Can environmental hero Dustin Barca beat the football hero incumbent Bernie Carvalho for the Kauai mayoralty? Maybe not…
Dustin Barca will never be the mayor of Kauai. Carvalho is a football hero and favourite son of the powers that be. He toes the line, does what he is told, and in this small island of political corruption, is predictable.
Barca is not. He is a pro surfer, labelled as a hot head, and now cools his heels as an MMA fighter. This does not impress the vast “mauka” population that does not surf (nor cares who does) because they rely on their agricultural jobs, the paycheck, and the healthcare for their family that the ag-industry provides.
In this “small town” know as Kauai, it’s better to embrace the devil you know than the devil you don’t know when it comes to political “common sense”.
Sure there were what seemed like thousands of “Barca4Mayor” posters and bumper stickers circulating all over the island but that doesn’t mean squat if you break it down to the basics:
1. Not everyone on Kauai surfs
2. The agricultural industries (those people who provide jobs/wages/healthcare) have Carvalho’s undying attention
3. Not everyone with Barca4Mayor bumper stickers can even vote (because they are not permanent residents of the island).
In many ways, the illusion of support for Barca stems from the fact that the seasonal, part-time “residents” of Kauai are actually transients from the mainland — mostly from California, but plenty from the east coast. And Canada. Yeah, Canada —not even eligible to register to vote if they decided to become full-time Kauai residents.
They are haole: not “born and raised on Kauai and, unlike Oahu and other over-populated islands, that term is used correctly here. If you are not born and raised on the Garden Island, you are haole. Colour does not matter.
You cannot show up on Kauai, try to blend in with your Asian or Latino culture, pick up some pidgin, and be local. If they don’t know you, if they didn’t grow up with you, you are a haole. It’s not a bad thing, it’s just a fact.
I am a haole. I have lived on the island for a few years. I have a lot of “born and raised” local friends on Kauai. But I am only a “resident” of Kauai. And that’s fine with everyone, so long as you know and acknowledge your place in the island’s culture.
Which brings us back to Barca4Mayor: In the primary elections, Carvalho smoked Barca with a 2-1 vote advantage (over 10,000 vs 5,000) votes. They will go head-to-head in the general election and Carvalho will walk away easily with a second term.
Why? All those Barca4Mayor signs and bumper stickers are not on the lawns or cars of most locals. The South Park temporary-locals of Hanalei give a false illusion of support but most of those haoles can’t even vote on in Hawaii. Move away from Haole-Hanalei and it’s clear that the working class core of the island on the east side, south, and (most most definitely) west side will never support someone with “haole” support who appears to threaten their livelihood.
First of all, not everyone on Kauaʻi plays football. Just saying. Also, Kauaʻi is probably one of the islands in Hawaiʻi that is mostly taken over by haoles. No wonder Carvalho “smoked” Barca in votes. And did YOU go around the island to count how many natives had “Batca4Mayor” stickers/signs on their laws and/or cars. I donʻt think so. Dustin Barca is more hawaiian than you and your people will ever be. I bet the only hawaiian word you guys know is Aloha, which you probably canʻt even say correctly.
Theres quite a few reasons Barca is having a hard time fighting this mayor candidate: peoples cowardliness to change their own habits, lack of knowledge of rights and politics and the winner, peoples $ interests in activities in the island… To understand Hawaii you have to think respect, land and ocean. Also understand the minority of people here are hawaiian. Being born here doesnt make you hawaiian, your descendants do.
Respect is the main thing, the island is small and everyone “kinda” knows everyone. Its better to have friends than not.
The land. The land is the whole problem. When someone/company comes here, buys a house (s) for 400.000 and then rents on a ultra high price vacation rental you are destroying the local life. Its simple as that. There’s no food being produced here in a large scale, people are even against having cows for milk. The main idea behind land owners is to make as much $ a day on a property and manicure it into oblivion. Over time the island will be full of rich old people with a few servants going around. There’s no sharing when all land is super over priced…its a basic egotistical english way of life, not hawaiian at all.Barca seems to be the single reasonable .voice in a multitude of haoles with no commitment to the place. Old surfers here now the golf fields equal dead reefs, but still that same old hawaiian surfer will complain about the state of the reef and the then go golfing….so…its hard. If Barca cant win its a clear sign hawaii is now more like california or florida than kauai really