The princes of the precincts in voting in the primary election last month for Kaua’i County Council were incumbents Bryan Baptiste and Randal Valenciano, who carried the majority of them. Valenciano, who is running for his fifth consecutive term, corralled
The princes of the precincts in voting in the primary election last month for
Kaua’i County Council were incumbents Bryan Baptiste and Randal Valenciano, who
carried the majority of them.
Valenciano, who is running for his fifth
consecutive term, corralled 7 of the 19 election precincts in the Sept. 23
primary, winning big in west Kaua’i. Valenciano polled 8,136 votes
islandwide.
Baptiste gathered in six of the 19 precincts and did well among
voters from Anahola to Kalaheo, ruling over Kapa’a, the largest population base
on the island and where he is a resident. Baptiste, who was the overall top
votegetter, garnered 8,881 votes.
Some political observers characterized
Baptiste as being in the right position to run for mayor in 2002.
Bill
“Kaipo” Asing, the former councilman who lost in his 1998 bid for mayor, made
a strong comeback in last month’s primary, finishing third out of 16
candidates. Asing, however, took only two precincts.
Although Valenciano
lives in LIhu’e and has a law office there, he still has strong political ties
to west Kaua’i, his birthplace. He came out on top in precincts at Kaua’i High
School, Ele’ele Elementary School, Hanapepe Recreational Center, Kaumakani
Neighborhood Center, Waimea Neighborhood Center, Kekaha Neighborhood Center and
Koloa Elementary School.
Baptiste took precincts in Anahola and at Kapa’a
Elementary School (the biggest precinct on the island with 3,727 registered
voters), St. Catherine’s Church in Kapa’a and the Kapa’a, Koloa and Kalaheo
neighborhood centers.
Asing captured precincts at King Kaumuali’i and
Kaua’i War Memorial Conventional Hall.
Councilman Gary Hooser, who polled
7,059 votes for sixth place in the primary, controlled precincts at Hanalei
Elementary School, Kapa’a Middle School and Kalaheo Elementary School.
The
smallest precinct – at the Kaumakani Neighborhood Center – boasted the largest
voter turnout of all the precincts, at about 35 percent. Of the precinct’s 321
registered voters, 111 cast ballots.
The precinct at Hanalei Elementary had
the smallest turnout, with 476 of 2,292 registered voters – or 21 percent –
going to the polls.
Less than 40 percent of Kaua’i’s 33,999 registered
voters went to the polls for the primary election. It was the lowest voter
turnout for a primary election on the island in four years.
In the 1998
primary, in which the mayor’s seat was up for grabs, 63 percent of the
registered voters went to the polls. In the 1996 primary, 59 percent
voted.
Election observers attributed the low balloting in the primary at
least partially to voters figuring it didn’t really matter. They knew almost
every candidate (14 of the 16) would advance to the general election.
