Bainum laments
negative politics
and personal
attacks on wife
Duke Bainum said he lost the mayor's race against Mufi Hannemann because of a combination of a high voter turnout and the barrage of personal attacks against him and his wife.
In particular, he pointed to what he called "false and vicious attacks" against his wife, Jennifer Toma Bainum, spread in the final two weeks of the campaign via the Internet, telephone "and good ol' whispering."
He said the campaign is assessing possible legal action in response to the attacks against his wife.
"We have a number of things at this point, and really I think in the coming weeks, we'll be coming forward about those in a little bit more detail," said campaign manager Andy Winer, an attorney. "There are a number of things that we're considering at this point."
He also cited reports of voters receiving recorded phone calls from a Gov. Linda Lingle impersonator voicing her support of Bainum.
Bainum said he is not pointing to Hannemann as the source of the accusations.
"I urge everyone in Honolulu to congratulate Mr. Hannemann on his victory and wish him great success as he works to make our city a better place," Bainum said.
But he said dirty politics does not have a place in Hawaii.
The Internet and gossiping campaigns "are not good for this island," he said. "They're not good for Hawaii."
At a separate news conference, Hannemann also said he had nothing to do with spreading the accusations about Bainum's wife.
"We made it very clear when those rumors surfaced ... that my campaign does not have any involvement with that. ... I was so busy focused on winning this campaign," Hannemann said.
But, he added: "I can't check every detail. I can't check with every supporter to see what they're doing."
Hannemann said his victory was not based on negative campaigning. "This was won by a very positive message of an experienced leader," he said.
Hannemann said he sent a letter to Winer and Councilman Gary Okino, a Bainum supporter, after learning that they were accusing him and his campaign of spreading the information.
"Somebody says that about you, you've got to step out in front, and I wrote very clearly ... to cease and desist," Hannemann said.
Hannemann said he was a also a victim of negative campaigning, pointing to Bainum's "mischaracterizing" of campaign contributions that Hannemann's campaign gave back to the Campaign Spending Commission and about accusations that Bainum signs were being stolen from supporters' homes.
Bainum and Winer also said the strong voter turnout in response to the presidential race worked against Bainum's campaign.
Media polls within two weeks of Tuesday's election showed the presidential race unexpectedly tight in Hawaii.
After the polls, the isles suddenly became a battleground state, prompting visits by Vice President Dick Cheney and former Vice President Al Gore and heavy advertising by both the President Bush and Sen. John Kerry campaigns.
Bainum said, "It got more people to the polls obviously that were not supportive" of him.
