11-02-2016, 12:50 PM
quote:
Originally posted by 2livequeNaturally, he will stay within the safe confines of Puna and Hilo where most of his fans and supporters reside.
Actually, I did some research, and Kenoi's worst polling areas in both his mayoral election victories were Puna and Hilo. I'm not saying that he does't have fans here on the east side, but he doesn't do well in elections here where folks know him best.
In that second election, it took a surge of Kona side votes to get him past the unfunded Harry Kim by a fairly narrow margin of about 2%. The blank votes in that second election were greater than Kenoi's margin of victory, meaning that less than half of the votes cast went for him. That does not sound like resounding popularity to me.
The thuggish and drunken behavior 2liveque describes is well known but had not been widely described in the press. And then there is the matter of Kenoi's appearance a few years back at a benefit for a guy serving life without parole for an Oahu gang-style murder. I seem to recall Kenoi having hired reporters to work as his aides more than once. One has to wonder about that. Anyway, something tells me the Honolulu press would not ignore such tasty material should Kenoi run for higher office. The number of skeletons in the Kenoi closet might be more than even we cynics suspect.
Having said all that, Kenoi's ego is so huge that I wouldn't put another run for office past him. Much stranger things have happened.