City Councilman Duke Bainum was remembered yesterday as a political moderate who reached out to help those most in need.

Bainum was "always committed and always ready to do what was the best for the people in his district," said council chairman Todd Apo.

He seemed to be a perennial candidate who rarely fit the mold of a typical Hawai'i politician.

"He was a medical doctor and naturally liked healthcare, and anything related to people issues, having to deal with human and social issues," said Richard Port, former chairman of the Hawai'i Democratic Party.

His message resonated with immigrants while Bainum's personal appeal also attracted moderate-to-conservative voters.

"He did well with Filipinos, in particular," said John Hart, a Hawai'i Pacific University professor of communication who specializes in political communication and rhetoric. "But he also appealed to haole voters. I would characterize him as that middle-of-the road politician who appealed to many demographics."

Bainum had been driving along Wilder Avenue around 9:30 p.m. Tuesday when he experienced chest pains and pulled over and called 911, city spokesman Bill Brennan said.

Paramedics took him to The Queen's Medical Center, Brennan said. Bainum died around 11 p.m. of complications from an aortic aneurysm, said Honolulu medical examiner Dr. Kanthi De Alwis.

There were no warning signs other than chest pain, said Mallory Fujitani, Bainum's senior adviser.

"Duke was feeling well at work ... and having fun chasing the kids around in the evening," Fujitani said.

Bainum's unexpected death at age 56 is the second to hit the City Council in six months, setting up another special election to fill Bainum's seat and further complicating an already unpredictable era of Hawai'i politics.

As friends and even political opponents yesterday mourned Bainum's death, speculation immediately began about the political possibilities that could result — potentially affecting elections for governor, state Legislature, mayor and City Council.

"For all of the various races, this is all going to domino out," Hart said.

Yesterday's council meeting began with Bainum's empty, black leather chair draped in lei.

Apo asked for a moment of silence. Bainum's council colleagues then offered prayers and words of solace.

Councilman Charles Djou called Bainum's death the "loss of a good, kind and decent man."

"Maybe it was the drawl," said longtime political analyst Jerry Burris, who writes a column for The Advertiser. "He had an earnest quality about him, almost Gomer Pyle-like. He ran for offices left and right whenever something opened up. But he usually sat on the right side of every issue."

IN THE BEGINNING

Mark Edmund Bainum was born July 21, 1952, in Takoma Park, Md., and raised "dirt poor" in Arkansas to a family that later became multimillionaires, Bainum said in a 2004 interview with The Advertiser.

He graduated from the University of Maryland School of Medicine in 1980 and moved to Honolulu the same year to fulfill his surgical residency at the University of Hawai'i's John A. Burns School of Medicine.

For the next two years, Bainum rotated through Honolulu's major hospitals and his medical school colleagues thought Bainum's Arkansas drawl made him sound like actor John Wayne. They gave him the nickname "Duke" and Bainum liked it so much that he later officially adopted it as his own.

One of Bainum's former classmates, Dr. Mihae Yu — now a professor of critical care medicine at the UH medical school's department of surgery — yesterday called Bainum "really smart and fun. ... He knew even at that time that he had a mission way beyond being a doctor."

Bainum never forgot medicine as he pursued his political career, Yu said.

"He was interested in helping the whole medical field," Yu said. "As students, we were going to change the world. And he did."

Bainum saw both the limits of his role as a doctor and the larger potential for politics in 1984, when he volunteered his medical services for four months at a poorly equipped hospital in Nepal.

He was the only doctor in the 36-bed hospital and sometimes operated by flashlight, according to Bainum's campaign Web site. In one situation, he performed a caesarean operation "with the book propped open," according to the Web site.

"I was really helping people," Bainum said in the 2004 Advertiser interview. "I was literally saving lives, which was a great feeling."

But Bainum realized that he could only do so much by himself. Government, he decided, had the power to deal with the root causes of the conditions he found in Nepal.

So Bainum returned to Honolulu and got a job working for state Sen. Bertrand Kobayashi.

TURNING TO POLITICS

Bainum's own career as a politician began humbly at the Ala Moana/Kaka'ako Neighborhood Board he served on between 1987 and 1989. He then chaired the McCully-Mo'ili'ili Neighborhood Board from 1989 to 1990.

Bainum won election to the state House from 1990 to 1994 and moved over to the City Council from 1995 to 2003.

Bainum was divorced twice, with no children, when he married Jennifer Ann Harumi Toma in February 2004. Toma, a 1986 graduate of Hilo High School, also had been twice divorced, and had two children.

That same year — 2004 — Bainum chose to run for mayor of Honolulu.

