Campaign Cash: Why is a group of California doctors so interested in the Maui mayor’s race?

Three physician/executives of Emergent Medical Associates [EMA], the private California company contracted to run Maui Memorial Hospital’s emergency department, have become notable players in the Maui mayor’s race.

Since May, the three have thrown $24,000 into the campaign coffers of contenders Richard Bissen and incumbent Michael Victorino (evenly split at $12,000 each). In addition, hospital CEO Michael Rembis and his wife Kristine also have split their support. Kristine Rembis gave $2,000 to Bissen in May and her husband donated the same amount to Victorino in August.

Why donate?

Why the sudden interest in the Maui mayoral race? Assessing donors’ interests is usually pretty easy. Maui developers give money to candidates who are pro-development; conservationists support those who are environmentally minded. EMA’s motives, at first glance, seem more misguided than anything. Maui Memorial Hospital is operated by a subsidiary of Kaiser Permanente but has regularly sought and received state funding since the state transferred ownership to Kaiser in 2018.

CEO Rembis’ past campaign contributions, for example, were made to state legislative representatives such as Rosalyn Baker, Lynn DeCoite and J. Kalani English.

I asked Maui County Councilmember Kelly King, whose recent mayoral run did not include EMA/Rembis donations, why EMA and Rembis would suddenly focus on local politics.

“It raises some questions,” King acknowledged. “Why are hospital officials making campaign contributions to county elected officials? County officials can be advocates, but state lawmakers have jurisdiction over most hospital and health care issues.”

Victorino diss?

The timeline trajectory of those donations is interesting.

Los Angeles-based EMA executives Irv Edwards, Mark Bell, and Lee Weiss never supported Hawaii political candidates in the past, according to Hawaii Campaign Spending Commission records. They first popped up on my campaign funding radar with their donations to mayoral hopeful Richard Bissen following a glitzy Wailea fundraiser held in May by talent manager Shep Gordon.

EMA founder and co-president Edwards, who listed EMA’s address in El Segundo, donated $4,000. EMA co-president Bell, of Manhattan Beach, also donated $4,000, as did EMA’s Chief Clinical Operations Officer Weiss, who lives in Hermosa Beach. Another Maui Memorial Hospital connection came from Kristine Rembis, who listed an address in Tarzana, California, and donated $2,000.

I mentioned these contributions in a story I wrote on campaign funding in the mayor’s race. It seemed the donations were made more to attend a high-end party than to support a candidate who had been unknown just months before. It also struck me as somewhat tone-deaf.

Victorino has steadfastly supported the hospital, particularly in the wake of a series of still-incomprehensible hospital decisions forbidding mask-wearing in the early days of the pandemic. With that in mind, the EMA/Kristine Rembis donations to Bissen seemed like a slap in Victorino’s face.

Same cash, different candidate

A couple weeks after my July 23rd story—and four days after a front page story by the Honolulu Star Advertiser’s Sophie Cocke on EMA’s ongoing problems at the hospital—Weiss, Bell and Edwards made identical $4,000 contributions to Victorino. This time, instead of listing their out-of-town addresses, they all identified themselves as “physician Maui Health-Kaiser Permanente,” although none work there full-time or live on-island. CEO Rembis stepped in with a $2,000 Victorino donation, listing an address in Kihei. All were made on August 8, just days before the primary election.

Although Victorino was undoubtedly assuaged, it appears that EMA and Rembis don’t particularly care who is in the driver’s seat at the end of the mayoral election—just as long as the winner remembers his medical supporters. I emailed a request for comment from Rembis and EMA. Rembis was out of town and not available for comment. I will update this story if I get further responses from him or EMA.

Could a friend in the mayor’s office help the hospital? EMA’s frayed relationship with its emergency room doctors has been widely discussed locally (I will be doing further reporting on this soon), and a petition launched by a local trauma surgeon seeks EMA’s ouster, among other things. EMA has hired a nationally known PR crisis consultant to help with the situation. A mayor who stays supportive in the midst of this latest hospital management/morale problem would be most welcome.