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Politics, Commentary
Politics, Commentary Wednesday
08Nov
Feuding cousins win Puna elections
Wednesday, November 8, 2006 at 07:06AM Hanohano and Naeole supported each other's opponent
Faye Hanohano won rather easily after all in the 4th District State House race, I am happy to report this morning, and Emily Naeole scored the huge upset over three-term incumbent Gary Safarik that was anticipated.
I admit I'm still a little groggy after a long day and night observing the voting process in the Hilo elections office where all Hawaii County ballots are collected and counted. Let me say quickly that there are many good, hard-working people dedicated to safeguarding the integrity of the elections, and I saw nothing suspicious or untoward during the primary or general election ballot-counting process. But what my observations are worth, I can't tell you.
Anyway, Hanohano ended up with 3,307 votes but couldn't break the majority mark (49.8 percent without counting the blank ballots) largely because of Libertarian Aaron Anderson drew 609 votes, or 9.2% of the total.
Most surprising was that GOP candidate Brian Jordan, mounting a vigorous campaign in his third bid for the seat in six years, actually had 193 fewer votes, 2719 (40.9 %), than he had in 2004 . Of course there were 880 fewer total votes in the race on Tuesday than in the presidential election year of 2004.
But on Tuesday Hanohano had 932 fewer votes than Helene Hale's total in 2004, indicating the falloff I predicted among Dems possibly uninspired by Hanohano's lackluster campaign, which apparently benefited Anderson not Jordan, whose support in the district peaked at 42 percent in 2002 against Hale.
Meanwhile Hanohano's Puna cousin Emily Naeole pulled off the huge win over three-term Fifth District Council incumbent Gary Safarik with 2,839 votes (55.5%) to Safarik's 2,277 (44.5%), despite Hanohano's support for Safarik, a fellow Democrat though running in the non-partisan Council race.
Naeole retaliate against her cousin by throwing her campaign support to Jordan. In the end the cousins each won, but not the candidates they supported.
Nevertheless Naeole increased her lead over Safarik from the primary by picking up more of the additional votes available in the general election, including 970 more ballots cast and the 1,031 votes for the three candidates in the primary who didn't make the general election runoff.
Naeole picked up 1,198 votes from her primary total; Safarik picked up 1,076 votes, increasing Naeole's margin over Safarik to 564 votes from the primary. About half as many blank ballots cast Tuesday increased the totals.
Congratulations and condolences today to whomever they apply, and good luck to us all.
I've gotta go. Big family reunion time in Florida this week, and I'm dead if I don't make the flight. I'll keep posting as I can. A hui hou.
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Reader Comments (85)
The council-representative candidate cross support (Naeole/Jordan, Safarik/Hanohano) had nil effect.
Aaron Anderson has shown that voters are not content with the limit of choices offered by the R & D parties.
With two new elected officials from Puna, there may be a chance for some new ideas.
The biggest down side is the low voter turnout. According to the Tribune-Herald's "This day in history", in 1956, 89.2% of registered voters voted in the general election.
No matter who any of us did or did not vote for this time, we ALL must commit to getting more people to register and vote in the future.
Just before the election, Kim Jordan asked, in a post here, what would there be to do after the election. I thought that was a most reasonable sentiment. Can we try to figure out a way to get more -- lots more -- people involved in the democratic process?
Ounce again blind obedience has prevailed with the win of F. Hanohano. It is quite apparent that all that is necessary to be successful in the Puna House is to be a Democrat. I do believe that Brian stood behind all of the issues with intelligent answers. Hanohano on the other hand just keep her mouth shut and road in on the coattails of the Democratic machine. Hats off to you Brian you gave it a Hell of a good try and you should have won.
Hanohano, I hope that you do some talking for all of us Puna residents when you make it to Honolulu and not just pull the party line handle. You now represent us and we will back you if you work for all of us. Best wishes to you and yours, and good luck when you get to the Honozoozoo.
Emily, you ran a good race and you pulled it off.
Now go into that lions den with some fire and brimstone and if they give you a ration of b/s you just wack them with that bible of yours. You now have all of our support and we will be counting on you to make Puna a better place.
Respectfully Yours,
The Lack
Aaron Anderson....you remind me of my neighbor, the late Jerry Rothstein.I am sure you both had a lot in common. I give you credit for always running and being a good sport about it afterwards. Take care.
James...good question on how to get more people involved and voting. I am sure if more locals turned out to vote here in Kona, Isbell would have been re-elected.
Without regard to any particular recent results, we all get better results from democracy when more people participate.
The future is our opportunity, the past is our tutor.
We have learned that not enough people vote, now we know that what we must get done is having more people involved.
You have set yourself an worthy task, to get more 'locals' registered to vote and to participate in the future. I am confident you will excel!
Please, those of you who are fairly new and new coming from the mainland try to understand this, quit being so selfish and fearfull. You moved to this beautiful island because it is paradise. There are many of us that want to preserve that. Ain't gonna happen if people keep clearcutting and try to impose mainland ideals.
