I just never know what I’m going to run across while going through the periodic ritual of checking the regular spots for possible news.
Yesterday I took a look at recent opinions from the Hawaii Supreme Court and Intermediate Court of Appeals, which included several election-related cases that had been disposed of, and one caught my eye.
It seems that Richard Y. Kim, one of the “minor” candidates for governor in the Democratic primary, believes he actually won the primary but was robbed of the victory by misconduct and errors on the part of the Office of Elections.
This isn’t his first time around the block, as he was also on the Democratic primary ballot in 2018, garnered just 1,576 votes, and responded with several election-related lawsuits against the Office of Elections and Gov. David Ige.
Kim he is a dentist and graduate of Columbia University in New York. He reported receiving two campaign contributions for a total of $450, and spent a total of $973.82 on his campaign. The candidate financial disclosure filed with the State Ethics Commission reported Kim had no earned income in the past year, owns no property, has an Ameritrade account worth between $10,000 and $25,000, and has debts of at least $45,000 but less than $100,000.
Kim, in his 2022 complaint filed with the Hawaii Supreme Court, said it was “impossible” that he received only the 985 votes statewide reported by the Office of Elections, and went on to cite “many facts and evidence” to support his position. I’m afraid these were not made with tongue firmly in cheek.
• Kim said his campaign website “has attracted 8,967 people, with over 32,000 views on my 706 posts, since 2017,” and that his Facebook account has “almost 1,500” followers.
• He argues that pre-election media polls would have had different results if his name had not been omitted. He insinuates he was overlooked in the polls because he has called for “media reform.”
• Kim says he “heavily invested his campaign in sign waving in the last two months of the primary election,” and “believes he has thrown ‘Shaka’ blessings to tens of thousands passing cars, probably at more than 100,000 people. Each time, he received roughly 5-30% honking (on average), and many more numerous hands waving, Shakas back, and head lights turned on and off, from the passing cars.
• Kim complained he had been blocked from commenting on Josh Green’s official Lt. Gov page on Facebook, and blocked by the Star-Advertiser from commenting on their “Spotlight Hawaii” live program, which he described as examples of “voter suppressions.”
Kim blames computer manipulation of the results for his loss, and said he believes “the vote counting by the computer must have been compromised due to such simple computer programming manipulation on his name on the democratic ballots, for example, by having moved the decimal to 0.01 or 1/100 and only counted as if he received 1% of the actual votes that he received on the ballots.”
He then alleges additional computer misdeeds shifted 99% of his vote to Lt. Gov. Josh Green, which left Green the runaway winner in the primary.
Without the alleged computer misdeeds, Kim says he would have received 985,000 votes, 38.7% of the Democratic votes, with Green tallying just 23.2%.
It took the Hawaii Supreme Court just a few days to review Kim’s complaint. The court’s 10-page Findings Of Fact, Conclusions Of Law, And Judgment conclude it was “based on speculation or unreasonable inferences from the evidence submitted in support,” and raised “no genuine issue of material fact related to Kim’s election contest.”
The court’s opinion provides a concise review of the laws governing election challenges and what standards must be met for such a challenge to be successful. Short version–it’s a high bar.
And so goes the democratic process.
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Oh my. He’s got issues.
Yes, there is great difficulty for candidates without high name recognition to attain office.
Yes, Face Book manipulation does have influence more likely in the 3% maximum influence in elections. Example, the proven Russian Hoax, Hunter Biden Laptop, at the behests of Partisan Government Agents recently stated publicly by Mark Zukerburg.
But, 99% is insane.
Comparatively other Statewide Candidates like AAP’s Dan Decker, running for US Senate received almost an identical vote count total of slightly less than 1,000 votes.
Brickwood Galuteria was the top OHA vote getter. After decades of exposure as State Senator and Radio Host it’s clear, name recognition counts.
Local TV Reporter Mason Alteri was the first reporter to cross the line of journalists to run for office and in the late 1960’s early 70’s His run caused quite a stir. It paved the Golden Road, for predominately KHON TV news personnel to hold office. It is an unfair or unequaled advantage, that remains troubling.
Congressman Cec Heftel KGMB owner and now Manager Mayor Balangiardi. The Television Media control over Political Influence is epic. It is also heavily indebted to advertisers and monied power brokers.
Dentist Kim from Hilo, did not benefit from The Hawaii County Mayor “Kim” Dynasty name.
The climate is such that fantasy can be almost as believable as fact.
Give ’em the old razzle dazzle, Razzle dazzle ’em, Give ’em an act with a lot of flash in it, And the reaction will be passionate, Give ’em the old hocus pocus, Bead and feather ’em, How can they see with sequins in their eyes? …
I’m even more shocked that Sharon Har just got reelected.
Well, she is a known quantity in the area so that was a plus for her in the primary, but also her competition was not very active even though this charge of DUI against her was the low-hanging fruit. Blame the mentality of the Democrats in which you have to be nice to everyone, but let the PAC if they choose to, be the mudslingers (of which I think the PACs didn’t play in that primary). But now we will see if the Republican challenger can make hay over Har and overtake her in the General. Anything is possible, but it’s going to take a lot more work than what Republicans have been willing to do the last few cycles, for those seats.
Thanks for clarifying it was the primary…not reelected yet…
Dr. Kim has been a perennial candidate for all kinds of offices in the last few cycles. This is the first time that he went a step further and challenged the results. Needless to say, his prior performance was not much better (or worse, there are people who just choose him for whatever reason). But this was reported initially in the SA, I believe last week, in which his claim was more spelled out, making the claim even more preposterous sounding. He has also attacked certain journalists and commentators, demanding equal access to the media, of which the media has basically ignored him. I suppose he has some ideas that may be worthy of consideration, but the way he goes about it in his demeanor, and then actions like this, Kim is routinely ignored, even at the Democratic Party events like the one I attended in Kona on July 4. But he tries, so you may want to give him half a point for that effort.
He actually filed three lawsuits challenging the election in 2018, when he was also on the primary election ballot.
I stand corrected.
I was one of those people who had visited his campaign website (I try to go to them all when there’s an election like this). His outcome challenge is unhinged, but he does have a point w/r to the list of candidates that get ‘anointed’ early by the media. In this last race Green and Kahele were obvious names on the list, as they are both sitting legislators, but there’s not much reason why Cayetano should be included in the list ab initio but Kim should not, other than the name recognition she has in the state through her connections to Ben and to Elvis.
Minor candidates are often in the race for single issues, sometimes legitimate single issues, and their inclusion in the conversation at the beginning can provide a useful prod for the more established candidates to address these issues.
One issue that comes up is “who are the cheerleaders backing said candidates” and whether the media actually pay attention to them. Of course, being more high profile and ones that have actually won office before tends to give the candidate a bit more of a leg up when it comes to recognition. Not always – look at Romy Cachola or Dennis Nakasato in the primary – but for those who are still more sticky on the minds, with the backing of cheerleaders, it helps them get more ahead of the line than, say, Kim, who I find to not have the best je ne sais quoi even in public settings like the candidate get-together for Democrats in Kona on July 4.