Julie Hunter challenges McKeeva Bush’s West Bay West seat

The West Bay West race begun in earnest on Tuesday when banker and community activist Julie Hunter announced her candidacy, as incumbent MP McKeeva Bush hosted his first pre-election public meeting in the district.

Hunter, who retired as vice president of Cayman National Bank in September this year, is a cousin of Bush’s and a former member of his United Democratic Party.

This will be her first time running for office, but she told the Compass Wednesday morning that she had been considering running since 2017, saying that, as a deeply faithful person, she had prayed about this for a long time, but “I could not get clearance from God to run”.

But this year, with retirement from her 35-year career in banking and more people available to ease her load at the Circle of Love Ministries non-profit, she says the time was right for her to seek election.

She said she had met with Bush in September to inform him of her decision.

Hunter said she had believed him when he said four years ago that 2021 would be his last run for office, and described his political career as having “spiralled downward” in recent years.

Bush has faced a number of legal challenges, including a conviction for common assault in 2020. A jury found him not guilty of rape in July this year in relation to a decades-old alleged incident, and in February this year, citing an abuse of process, a Grand Court judge discharged a jury and discontinued an indecent assault trial against Bush.

The West Bay West MP, who is a former premier and former speaker of the House, has repeatedly accused authorities, including governors, of having a vendetta against him, leading to the various court cases. He repeated this again at his public meeting in the heart of his West Bay West neighbourhood, in Leo Ebanks Park on Ebanks Road, on Tuesday night.

He told the gathered constituents and supporters that he believed his legal woes were a result of his opposition over the years to efforts by the British government or the European Union to force changes to beneficial ownership and taxation legislation in Cayman, among other challenges he had made.

Party politics

Both Hunter and Bush say the time of independent candidates is at an end in Cayman, and the country should embrace the party or team approach.

Bush has set up his Organization for a Better Cayman, and has invited others who plan to run to join him under that umbrella. So far, no one has been announced as joining that group. However, Minister of Tourism Kenneth Bryan was in the audience at Bush’s Tuesday night meeting, and Bush encouraged people to vote for Bryan when he runs in the next election.

Bush also urged people to back West Bay South MP André Ebanks.

Hunter says she does intend to join a party or group, and had already been approached by a number of them. However, she was reluctant to say which ones. Asked if she might join the Progressives, she said she would not rule it out as she did not want to narrow her options.

She acknowledged that running against her cousin was likely to make for awkward moments among the family, but she said, if, after 40 years in the House, Bush had not accomplished what he had set out to do, it was time for new blood.

Noting that the population of West Bay and the entirety of Cayman has grown substantially in recent years, she said people have short memories and new voters would potentially pay more attention to recent events in Bush’s life rather the work he has done over his four decades in office.

Campaign focuses

Hunter, who had stood side-by-side with Bush on election platforms over the years, said she intended to run a clean campaign, acknowledging that she had seen some “dark and aggressive” exchanges between candidates in previous elections.

She says in her campaign she will be focusing on affordable housing for Caymanians, job creation, the completion of overdue projects like the civic centre, police station, and repairs to Morgan’s Harbour dock, and addressing overdevelopment in Cayman.

Bush laid out some of the elements of his campaign at his meeting, which includes calls for a new high school for West Bay, the establishment of a new home for seniors in the district, and the challenges faced by Caymanians in finding affordable land or homes.

He also addressed the upcoming referendum, saying he was still undecided about the decriminalisation of ganja possession, but he urged people to vote in favour of cruise berthing and a national lottery.

Bush said he felt a fourth question should be added to the referendum – which is scheduled to be held on election day on 30 April 2025. That question, he said, was whether the ‘one man one vote’ system, which was established in 2017, be abolished. That system divided the Cayman Islands into 19 small constituencies, when previously there had been six districts with multiple representatives.

Two-person race?

Bush and Hunter, so far, are the only two people who have announced their candidacy to run in West Bay West.

Mario Ebanks, who was the sole candidate to challenge Bush in the 2021 general election, says he is “highly unlikely” to run, but did not completely rule it out, noting he has been receiving pressure from the West Bay West and wider community to put his name down for nomination.

But, he said, he had promised his wife that, after three unsuccessful campaigns, in 2000, 2005 and 2021, he would not run again.

Bush beat Ebanks in 2021 by just 27 votes.

Ebanks said running a third candidate in the constituency would be “not impossible, but very risky”, in terms of unseating Bush.

Currently, the West Bay West district has 1,279 registered voters.