What looked like an easy victory just last month came down to the final printout last night, as former Honolulu Prosecutor Peter Carlisle edged out acting Mayor Kirk Caldwell to become the next mayor of Honolulu.
Carlisle emerged the winner in the special mayoral election with 40.8 percent of the vote. Caldwell was second with 36.6 percent. University of Hawaii engineering professor Panos Prevedouros, hoping to play spoiler in his second try at mayor, was third with 19.1 percent.
Carlisle will serve the two years remaining in the term of Mufi Hannemann, who resigned in June to pursue a run for governor. Hannemann lost in last night's Democratic primary to veteran legislator Neil Abercrombie.
Yesterday's vote brought a close to a sprint that officially began July 20, when Hannemann resigned.
Carlisle started the election season as a prohibitive favorite, and even held a 2-to-1 lead over Caldwell in a poll last month.
But Caldwell closed the gap in the final weeks with a strong push helped by a campaign war chest of almost $1 million.
The campaign was mostly on issues and stayed away from attacks, although there were some charges of negative campaigning in the final days as Caldwell took out a series of ads targeting Carlisle's budget practices and acceptance of pay raises while in office. Carlisle countered with newspaper ads downplaying the charges.
***
Election Results
No comments:
Post a Comment