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BREAKING NEWS: posted Sept. 25, 8:40 a.m.
Our take on the 2006 Primary Election

by By Anthony Pignataro

September 21, 2006

By now everyone on the island who gives a damn which human beings sit in Hawai`i’s two U.S. Senate seats knows that 81-year-old Daniel Akaka handily beat back U.S. Representative Ed Case

(D, 2nd District)—just as all the big polls were saying he was going to

do. The upstart backbencher’s argument that Akaka was too old and

ineffective was no match for the wily incumbent’s considerable

financial and union support. As a result, Akaka gets the honor and

privilege of going on to the November election, where he will

presumably slaughter whichever Republican that party drafts to take

over the nomination won by Midweek columnist Jerry Coffee, who actually dropped out of the race months ago following emergency heart surgery. Speaking of troubled Midweek columnists, pro-Iraq War Republican Bob Hogue is the GOP’s choice to take on Democratic nominee and former Lt. Governor Mazie Hirono

in Ed Case’s old 2nd District Congressional seat. Hogue’s got a tough

fight against him, considering that Hirono’s progressive, anti-Iraq

views are very popular and there are just way more Democrats than

Republicans in the district. In the big state races, labor favorites Randy Iwase (a retired state Senator) and Malama Solomon

(an OHA trustee) won the nominations for Governor and Lt. Governor,

respectively, utterly smashing hopes that the party would nominate far

more progressive candidates like Waianae Harbor Master William Aila and attorney David Henkin. And given Governor Linda Lingle’s

anemic showing at the polls (she won the Republican nomination with a

mere 95.7 percent of the vote) Iwase and Solomon should have an easy

time dispatching her. Of course, the unions weren’t impervious to

defeat—Stephen West, a Wailea bartender, had both ILWU and Sierra Club backing, but still lost to longtime Kihei activist Joe Bertram III in

the Democratic 11th District state Representative race. Of course, this

means the Chamber of Commerce-endorsed Bertram will now presumably have

to talk about something other than greenways and bikeways now that he’s

taking on Republican Tony Fisher.

In the land of miniscule voter interest—I’m speaking of course of the

Westside—a major upset took place when first term 10th District

Representative Kam Tanaka lost his primary race to political newcomer Angus McKelvey.

It wasn’t even close, either, with McKelvey winning 1,359 votes, which

was nearly twice as much as Tanaka’s pathetic 689 votes.  For

McKelvey—son of Lahaina News founder and Republican activist Joan McKelvey—this was a far better result than the 2004 primary when Tanaka narrowly beat his wife Greta “Mo Bettah” McKelvey for the Democratic nomination. McKelvey now goes on to face Republican physician Ben Azman, who beat former Maui County Republican Party chairwoman Kay Ghean

by a mere 20 votes, 300 to 280, understandably prompting her to seek a

recount. And now we come to the saddest news of the night: James “Kimo” Apana’s

disappointing third—might as well be last—place finish in the

10-candidate Maui County Mayor’s race. We’ll never know if Kimo’s

hilarious insistence in The Maui News three

days before the election that the fat Maui Land & Pineapple Co. and

Alexander & Baldwin PAC contributions he was devouring weren’t

“corporate money,” but it would be fitting if that was the final nail

in the political coffin of the once king of big money politics on Maui.

Instead, county voters now get to look forward to a showdown between

termed-out Upcounty County Councilwoman Charmaine Tavares (8,701 votes) and incumbent Mayor Alan Arakawa (7,689 votes). Termed-out Wailuku Councilman Dain Kane

placed fourth in that race, brilliantly meeting the expectations of

most seasoned observers of Maui politics. Water Board Chairman Mike Victorino—benefiting

from Chamber of Commerce and `Ohana Coalition endorsements—was the big

vote-getter in the race for Kane’s old seat, beating second-place

finisher and t-shirt screener Rudy Cabebe

by nearly 15,000 votes. The race between those two in November should

be a real nail-biter. As for the four-person battle over retiring

council member Bob Carroll’s East Maui seat, about the only thing that

matters is that longtime political activist/first time candidate Lucienne de Naie

lost. Had she placed in the top two and then gone on to win in

November, her activist tendencies and anti-developer passions could

have gone a long way to changing the way the County Council does

business. Instead, Bill Medeiros—Carroll’s handpicked successor—will take on part time farmer Sam Kalalau. As for Akaku TV personality Nick Nikhilananda,

his feeble fourth-place finish arguably stripped votes away from de

Naie—who came within just 304 votes of Kalalau—and now gives him a

statewide campaign record of seven races and seven losses. His greatest

gift to the progressive, slow growth politics he supposedly holds so

dear would be to announce his refusal to ever again seek elected office

on Maui. MTW