If you have ever spent any time with the Hawaiian peoples you would have no fear but would feal the aloha and know that they are an inclusive peoples. All they ask is that you respect the aina (land), the culture and the peoples. Take some time to learn about the history of these wonderful Islands. We have a chance to allow a Culture (who once again the white man stole from), to be able to honor their kupuna and the land.Please leave your mainland attidudes and I'm pretty sure you know what they are, and enjoy the love, the community and all the Hawaiian Peoples and Hawaii have to offer!
What I'm confused about is that Gary was quoted in the Tribune saying that he was willing to help Naeole transition into the council seat? I guess those were just lies OR he was misquoted. From the sound of your blog, she will not be able to get any support from Safarik or his constituents.
To me, that's sad. It makes "those people" sound petty and selfish. They're just thinking of themselves and not the people of PUNA like they say they do. I know that if Emily hadn't won, she would still be out there helping the people of PUNA and Safarik to make PUNA a better place.
I read these anti Emily blogs and I can't help but wonder (because more that 90% are written by white people) what are you afraid of? Please tell me because I FEAR that that your fear?anger is what will be the destruction of this wonderful paradise and way of life!
With the aloha I will fight to the death to preserve,
Laurie
Just a clue, I'm not speaking on behalf of Gary or his constituents. I'm just telling you what it's going to be like coming from the other council members and staff AFTER Gary leaves.
Oh, and don't worry I have nothing more to say on Naeole.
Respectfully, I am sad that you have no faith in Emily Naoele. She has plenty smart people working w/ and for her and she is an inteligent, strong woman. No one disputes that the begining is going to be tough, but let me tell you she is "tita" and will find her legs in time.
Just because the election has ended doesn't mean our work as individuals has. Our kuliana is to work with these Council members and hold them accountable. Maybe the incumbants that lost would have been re-elected if their supporter would have done so.
Haole for Naoele
Please, all of you, stop the stink talk -- both ways.
...
To: 'Concerned' and '*',
There are real risks that dirty politics will hit Auntie Emily and that she and you and me and all of Puna will suffer -- that is a sad reality.
Gary Safarik and his staff can, and I believe will, be of genuine assistance in the transition -- but, once Emily is sworn in, that's when she will need to be anything but naive. She seems to me to be an absolutely wonderful person. My advice would be for her to listen a lot, ask questions, and be very, very cautious of what she is told in private -- ask for those words to be made public.
Having worked at the council, I know all of the incumbents and some of the new members on the new council. There are some legitimately honest folks there, along with two incumbents who can be expected to continue to play dirty. Two of the worst and dirtiest incumbents will not be on the new council.
In my humble opinion, there are also hazards at the top levels of the current County Clerk's office (that office has more impact on Council operations than most people in the community realize).
So Emily, perhaps even more than most new members, will need allies -- on the council, on her staff, on the council staff, and, very importantly, in our community.
...
To 'more concerned...',
You are astute in recognizing the folly of the people in HPP (where I live) who think that a 4-lane Hwy 130 is an easy and workable solve our problems -- it is not.
A separate/alternative highway is needed makai of and parallel to Hwy 130, from approximately at Kahakai to Hilo.
This does not have to be an expressway. The Puna Community Development Planning project is now discussing this issue -- stay tuned.
The above said, please don't throw those daggers about mainland this and mainland that. Please take the lead and help us all learn more aloha.
I can almost gaurantee that she will receive help from Gary S. He's about listening to and supporting what the people of Puna want and will probably do his best to help her transition. It's the others that are still there when Gary leaves that you might have to worry about...Okay, I'm done opinionating.
My intent although I know I sound angry, is not to throw daggers. I think education is so important. I beleive that we can individually make changes one person at a time. I see my work in that way, when my mainland friends come I try to educate and incourage them to learn Hawaiian history and culture. Unfortuneatly there are those who are more concerned with protecting what they think they own (we know none of us owns anything, nature reminds us) or making money than respect. I'm not sure education is a concern for them. I ask for help from all in not allowing this to continue.
Mahalo nui loa
Also, tell Emily, if she doesn't understand something, keep asking questions. No question is a dumb question. Tell Emily to use her instincts and her gut feelings too. If something doesn't seem right don't go along with it.
There are at least 2 council members that will be sure to take advantage of Emily. Watch out for them. They are going to be nice to her now, and then weave circles around her as they jockey for power. She will know who they are by the way in which they respond to her with vague answers. One of them really thinks he is IT, he comes off as being humble and sensitive but don't let him fool you. Again, ask Emily to talk to Stacy. He's a sharp cookie and a good person to have on her side.
James...I hope you're not talking about Isbell because she has done a lot for Kona in just a few short years. The problem is that when you have a lot of dummies moving to Kona who rely on a less than mediocre newspaper for their information, you are going to have perpetual dumb dumbs living in Kona who blame all the problems on the leadership and can't see that they are the major culprits contributing to the problem.