Whatever Happened To...
An update on past news
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Banker Bainum has son, 4 months old
Question: What ever happened to former City Councilman Duke Bainum, who lost the 2004 mayoral election to Mufi Hannemann?
Answer: Bainum recently oversaw the merger of two family-owned banks in Arkansas.
But the hardest job for Duke Bainum nowadays is getting his nearly 4-month-old son to burp.
"I'm here holding my baby in my arms, and there's nothing more rewarding than that," the first-time father said from Hot Springs, Ark. "I've always cared about the future but even more so now."
Z Connor Keanu Toma Bainum has his father reassessing priorities -- including the positives and negatives of whether Bainum should get back into the political arena.
"I'm not ruling anything out," Bainum said. "I think my horizons have expanded."
Bainum oversaw the completion of the merger of two Arkansas banks his father bought about 20 years ago and is now the chief executive of the new Diamond Bank.
"It takes two small community banks, and now we're the 27th-largest bank in Arkansas and we're a $350 million bank, which is small by some standards, but for community banks that's rather large," he said.
He said that there are 11 locations from Hope to Hot Springs.
The bank merger has kept Bainum in Arkansas for a while now, but he said the plan is for him and his wife, Jennifer, to come back to Hawaii possibly within the next nine months to a year.
The former councilman and lawmaker said that if he decides to run again, he is leaning toward seeking congressional office, although he is weighing all options, including a race for governor.
"Should I re-enter the political world, I'll be a smarter politician, more sensitive to a broader range of viewpoints," Bainum said.
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