to push.

Yee said another reason he's running is because he believes someone who has been in the Legislature as long as Ihara should be chairing powerful committees and introducing major legislation.

"There has not been a lot of evidence" of either, Yee said. "I guess it is my feeling that I think that our district should have someone that is going to do more."

Ihara, however, said he has done plenty.

"I think what people want are solutions to the problems and that's what I've done," Ihara said.

The Sierra Club, Hawai'i chapter, has named him "the most environmental senator" and he has been a co-convenor for the senior citizen caucus, he said. Additionally, he said, he has been known as a champion for open government and ethics among lawmakers.

Both Republicans vying for the seat have previously run for elected office. Hayes last ran against Ihara four years ago, while Palcic last put himself up for the state House of Representatives in 2002.

Both count education among the top concerns for the region.

Hayes said besides providing more supplies for classrooms, the area needs more programs for non-English-speaking students.

Palcic subscribes to Gov. Linda Lingle's campaign push to split the public school system into smaller school districts governed by regional school boards.

Reach Gordon Y.K. Pang at gpang@honoluluadvertiser.com.