Alan M. Arakawa (born 1951) is an American politician who served as the fifth and seventh mayor of the County of Maui in

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

Education

Arakawa graduated from

Maui High School Maui High School is a public high school founded in 1913 in Hamakuapoko, a sugarcane plantation town on the island of Maui in Hawaii. In 1972, the school moved to its new location in Kahului, Hawaii. Old Maui High School The original school was ...

and attended the

University of Hawaii at Manoa A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

as a business major.

Career

In 1984, Arakawa entered civil service as a wastewater plant worker for Maui County and eventually was promoted to supervisor in the wastewater division of the Maui County Department of Public Works. Arakawa also represented labor unions, serving as a United Public Workers chief steward and a Hawaii Government Employees Association union representative. He served on the Maui County Council in 1994, 1996, and 2000.

Elections

2002 mayoral election

Arakawa first ran for mayor in 2002. After placing second in the September 21, 2002 primary behind former Maui mayor Kimo Apana, Arakawa won the general election with 20,887 votes (50.3%).

2006 mayoral election

In 2006, Arakawa ran for reelection. In the primaries he faced Apana again and city councilmember

Charmaine Tavares Charmaine Tavares (born 1943 Hana, Hawaii) is an American politician and teacher. Tavares served as the Mayor of Maui from January 2007 to January 2011. She unsuccessfully sought a second four-year term in office in the 2010 Maui mayoral electio ...

, daughter of the late mayor

Hannibal Tavares Hannibal M. Tavares (September 24, 1919 – January 17, 1998) was an American politician who served as the 2nd Mayor of Maui from October 1979 until January 2, 1991. He was the longest-serving mayor of Maui. Life Tavares was born in Makawao, Ma ...

. In the primary, he trailed Tavares by about 100 votes. In the general election, he was defeated by Tavares.

2010 mayoral election

On June 18, 2010, Arakawa filed to run for the Mayor of Maui County. He placed second in the mayoral

primary election Primary elections, or direct primary are a voting process by which voters can indicate their preference for their party's candidate, or a candidate in general, in an upcoming general election, local election, or by-election. Depending on the ...

on September 18, 2010. Incumbent mayor Charmaine Tavares narrowly won the primary election with 7,307 votes, or 25.4% of the total. She defeated Arakawa by just 268 votes. Arakawa earned 7,039 votes, or 24.4% of the vote. Arakawa won 23 of Maui's 39 election precincts, mostly in South and West Maui, while Tavares won 11 precincts in Central Maui. Both Tavares and Arakawa qualified for the 2010 mayoral general election on November 2, 2010. The race was a rematch of the 2006 mayoral election, in which incumbent mayor Arakawa was defeated by Tavares. In the final vote tally, Arakawa defeated Tavares with nearly 59% of the vote to her 41%.

2014 mayoral election

In the general election on November 4, 2014, Arakawa won reelection with 25,435 votes (55.3%) over Tam Paltin.

2018 election

In May 2017, Arakawa announced he would run for lieutenant governor of Hawaii. But in November 2017, he changed course and said he would instead run for his former seat on the Maui County Council representing Kahului. In the August 11 primary, Arakawa received 11,790 votes, second to community organizer Natalie "Tasha" Kama's 12,712 votes. Arakawa lost to Kama in the November 6 general election by nearly 11,000 votes.

Personal life

Arakawa is married to Ann Arakawa, assistant professor of mathematics at the University of Hawaii Maui College. They have two daughters, Jan and Jodi.

References

External links

County of Maui, Hawai'i
{{DEFAULTSORT:Arakawa, Alan 1951 births Living people Mayors of Maui County Maui County Council members American mayors of Japanese descent American politicians of Japanese descent Hawaii politicians of Japanese descent Hawaii Democrats Hawaii Republicans 20th-century American politicians 21st-century American politicians University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa alumni