WEBVTT

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(Michi Kodama-Nishimoto)
And I wanted to ask you a question

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about the Burns-Quinn race and your ideas
on why Burns didn't make it?

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We talked a little bit
about that previously,

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but it was the first statehood race.

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It was a special election held
in August of 1959.

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No, I guess held the end of July '59
to prepare us to become a state in August.

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And the primaries were
the preceding month, in June.

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So the board was swept completely clean.

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All of the territorial boards
and commissions were out of business,

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and the bench was cleared of judges.

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But the appointed governor,
who had been appointed

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by President Eisenhower, was Bill Quinn.

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And Bill had not successfully been elected
to office when he ran

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for the territorial senate, matter of fact.

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But he had looked awfully good,
in running, and he had missed

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by just a few votes, being elected.

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And that turned out to be fortuitous,
because there was a requirement

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that an elected officeholder could not be
appointed to an office of governor,

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and so on.

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So, if he had won
that territorial senate election,

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he couldn't have been appointed governor,
but I don't think anybody knew that

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at the time.

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But it was a fact.

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And, so, he became the governor
and he was the incumbent, and incumbents

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always have an edge
when we were going into statehood.

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I think there were concerns,
genuine concerns...