Incumbents led a field of 28 candidates vying for six seats on the state Board of Education in Saturday’s primary election. Mitsugi Nakashima, holder of the Kaua’i seat, joined Denise Matsumoto, Lex Brodie, Ronald Nakano and Garrett Toguchi among the
Incumbents led a field of 28 candidates vying for six seats on the state Board
of Education in Saturday’s primary election.
Mitsugi Nakashima, holder of
the Kaua’i seat, joined Denise Matsumoto, Lex Brodie, Ronald Nakano and Garrett
Toguchi among the top votegetters with 100 percent of the ballots counted
shortly before 6 a.m. Sunday.
All Neighbor Island residents could vote in
the Kaua’i race, and all Oahu residents could vote in the Honolulu, Leeward and
at-large races.
The top two finishers in the Kaua’i, Leeward and Honolulu
races, plus the top six in the at-large contest advanced to the Nov. 7 general
election.
Nakashima, chairman of the 13-member board, topped the Kaua’i
field with 17,627 votes. Joining him in the general election race will be
Sherwood Hara, who polled 14,726 votes.
Nakashima is a former Kaua’i
district superintendent for the state Department of Education.
Matsumoto
received 93,530 votes in the Honolulu race, while her nearest challenger,
Malcolm Kirkpatrick, had 21,953 votes.
Nakano led the Leeward race with
48,417 votes, followed by Marilyn Harris with 40,357 votes.
In the at-large
race, where voters could select up to three candidates from a list of 18,
Brodie led with 77,605 votes, followed by former state lawmaker Donna Ikeda
with 69,570 votes and Carol Gabbard with 38,245 votes.
Toguchi was in
fourth place in the at-large contest with 33,032 votes, followed by Jacqueline
Whitford Heupel with 22,582 votes and Randall Yee with 21,053 votes.
In the
Big Island race, incumbent Herbert Watanabe is opposed by only one candidate,
Nani Quintana-Davies. Both candidates automatically advance to the general
election.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
