Bainum scores high
in approval

A survey shows him leading
two top rivals in the race
for mayor

Duke Bainum has the highest approval ratings among the three major candidates for mayor in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin/KITV-4 News poll.

Respondents were asked whether they had a favorable, neutral or unfavorable opinion of Bainum, Mufi Hannemann and Frank Fasi.

Forty-three percent said they had a favorable opinion of Bainum, 31 percent were neutral and 12 percent said they had an unfavorable opinion of the former city councilman. A little more than 14 percent said they did not know or refused to answer.

For former City Council Chairman Hannemann, 38 percent of respondents said they had a favorable opinion, 34 percent were neutral and 18 percent had an unfavorable view. Those who did not know or refused to answer came to 10 percent.

The percentage of respondents who had a favorable opinion of Fasi came to 28 percent, unfavorable was 35 percent and neutral was 28 percent. Those who did not know or refused to answer came to 8 percent.

SMS Research conducted the survey by telephone July 29-Aug. 3 among 429 Oahu registered voters who are likely to vote in the 2004 mayoral elections. The margin of error is plus or minus 4.7 percentage points.

Hannemann and Fasi also found their favorable ratings trailing in the 2000 mayoral contest when they challenged Mayor Jeremy Harris.

At the time, Harris enjoyed the highest favorable rating of his tenure with 61 percent and won the office outright in the primary election.

Hannemann's approval rating this time, however, is a little higher than his ratings four years ago.

Caucasians were more likely to give high marks to Bainum while Hannemann received the highest praise from Hawaiians or part-Hawaiians.

The race for mayor is nonpartisan, but both Bainum and Hannemann are Democrats. Poll respondents who are Democrats were split between Bainum and Hannemann, while Republicans favored Bainum.

Hannemann said he is not concerned about the poll numbers now because he believes that the results show he is closing the gap on Bainum. "People tend to make up their minds toward the end of the campaign."

Bainum said that he believes his high poll numbers are the result of several factors including his television commercials and his appearances at coffee hours and community events. "It's everything. It's our message of change."

Fasi did not want to discuss the approval ratings, saying he wanted to focus on getting his message across to voters.