Boning up on the candidates, one of the most interesting aspects is the diversity of professions you can find among the candidates.
Not the major candidates, mind you. They are overwhelmingly incumbents or former aides to other sitting lawmakers, or lawyers. For example, Billy Kenoi, a Hilo lawyer running for mayor of the Big Island, was once an executive assistant to Harry Kim. A former city council aide is running against state Sen. Ron Menor. You can even put Ann Kobayashi in this category, since the city councilwoman is also a former aide both to Jeremy Harris and Ben Cayetano.
But when you get past that lot, the challengers are a more varied group. Every third resident of Kauai is running for county council including a former hotel general manager (incumbent Jay Furfaro), a librarian (Lani Kawahara, but she also used to be an aide to Sen. Gary Hooser so I guess we can also put her in the semipro column), a fiberglass technician and surf forecaster (Bruce Pleas), a landscaper (Ken Taylor), a farmer (Daryl Kaneshiro), an entertainer (Rhoda Libre), a wedding planner (Linda Pasadava), a painter (Bob Cariffe), and an archeologist (Nancy McMahon).
We've got a mortgage lender running (Bill Sanborn wants to be on the board of education) and a postal worker (Paul Bryant, ditto) and a financial advisor (Janis Akuna, ditto). Even the Honolulu mayor's race includes the owner of a Chinatown auto repair shop (George Nitta) and a UPS driver (Cameron Datanagan -- what can Brown do for you?)
A jeweler is running against Honolulu Councilman Romy Cachola and a First Hawaiian investment office is running against Nestor Garcia. A law firm computer manager is running for the open Maui council seat in Kihei. One of the candidates for the council seat from Lanai is Alberta De Jetley, who so far as I know is the only working farmer left on that island.
Then there is 19-year-old Resa Tsuneyoshi, also running against Menor. She is a former U.S. Senate page. Good to know she still has faith in democracy!
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