The outcome of Saturday’s mayoral primary differs depending on who’s doing the telling. Candidate Jesse Fukushima said he slept pretty well when he finally got home around 4 a.m. “After the second printout at about 10:30 (Saturday) night I knew
The outcome of Saturday’s mayoral primary differs depending on who’s doing the telling.
Candidate Jesse Fukushima said he slept pretty well when he finally got home around 4 a.m. “After the second printout at about 10:30 (Saturday) night I knew I was going to survive the primary,” Fukushima said yesterday afternoon.
But incumbent Mayor Bryan Baptiste said he went home at 4:30 a.m. with the election in the bag. “We haven’t settled into the realization that there is going to be a runoff in the general election because at the end of the night our calculations showed that I had 50 percent of the vote plus two (votes),” Baptiste said.
The numbers are in Baptiste’s favor. In the most updated numbers available at press time yesterday, Baptiste garnered 8,173 votes to Fukushima’s 4,725. The other candidates in the mayoral primary snagged a total of 3,374.
But the election has to be certified and that may take as long as a week.
“As far as I’m concerned we are in an election pattern and there is still a general election to get through,” said Fukushima.
Baptiste says either way he is ready to go forward. “In my estimation it is over, but we have to wait for the vote to be certified,” Baptiste said. “I will take proactive measures, in the case that it is not (over).”
Last night Honolulu television station Channel 4 was saying there would be a runoff. Channel 9 was saying Baptiste had the race. The Associated Press was stating there would be an audit of the race results to determine what would happen.
Baptiste garnered 8,173 votes, two more than the 50 percent required to win the election outright.
But the race was so close, elections officials will audit Kauai’s vote. If it’s determined that Baptiste didn’t win more than half of the vote, the top two candidates advance to a runoff in the general election.
Former Councilman Fukushima had 4,725 votes, followed by John Hoff (1,984), Bruce Pleas (1,083) and Janee Taylor (377).
A total number of 3,374 votes were grabbed by candidates other than Baptiste or Fukushima. A gain of that amount in the Nov. 7 general election would bring Fukushima neck-and-neck with Baptiste.
It could also put Baptiste well over the top to enter his second term as mayor.
“I was very disappointed with the turnout,” Baptiste said. “One would hope that more people would be involved; in this case, two votes made the difference.”
Fukushima said he doesn’t want to get involved with interpreting what the numbers may or may not mean.
“Let the people go back and decide in November,” Fukushima said.
For the County Council race, only Bob Cariffe failed to make the November ballot.
Leaders among the 14 candidates who will vie for seven seats were JoAnn Yukimura, Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho, Jay Furfaro, Bill Asing, Mel Rapozo and Ronald Kouchi.
• Adam Harju, editor, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 227) or aharju@kauaipubco.com
