The latest tranche of Election 2022 campaign spending reports recently dropped with a greenback-heavy thud, especially in the mayor’s race. To date, some $790,972 in contributions have been raised among the eight candidates running in the August 13thprimary (well, six of them: Jonah Lion raised $40, and Alana Kay hasn’t reported figures yet). That easily surpasses the $678,019 in contributions made during the entire 2018 mayoral race (primary and general), though that’s still not the record. That would be the 2014 election, where overall mayoral campaign donations reached $979,729, with then-incumbent Alan Arakawa raising $941,137 of it. However, at this rate, the 2022 mayoral election may become Maui’s first $1 million race.
Before I take a big bite and start crunching numbers, here’s some background. I sought guidance from election guru Tony Baldomero, associate director of the Hawaii Campaign Spending Commission. For apples-to-apples comparisons, he advised that I use contribution data supplied from Line 12 on candidates’ disclosure reports, which totals all donations received, excluding loans.
Fund razing
These days, Mayor Michael Victorino must remember his last mayoral campaign wistfully. In 2018, he raised $458,594 in contributions during the entire campaign season, dwarfing the next largest amount raised: challenger Elle Cochran’s $112,774. This year, it took retired judge and first-time political candidate Richard Bissen just six months to nearly match Victorino’s 2018 total. The Bissen campaign has raked in $415,160 during the reporting period that ended June 30.
“Victorino is in real trouble. When a challenger is out-raising you many times over, that’s about as bad as it can get for an incumbent,” Colin Moore said, when I called him with the latest numbers. Moore, the director of the Public Policy Center at the University of Hawaii, explained, “The incumbent usually has an advantage because people expect them to win again. Victorino seems to be having a very hard time convincing them to support him.”
Although Victorino has raised $284,217 since the end of the 2018 election, only $118,808 of that has been contributed since Bissen announced his candidacy in January. Pulling up a distant third is Maui County Council member Kelly King, who jumped into the mayor’s race June 6 and had only three weeks to fundraise before the latest campaign spending filing deadline. She currently shows $48,637 in contributions as of June 30.
Akamai Coffee owner Kim Brown has raised $18,589. Anti-mandate activist (and co-organizer of the unsuccessful Recall Victorino campaign) Cullan Bell has raised $16,977 to date. County Council member Michael Molina, the fourth best-known name in the race, tops only Lion and Kay in fundraising, with an anemic $7,352 in total contributions. During the last reporting period, from April 26 to June 30, Molina raised only $1,847.
“Maxed out” donors
By law, no individual can contribute more than $4,000 to a candidate before “maxing out,” as they say. Bissen has received $4,000 donations from 38 people, about 36% of his total campaign contributions. Victorino has received 18 contributions of $4,000 to date, about 25% of his total take. King has seven $4,000 contributors, or about 58% of her total. Candidate Bell received $8,000 from two people, 47% of his total. Brown’s family has funded $13,024 of the $18,589 that Brown has raised (there is no $4,000 limit on family contributions), or 70% of her donations.
Molina had no $4,000 contributions but, at the grassroots end of the spectrum, he had the second highest percentage of contributions of $100 or less, at 34%. He was followed by Victorino, with 15% of the mayor’s total donations coming from those donating $100 or less. The rest: 5% for Bell and Bissen; 2% for Brown and King. With $40 as his sole campaign donation, candidate Jonah Lion is the top grassroots-funded candidate, with 100% of under-$100 contributions.
Who are these big dog donors?
Victorino has big union support, with $4,000 from International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 142 (where his wife Joycelyn worked) and another $4,000 from the Hawaii Laborers political action committee. (He’s received lesser donations from more than a dozen other unions and PACs). He received $4,000 donations from Paia landlord Rick Markham, Hong Kong Bistro owner Mike Israel, Maui Lani Partners, and the Hapa Nui Hawaii church. He also received $12,000 from three California-based investor types, and $4,000 from a “shop foreman” in Sioux City, South Dakota.
