Incumbent mayor beats pro surfer and MMA fighter Dustin Barca for the Kauai county mayoralty. The earth weeps!
Bernard Carvalho, the former football star (Miami Dolphins!) incumbent mayor of Kauai, has rolled back into office after today’s electoral win over the pro surfer Dustin Barca.
Carvalho has received 10,835 votes or 66.2 percent of ballots counted so far. Barca has received 4,634 votes.
Close? No it ain’t.
As Mark Rose predicted on BeachGrit yesterday, “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.”
Barca, y’see, pledged to tackle multinational chemical companies he says are using the island as “an open air experimental lab. The root issue we are fighting against is poison,” said Barca. “Poison in our air, Poison in our drinking water and water tables. Poison in our soil. Poison on our reefs. Poison around our homes, schools and hospitals. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that that much poison is not good for us.”
Barca ain’t giving up.
Again, as he said yesterday on BeachGrit (Yes! Click!), “Quitting is not a option when you are fighting for the health of your ‘ohana (family) and ‘aina (natural resources). On Kaua’i, we are born and raised to protect what we love and right now, with the world environmentally at a tipping point everybody needs to unite no matter what color or creed they are. Everyone needs to get their heads out and realize what’s going on.”
He’s right! It’ll only when the last tree has been chopped down to make a disposable IKEA Alvar Aalto ripoff and the last tuna has been squeezed between thin sheets of seaweed at that sushi bar down the street and the last bee has been shot for its fur, that man will realise that money can’t be eaten etc.