Hannemann and Kobayashi reset sights for Nov. 4

It’s on to round 2

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Mayor Mufi Hannemann failed to win re-election last night and will battle Councilwoman Ann Kobayashi in a runoff in the Nov. 4 General Election.

Hannemann led the voting last night, but fell 924 votes short of winning outright. He needed to get more than 50 percent of the vote to avoid a runoff.

Challenger Kobayashi, who jumped into the race on the last day to file to run, staged an impressive last-minute campaign with little organization and money, especially compared to Hannemann.

"We did pretty well for starting late and it is too early to quit," she said.

Another underfunded Hannemann rival, University of Hawaii professor Panos Prevedouros came in a distant third with nearly 18 percent.

"Change will come, but it will come a little bit later," he said in his concession speech to supporters.

Even though Hannemann was not successful in ending the race last night, he will still enjoy a big advantage in a general election because he has the power of incumbency and controls a campaign chest of $3 million.

Two other counties are also selecting new mayors. On Kauai, former Mayor JoAnn Yukimura is in a November runoff with county Parks and Recreation Director Bernard Carvalho.

On the Big Island, Billy Kenoi, a lawyer and the former executive assistant to Mayor Harry Kim, will face a runoff against either County Councilman Angel Pilago or former Mayor Lorraine Inouye.

The state Legislature's biggest surprise was the defeat of Sen. Ron Menor, who lost his race to newcomer Michelle Kidani. Menor had been convicted of drunken driving during the last legislative session.

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Mayor Mufi Hannemann will face off with City Councilwoman Ann Kobayashi in the general election after he fell just short of his goal of winning re-election in yesterday's primary.

His challengers were able to hold off Hannemann from receiving the more than 50 percent of votes needed to win the election outright in the primary.

Hannemann received 49.4 percent of the votes cast for mayor. Kobayashi garnered 30.16 percent while University of Hawaii at Manoa engineering professor Panos Prevedouros conceded the race after getting 17.72 percent.

"In my whole career, nothing has come easy," Hannemann told supporters at his campaign headquarters in Dole Cannery last night. "In 2004, we went all the way to the general and we won and we're going to do the same thing this year."

Throughout the night, Hannemann maintained a considerable lead and supporters kept expressing confidence that Hannemann would win the race outright. But after the second printout that showed Hannemann dipping below 50 percent, supporters began to doubt the outright win.

Hannemann supporters had relied on the last printout, which contained results from the Leeward Coast and the North Shore with a stronger support base, to push Hannemann over the 50 percent mark.

Kobayashi told supporters she is happy she will be in the runoff, "because we had so little time, so little money and we made it this far."

This will give her campaign more time to tell the people there are alternatives to steel-on-steel rail transit and how to improve the economy.

Prevedouros, whose poorly funded campaign was based on his opposition to rail transit, was far behind in third place with nearly 18 percent.

Prevedouros thanked his supporters about 10:30 p.m.

"We raised quite a few important issues in this campaign," he said, listing the need to fix the city's infrastructure and help the homeless. And Prevedouros once again criticized Hannemann's push for a $4 billion transit system, saying it would create "a tax black hole."

A.J. Halagao, Hannemann's campaign coordinator, said he believes that low voter turnout ended up hurting Hannemann.

"I'm happy we are almost 20 percent ahead of our opponent," Halagao said. "Obviously, we would have liked to end it tonight. But we have six more weeks. We're going to roll up our sleeves and campaign even harder."

Halagao said they will likely have to change strategies by more aggressive campaigning and messages to get voters out.

Hannemann remained low-key for most of the night, making his first appearance at 8:30 p.m. before disappearing in the back to eat dinner with his wife, Gail. He shook hands with supporters briefly but waited until the final results before making his final speech.

"We have a few more weeks," Hannemann said. "We have a great record ... and we'll be able to correct many of the falsehoods. We came oh-so-close in getting that 50 percent plus one. We ran a classy campaign. We took the high road. We didn't resort to personal attacks and name-calling."

Though Hannemann didn't outright criticize Kobayashi, this remark was clearly directed at her. The campaign had become contentious at times, most notably at the only televised debate, during which Kobayashi called Hannemann a "bully."

Hannemann had hoped to win the race outright to focus his efforts on campaigning for Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama and on a ballot question deciding the fate of his proposed $4 billion rail transit system.

The rail transit system had become the center of the mayoral race. Hannemann's only formidable opponents, Kobayashi and Prevedouros, entered the mayor's race in the summer, which gave them little time to raise funds and campaign against Hannemann.

The mayor had name recognition and a considerable campaign fund working in his favor.

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