Among Bissen’s $4,000 big dogs: one union (Ironworkers for Better Government), Maui Plumbing, Pacific Pipe Co. owner Ken Ota, Makena Golf and Beach Club executive Richard Tramontin, Koholoa Brewery President Mary Anderson, and Hawaii Community Foundation CEO Micah Kane.
Progressive queenpin King pledged not to accept contributions of more than $100 from corporate PACS, lobbyists, developers, major landowners, hotel conglomerates, energy monopolies and military contractors. That high road will cost her in terms of cash. So far, most of her bigger contributions have come from progressive activists, among them, Maui Tomorrow Foundation president Michael Williams and Mark Hyde, a driving force behind the unsuccessful 2020 charter amendment to create a county manager system.
Cullan Bell’s $4,000 donations came from a Wailuku cosmetician and the Monsoon India restaurant.
Hedge Funding
A lot of Maui political power-hitters appear to be hedging their bets or switching allegiance altogether. There are some contributors who are playing the spread by giving both to Bissen and Victorino. Car dealer Jim Falk donated $4,000 to Victorino and $1,000 to Bissen. Members of the Higa family (Zippy’s restaurant) have given to both: ($1,000 to Victorino, $12,000 to Bissen). The prolific political donors from the Goodfellow construction family donated to Victorino in 2020, but have been Team Bissen in 2022, with $10,000 in donations from five family members and another $4,000 from the company’s general counsel. Members of the Oahu-based Kobayashi family also have donated both to Victorino (about $6,000 from family and a company employee) and Bissen ($12,000), as did Ironworkers for Better Government ($4,000 to Bissen, $2,500 to Victorino).
Party Politics
One of the odder bundles of Bissen campaign contributions came from a group of Californians affiliated with Maui Memorial Hospital (MMH). Irv Edwards, Mark Bell and Dr. Lee Weiss are top executives at the California company, Emergent Medical Associates (EMA), which contracts with Kaiser to run the emergency department at the hospital. Each of them gave $4,000 to the Bissen campaign. In addition, Kristine Rembis, spouse of MMH CEO Mike Rembis, gave $2,000. This $14,000 cumulative donation has got to hit the mayor hard. During the early days of the pandemic, Victorino fell on his sword defending the hospital, even when it was exhibiting indefensible behavior such as briefly prohibiting its doctors and nurses from wearing masks.
However, being the jaundiced journalist that I am, I wonder: Were they truly supporting Bissen, or just eager to schmooze with local glitterati at a May fundraiser at the South Maui home of talent manager Shep Gordon? Either way, it worked. A bunch of $4,000 contributions hit Bissen campaign coffers around that time, including one from Aerosmith lead singer Steven Tyler (who is an enthusiastic fan of the Maui Drug Court, which Bissen established). There was another $12,000 contributed from three businessmen from Newport Beach, California, and $4,000 from a Los Angeles-based artist.
Rumors and Rebuttals
Bissen’s perch atop the campaign cash pyramid comes with a downside.
He has taken heat for having so many Oahu-based contributions—some social media posts claiming as many as 50% of donors. I reviewed the 283 individuals who contributed more than $100. Of those, 71 came from Oahu. Bissen’s campaign put out a brief video about his Oahu donors, explaining that because of his schooling and work there, he has many friends. Bissen and Victorino each held fundraisers on Oahu, both of which generated sizeable donations.
There also has been widespread chatter about Bissen holding a Republican Party affiliation (the mayor’s race is nonpartisan) and alleging big support from former Maui mayor and Hawaii governor Linda Lingle. In a July 1 press release, Bissen said that, although he’s voted every year since he turned 18, he never “belonged to a political party.” As for his former employer Lingle, well, she’s donated $3,919 to the campaign this far.
What is not rumor is that the Bissen campaign accepted a $4,000 donation from controversial Maui developer Peter Martin (via HOPE Builders). The campaign also accepted small donations ($250 and $1,300) from community affairs managers employed by Bayer/Monsanto. While hardly significant monetarily, the Monsanto stigma runs deep in progressive circles and generated a lot of heated social media comments.
