Summertime

It's summer on Kauai: mostly sunny days and a little warmer than usual. We are in the middle of hurricane season and had a recent scare - although the Big Island was serious hit in places - and possibly more storms are brewing. Follow the latest here.

On a recent walk after a couple miles I was coming in to town, the sun was overhead, and I was quite thirsty … What more could one ask for than a homemade lemonade stand right there by the road: they even wrote the "D" backwards. If you look carefully at the sign you can see their business strategy is to sell to the high end customer (the price is 25 50 c). They didn't have change so I gave them a dollar. Good to see that some things like this that I remember from childhood have staying power.

Summer also means bon dance at the local Buddhist temples. Originating with the Japanese community here, bon dances are popular with locals of all backgrounds, inundating one of the temples every weekend through much of the summer. Bon dance is loosely based on Japanese bon odori where the dancers proceed with proscribed steps, circling a raised dais in the center of a circle. There are organized groups of dancers as well as lots of audience participation. Serious dancers go to practice sessions to learn the numerous varieties of dance but most people just watch the people near them and follow along.

Lots of people are at the beach and in the water. A friend who recently visited made a short video featuring lots of water sports.

Summer also means an extra plentiful supply of local fruit. The mango trees are starting to ripen - I just peeled several pounds for freezing and will back mango bread (with mac nuts). Soursop is also coming.

Primary election results

The election results from yesterday's primary are in (not official final yet but the writing is on the wall).
Here's my analysis of the local races for mayor and county council.

• Incumbent Mayor Carvalho looks on track to re-election.
• Most of the incumbent county council members are leading the pack, with newcomer Arryl Kaneshiro placing an impressive third.

Overall, the prospects for any kind of change seem small to none.

Mayor

Mayor Carvalho did well against a well organized challenge from Dustin Barca (former pro surfer and mixed martial arts fighter). Clearly the incumbent mayor was expected to do well but I saw a lot more Barca signs and he made news with his run around the island. By percentage you can see (below) that The Mayor is weakest on the north shore which is where Barca's strength is. Barca's won't have a chance in the general general election unless he can compete with The Mayor in Lihue, south side, or (where I expect his best chances would be) west side.

NOTE: The precincts numbers below from Hanalei 14-01 working around the highway (clockwise) toward the west side winding up Niihau 16-06. 

	BARCA	CARVALHO
14-01	25.94%	12.63%
14-02	29.47%	14.85%
14-03	19.22%	22.80%
14-04	15.52%	25.47%
14-05	11.95%	28.04%
15-01	17.11%	24.58%
15-02	7.93%	30.92%
15-03	8.49%	34.56%
15-04	9.79%	33.71%
15-05	14.73%	26.24%
16-01	14.19%	24.16%
16-02	14.18%	29.59%
16-03	7.55%	32.44%
16-04	10.88%	35.11%
16-05	8.13%	33.04%
16-06	2.08%	40.63%

County Council

For all the talk out there about dissatisfaction with county government, I was a little surprised to see the very same names leading the pack. 

• Only Arryl Kaneshiro beat any elected incumbent. As an employee of Grove Farm, one of the biggest land holders on the island, I wonder how he will be an independent voice of the people.
• Incumbent Mason Chock, Sr. (who I think is one of our best council members) was appointed, not elected, and has the farthest to come to get re-elected.
• Kualiʻi who finished eighth (just below getting on the council) is poised in that position again.
• Police Chief Perry is also close to getting in (impressive since I can't recall seeing a Perry sign).
• Billy DeCosta ("Don't be silly, vote for Billy.") made a stronger showing than I expected.

The results are shown below (based on latest official results as of 08/10/2014 at 03:16:25 am) with candidates in the top seven (who would be elected if this were the general election) in bold, and below the cutoff (14) to get into the general election shown grayed out in italics.

Candidate	Votes
RAPOZO	9,592
KAGAWA	9,387
KANESHIRO	8,173
YUKIMURA	7,252
FURFARO	6,868
HOOSER	6,642
BYNUM	5,839
KUALIʻI	5,525
PERRY	4,902
CHOCK	4,672
BRUN	4,577
COWDEN	4,524
DeCOSTA	4,243
LARANIO	3,754
KATO-KLUTKE	3,409
KANEKOA	3,056
KAAUWAI	2,243
GEORGI	2,102
LEONG	1,816
HOROSHKO	801

Finally, I would like to thank all the candidates, including Ron Horoshko who runs Birdie's restaurant at the Kukuiolono golf course, for participating in our democracy.