By Wendy Osher

Maui has a new Mayor and the state has a new Governor.  Before any of the precincts were even counted, the AP and wire reports had declared Neil Abercrombie Hawaii’s next Governor based on absentee ballots alone.  The actual ending voter count for the Abercrombie /Schatz team was 222,510 votes or 57.8% of the vote.

Alan Arakawa appears in the UHMC simulcast with Pacific Radio Group. The former Mayor reclaimed his seat on the 9th floor after defeating incumbent Mayor Charmaine Tavares. Photo by Wendy Osher.

Here on Maui the county races were much tighter, with just 59 votes separating candidates in the closest contest where former councilman Bob Carroll defeated incumbent councilman Bill Medeiros for the east Maui seat.

In the mayor’s race, former Mayor Alan Arakawa reclaims his seat on the 9^th floor with 57.2% of the vote or 24,195 votes.  He defeats incumbent Mayor Charmaine Tavares who had 16,944 votes, or 40.1% of the vote.

At the council level, the South Maui seat goes to Don Couch who defeated repeat rival and incumbent councilman Wayne Nishiki by more than 3500 votes.  An even larger 4,000+ vote margin separated Elle Cochran from Alan Fukuyama in her successful bid for the West Maui seat.  In Maui’s Makawao region, it’s a “Mike” swap as Michael Molina exits under term-limits, and Mike White enters to fill the post.  White garnered 21,701 votes, or 51.3% of the vote, defeating Kai Nishiki who had 16,008 votes or 37.8% of the vote.

In Wailuku, incumbent councilman Michael Victorino pulled off the largest margin of victory for the council races with 26,887 votes compared to the 9,784 votes received by his opponent, Lisa Gapero.  On Lanai, former Councilman Riki Hokama reclaims his old seat by defeating friend and challenger Matthew Mano by more than 8,500 votes.

All three uncontested candidates, Joe Pontanilla, Gladys Baisa and Danny Mateo return to office with 67-68% of the votes cast and more than 28,000 votes each.

In the state Senate, incumbent Democratic Shan Tsutsui holds on to the seat, securing the greatest advantage on the Maui ballot, with 10,931 votes or 73.7 percent of the vote compared to his republican challenger Eric Seibert’s 3113 votes.

The big story in the state House is a defeat in South Maui’s 11^th District where repeat Republican challenger George Fontaine managed to edge out incumbent Joe Bertram III in a 3,051 to 2,879 vote.  All other incumbent State representatives from Maui return to their posts in decided victories including Joe Souki, Gil Keith Agaran, Angus McKelvey, Kyle Yamashita and Mele Carroll.

For complete RESULTS, visit out link at General Election Results 2010.