Bissen told me earlier this year that he put no restrictions on who could donate to him, except for dark money organizations. “I’m not going to take money from people who don’t tell me who they are.”
“Rick is talking to everyone, even those not contributing,” says Bissen campaign manager Charlene Schulenburg. “It doesn’t matter who gives what amount. Rick can’t be bought.”
According to Bissen’s Disclosure Report, he’s received total campaign contributions through 6/30 in the amount of $415,000. Of this, $186,000 is from 104 donors identified with non-Maui addresses, mostly from Oahu. This represents 45% of his total receipts. The average donation from this group is $1,788.
Election of our next mayor will be determined by Maui County voters, but make no mistake, Oahu money is playing a major role; it’s why you see so many Bissen advertisements and signs here.
Why would Oahu individuals and businesses donate so much to influence what is supposed to be our local election? I leave that to your imagination, but I’ll add that most Maui County residents don’t want our precious islands to become like Oahu. Apparently Oahu monied interests see things differently.
I love data dump articles. Thank you for shining a bright and thorough light on the local political scene; it proves Tip O’Neill’s famous adage: “All politics are local.”
People who got money donated to their campaign won’t argue about taking it. Only those that didn’t get money grumble about it. They also say, “they wouldn’t take it”… well, at least show you were offered it first. Good for people getting support and so what if it’s from Oahu, many have ties to Maui. Good Luck to all of them.
Aloha Mark,
Char here, I don’t know one person on Maui who wants Maui to become like Oahu. I would guess most Oahu people who are donating to the Bissen Movement feel the same. Richard, with all of the thousands of good relationships he’s formed over the years, includes friends, family, classmates he went to law school with, peers and employees he worked with for over 5.5 years of living in Honolulu.
Of course he’s got supporters from there! And if he didn’t THAT is what would be suspect or concerning.
Richard also worked with or came across thousands of people as our State’s 1st Deputy AG, as well as, Hawaii’s Public Safety Director where he handled a huge budget and managed over 2500 employees at the time.
As chairperson for the Bissen Movement, I have personally and recently met and asked some of the Honolulu donors this exact question, why are they supporting Bissen in this way? The resounding common response and theme is because of his fair, practical, common-sense approach, married with his experienced leadership skills, coupled with his intelligence, integrity, inclusivity, and his genuinely kind heart. That is why they’re in this. That’s why I came on to chair this effort. You know me, we’ve worked well together in the past. You know my values with the causes we’ve both worked hard to champion! I grew up with and graduated with Richard from both St. Anthony School and Santa Clara University. We have been friends for 46+ years… Richard has those same values. He’s a once in a generation candidate, he had no plans to run for mayor. As he was planning to retire he looked up, away from his thousands of cases and off the bench – where he was an exceptional Chief Judge for 17 years – then realized Maui County and all of us out here being active or just trying to afford to survive another day on Maui, could possibly be helped with his skills. He’s offering his leadership experience and his commitment level to us all by showing up during a contentious time – at the RIGHT time – for the right reasons. There’s nothing weird or nefarious about so many people wanting to support a 1st time, non political candidate. Richard is simply offering good leadership at a time when people have been unhappy with the current state of affairs, are fearful, and concerned about our future. The other reason people say they’re supporting Richard Bissen, whether they give $1.00 or $4,000, is because they all want good governance! We deserve better than what we’ve been getting. How about we give a guy like Bissen, a non-politician, with a public record of 34 years of good civil service and good deeds a shot. A grandfather concerned about his grandchildren having to leave their home because of costs here. Someone with 7-generations of deep Maui roots! There is no evidence that Richard has ever been influenced by anything but the law and doing what is pono. Bissen’s entire record of serving is documented. I encourage you and everyone to read all that’s published out there about him.
We must ask ourselves, how’s it been going for us so far with electing politicians? We have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
I’m sending loads of aloha to you and to everyone out there engaged and following this process. Give me a call if you have any other questions! 1-833-4BISSEN
Mahalo for all you do, Char
Good job reaching out to Tony at Campaign Spending, he’s probably the states leading authority on the matter.
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