Bernard K. Akana

From dKosopedia

Bernard Akana, a retired Helco worker, who would run for public office just to see his name on the ballot, beat incumbent Dante Carpenter in the general election of 1988 to become the Republican mayor of Hawaii County, in a stunning political upset.

Regarding the surprise upset by Akana in the Hawaii County mayor's race, Diane Yukihiro Chang wrote in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, "...Akana's rise to power didn't hurt Hawaii County at all. There were actually some silver linings to his election:

Since he threw no fund-raisers, made no campaign promises, sought no union endorsements and spent only $1,660 in winning the office, he had no political debts to repay.
Because he admitted knowing nothing about running the county, he surrounded himself with competent people and was open to their input. His selection of cabinet members was dominated by neither Republicans nor Democrats but by technocrats, including four holdovers from the Carpenter administration.
The newcomer's need for a learning curve led to a "slow growth" philosophy, which gave the Big Island a breather after a period of rapid resort and economic development.

FROM a humanitarian standpoint, winning the mayor' race was also a nice final present for the soft-spoken and unassuming Akana, who just a year after his victory was diagnosed with cancer. When he died in 1990, Lorraine Inouye won the special election to replace him." (Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 11-9-98)

External Links

Hawaii’s most memorable political upset (Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 11-9-98)

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This page was last modified 05:53, 12 April 2006 by dKosopedia user Allamakee Democrat. Based on work by dKosopedia user(s) Jbet777. Content is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.