He spent more than $4 million — twice as much as his rival, Mufi Hannemann — and was considered the early front-runner. As the final election results came in, however, Bainum lost to Hannemann by roughly 1,300 votes.

"He had his own money," Burris said. "So he was a different kind of political animal. He clearly didn't have a lot of people he had to take care of. He was there on his own dime and that was refreshing."

Over the four years that followed, Bainum disappeared from Honolulu politics. And then, in January 2008, he told The Advertiser he was considering a comeback.

"I'm looking at several races," he said. "I have not ruled out the mayor's race or the state Senate. I'm looking at all options."

In a flurry of events, Bainum ended up running unopposed for the District 5 council seat held by Ann Kobayashi, who chose to challenge Hannemann for mayor.

Bainum said he learned of Kobayashi's decision to vacate her seat and flew to Hawai'i, rented an apartment in the district and gathered the signatures required to run.

People openly speculated that Bainum had spent the previous four years on the Mainland. But Bainum insisted he had always kept Hawai'i as his legal residence and had been "regularly commuting" to Arkansas for family and financial issues.

Still, property records showed that Bainum purchased a $2.3 million, four-bedroom house in Kahala in a sale that closed July 22, the same day he rented an Ala Wai apartment to establish residency and become eligible for the open council seat.

Bainum called the Kahala home an investment property. He also owned a condo at Nauru Tower and property on the Big Island.

Hannemann — Bainum's mayoral rival from 2004 — accused Bainum of parachuting in from the Mainland and challenged Bainum's residency.

Bainum maintained that he was living in Honolulu full time at the time of the filing, at 1330 Ala Moana.

RUNNING UNOPPOSED

His only serious competition for Kobayashi's seat had been House majority leader Kirk Caldwell. But the city clerk's office ruled that Caldwell's nomination papers were invalid because he had not properly withdrawn from his House re-election campaign by the filing deadline.

Some angry constituents reacted to the lack of candidates by circulating literature throughout the district and waving signs asking voters to leave their ballots blank in protest.

"A lot of people think I caused it (the seat) to be uncontested," Bainum said at the time. "Totally false. If people are aggravated at it being uncontested, they should be mad at Caldwell and Mayor Hannemann for botching that. I would hope that they (District 5 residents) give me a chance to prove myself, and to see if I attend to constituent concerns and if I advocate for their issues."

Bainum, Burris said, "clearly loved running for and getting elected to office. Even though he ran for everything all the time, people still felt he was an Average Joe."

Hannemann yesterday remembered the clashes he had with Bainum over the years.

"I knew him to be an individual who felt very strongly about certain things and obviously his presence will be sorely missed on the City Council," Hannemann said.

"I think he's an example of what I said before — sometimes you agree with people, sometimes you disagree. What you do is you move on and try to find middle ground."

WHAT THEY SAID ABOUT BAINUM ...

“Duke Bainum was a calm force in our community and a true friend of the people. He began his professional life as a physician, serving his community with tremendous dedication and aloha. He never lost that sense of service, which grew even stronger when he entered public service and distinguished himself as a thoughtful, deliberative leader during his years as a Honolulu Neighborhood Board chairman, state representative, and City Council member. The people have lost a voice and committed advocate, but will continue to benefit from his time with us because of his many years of service and contributions which have uplifted the quality of life for all.”

— U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawai'i)

“Today is a sad day for Waikïkï and all of Honolulu. The Waikïkï Neighborhood Board offers its condolences to Jennifer and his two young sons, Z and Kona. Duke served the Waikïkï community as our City Council member well. He was always intense and unafraid to take a stand when trying to resolve our problems, and it was fortunate for Mänoa to gain his services at the last election. I had a meeting with Duke prior to the last election and while he was very interested in what was going on in Waikïkï, he was actually beaming with pride over his young children and even had his child’s car seat proudly on display in his car.”

— Bob Finley | chairman, Waikïkï Neighborhood Board

“We are all shocked and deeply saddened to hear of the passing away of Council member Duke Bainum. Duke was an honest and hardworking public servant, always simultaneously friendly and earnest. He will be missed by us all.”

— Brian Schatz | chairman, Democratic Party of Hawaiçi

“I am stunned by the passing of my friend and colleague Duke Bainum. Duke was a dear friend, a great councilmember, and most of all a decent man. The people have lost an honest, hardworking public servant. My heart goes out to Duke’s wife, Jennifer, his two young boys, and all of his family.”

—Charles K. Djou | Council member, District IV

“I am deeply saddened by the passing of Council member Duke Bainum, who was my friend and a former colleague. Duke was a dedicated public servant while serving in the state House of Representatives and Honolulu City Council. He was an asset to our mutual constituents and the City and County of Honolulu.”

— Calvin Say | speaker of the House