The Big Island was the best island for Gov.-elect Josh Green, delivering the largest percentage of its votes and helping propel the former Kona Democrat to the state’s highest office with a solid victory over his Republican opponent, James “Duke” Aiona.
Some 65.2% of Hawaii Island voters participating in the gubernatorial election chose Green, compared to the statewide average of 62.3%. Kauai, with 57.5% and Oahu with 61.6%, voted under the state average, and 64.7% of Maui voters preferred Green.
“I’m incredibly honored to be chosen to serve as Hawaii’s next governor, and our Big Island ohana made this possible,” Green said Friday. “With my roots as a physician in Ka‘u, to serving as West Hawaii’s representative and senator, then as (lieutenant governor), all while working the ER in Hawi for decades, know that I will be forever committed to the Big Island and its people. I wouldn’t be governor if it wasn’t for you.”
Aiona picked up 20 of the state’s 248 precincts, according to a West Hawaii Today analysis of precinct reports released late Wednesday by the state Office of Elections. The majority of those were on Oahu, which saw a minor Republican renaissance, both in the governor’s race and the state Legislature. Those precincts were clustered in the northeast corner, as well as the Waianae area and south along the island’s west coast.
Oahu also was friendlier to Republicans in legislative races, increasing the number of GOP legislators heading to the state Capitol from five to eight.
“There’s little pockets out there that are Republican.. … It’s still possible, even for the most one-party state in the country for somebody to win if in fact they’re attractive and they work hard,” said Neal Milner, a retired University of Hawaii-Manoa political science professor, said Wednesday on a Honolulu Star-Advertiser livestream. “The Republicans did a good job of filling space. They had a lot of candidates. More than usual.”
Only one Big Island precinct preferred Aiona. Tiny Precinct 05-04, between Mountain View and Volcano, with just 19 registered voters, delivered all two of the gubernatorial ballots cast to Aiona. Green got none. On Maui, one precinct, 09-01, preferred Aiona, awarding him 52 votes to Green’s 28.
Off the west coast of Kauai, the Republican stronghold of Niihau, the “Forbidden Island,” Precinct 17-06 reported 25 votes to Aiona, with Green scoring four.
“We had a little bit of a red wave here,” Colin Moore, director of the University of Hawaii’s Public Policy Center, said on the Star-Advertiser livestream. “”By the standards of Republicans in Hawaii that’s pretty good news for them.”
Officials with the Hawaii Republican Party couldn’t be reached for comment Friday, a state holiday.
While all-mail ballots had been touted as a remedy for voter apathy, voter turnout this general election will go down as the lowest in state history.
Only 48.4% of registered voters participated, compared to the former low point of 52.3% in 2014.
Milner thinks the predictability of the races and the overwhelming strength of Democrats in Blue Hawaii contributed to apparent voter disinterest.
“Top of the ticket, what happened is what anybody knew was gonna happen basically,” Milner said. “if the election is pretty dull, if the election covers the ground that is sort of listless, then there isn’t going to be great incentive for the people that normally don’t vote to vote,” Milner said.
Voters overwhelmingly chose the mail option, even though lines of in-person voters delayed the end of Election Day by about an hour. Some 400,527 voters chose the mail-in option, compared to 16,688 who voted in person, according to the Election Office report.
Interestingly, compared to some hard-core Republican mainland political party officials and commentators casting doubt on mailed ballots, most of Aiona’s votes came through mailed ballots, although at a slightly smaller percentage than Green’s.
Some 98.4% of Green’s voters came from mailed-in ballots, compared to 91.9% of Aiona’s, the newspaper’s precinct analysis showed.
Email Nancy Cook Lauer at ncook-lauer@westhawaiitoday.com.