I don’t know if there was ever a debate between Maui mayoral candidates before, but there will be one—just one, I think—this election year. They’re actually eager to debate.
Leading up to the debate
Before the Primary Election, the Realtors Association of Maui (RAM) hosted a candidate mixer for realtors and real estate professionals only. For that event, they invited all candidates for county offices and brought in the League of Women Voters to register voters. Then RAM’s Government Affairs Committee sent questionnaires to the candidates, and shared the replies with RAM membership. They followed that up with candidate interviews after the Primary but before the next big event.
The RAM candidates forum—that next big event—is scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 19, at the “Marilyn Monroe House” at the Kamehameha Golf Club, 2500 Honoapi‘ilani Highway in Waikapu. The public is invited, 5 to 7 p.m., and the candidates who survived the primary are certainly expected to come in to tell realtors, real estate pros and the rest of us (if we attend) exactly where they stand on issues related to the real estate industries. Again, the League of Women Voters will be on-hand to register voters.
Here’s why you should be there: This is the venue for the mayoral debate mentioned above. RAM Government Affairs Director John Anderson is as surprised as I am that mayoral candidate Charmaine Tavares and, even more, that incumbent Mayor Alan Arakawa are willing to do this. “Rarely have I seen two candidates so open to do this,” Anderson said. “They’re actually eager to debate.”
Asked if he really expects a debate and not just speeches from two sides of the room, Anderson promised “a live, formal debate.” He is currently working on the rules and will submit them to the candidates for approval. So, I can’t tell you exactly what shape the debate will take, but despite the “no negative campaigning” pact, I think fireworks can be expected. After all, RAM is naturally concerned about housing questions, and there is no subject on which Arakawa and Tavares are further apart.
Arakawa asserts that the number of affordable housing units in the works right now is greater than the total number of affordable homes needed in the foreseeable future. Tavares, on the other hand, is the county councilmember who, on at least two occasions, proposed that 80 percent of the homes in future developments should be in the affordable category. This is a question both campaigns should be glad to have their candidates speak of in a debate format. Even more urgently, this is a question every citizen should be eager to hear them debate.
With that fact in mind, Anderson is working on arrangements with Akaku Community Television, hoping that the debate can be taped and played on public access television. There’s no guarantee of that, however, so you should be there on Oct. 19. Anderson hopes to devote the first hour of the evening, 5 to 6 p.m., to the council races, reserving the entire second hour, 6 to 7 p.m., for the mayoral debate.
Another forum-format experiment
This has definitely been the election year of the “Grand Experiment” in candidate forum formats. After a number of unusual formats have been tried, only one has taken on the “shine” of success. That’s the so-called “politically correct” speed-dating format in which clumps of citizens stay at a table (or some specific location) while a timer moves candidates from table to table to answer questions. The basic format allows the people in each group to ask whatever questions come to mind for them.
The next forum-format experiment is going to take place at the Kihei Community Association’s (KCA) Oct. 17, 6 to 8 p.m., meeting. Again, it is my opinion that anyone who intends to vote in November should be at the Kihei Community Center that evening.
This will be a new version of the speed-dating idea with what Jon Miller, KCA’s director of the community meetings, calls “proctors” starting the conversation in each group with pre-determined questions.
At KCA, the races represented will include the contested council races, the mayoral election and candidates for the South Maui seat in the Hawai‘i House of Representatives.
More opportunities to interact with or hear from the candidates, in as many formats as possible, seems to be a good idea. Check them out every chance you get.