Harry Kim, the mayor-elect of the Big Island of Hawaii, brings an unusual character to the American politics. He is the first mayor of Korean ancestry in the United States, and he won the election with an unconventional method shunning big contributors.
Kim, 61, who won the mayoral race on Nov. 7, became the first Korean American mayor elected in the 97-year history of Korean immigration. He represents the lives of Korean immigrants who overcame hardship with hard work and education.
Kim begins his four-year mayoral term as the mayor on Dec.4. He will manage the administration of Big Island, 100 miles south of Honolulu and with a population of 140,000.
His cabinet consists of about 90 people, who work with the 9- member city council.
Kim, who worked as a public servant for 32 years, including his last job as the Administrator of the Hawaii Civil Defense Agency since 1977, undertook his campaign from the garage of his home. He asked people to support him by donating $10 each. More than 1,000 people contributed.
Republican Kim won 25,269 votes (49.2 percent), defeating his chief opponent ,Democrat Fred Holschuh who received 14,981 votes (29.2 percent).
Throughout his campaign Kim didn’t take out any ads or post signs. Instead, he asked his neighbors and people in the streets to support his ideas of making an open, honest and just government. Instead of "running" for the mayor s office, he told them, he was "applying for a job to do what is right."
In the early stage of campaign, he said, he was given a slim chance of winning. But "they picked up" his ideas, he said.
Kim believes his victory meant that voters bought his ideas of managing public office, free from special interest groups and big businesses.
They believed what he said, "No favoritism. I am directed by laws."
Politics in Hawaii, Kim said, is unfortunately reflecting the situation of the mainland and the world.
"People are detached from government (because of skepticism), he said. And I want to reinstate what government is supposed to do."

Born in Olaa, Hawaii, Kim is the youngest of eight children of In Kee Kim and Yamul Lim, immigrants from Korea.
His family was so poor, he said, that it could not afford family pictures. "During my campaign, the press asked me about childhood pictures, and I had only one photo available," he said.
Kim said he doesn’t know hometowns of his parents. "It is a tragic part of our life that we know so little (about family origins). I want to begin a search on that," he said.
His father, believed to be from North Korea, worked at the Olaa Sugar Company. His mother, likely from Pusan, was a homemaker who grew vegetables and raised chicken to augment the family s meager income.
All the children three sons and five daughters were born at home, but received a good education, he said. Except two siblings who now live in Northern California and Seattle, all are in Hawaii. "We grew up with little pleasure," Kim said. "But my brothers and sisters represent the greatest of all people giving and hardworking."
Kim, who attended public schools on the Big Island of Hawaii, received a bachelor s degree in teaching and a masters degree in social science from Southern Oregon University. He taught at public high schools and Hawaii Community College. His public posts include: Director of Law Enforcement Assistance Agency and Adviser on Disaster for Mount St. Helen in Washington State and Hurricance Iwa and Hurricane Iniki on Kauai.
He has two sons, Garrett, 33, and Mark, 30. Bobbie, his wife of 34 years and a former schoolteacher, managed his election campaign.