Back in July, the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau invited Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann to participate in its media launch of a marketing blitz in Los Angeles on August 31-September 3, 2009.

HVCB’s invitation came with an offer of first class air fare between Honolulu and Los Angeles, hotel for three nights, meals and ground transportation, estimated to cost a total of $3,150. On August 26, the City Council approved a resolution accepting the $3,150 “gift” from HVCB to cover Hannemann’s travel to the events in LA.

Hannemann then took advantage of the HVCB-paid trip to scheduled two mainland fundraisers for his campaign for governor while he would be there.

Jason Grosfeld, a founder of Irongate Capital Partners, which built the Trump Tower in Waikiki, hosted a fundraiser at 7:30 p.m. on August 31 at BLT Steak in West Hollywood.

Notice of the fundraiser was filed with the Campaign Spending Commission the same day.

Grosfeld, along with his family, partners, and employees, have been major financial backers of the mayor. When I wrote about them back in 2007, the Grosfeld’s had already combined to give over $50,000 to Hannemann’s campaign.

Just two days later, on September 2, while the HVCB promotion was still going on in Los Angeles, Hannemann scheduled a fundraiser costing between $500 and $2,000 per person in Denver, Colorado.

The person in charge of this event was Tish Maes, a consultant working for a firm headed by former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb.

Webb, now a consultant promoting several mainland rail projects, has been a favorite of Hannemann’s, and has participated in the mayor’s rail events here on more than one occasion.

In addition, as I noted in an entry last month, Webb and Maes have already been major donors to Hannemann.

Browsing campaign contributions to Mayor Mufi Hannemann, a nice $18,000 chunk of change from one group of related contributors caught my eye. Former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb, who now has his own consulting group, Webb Group International LLC, gave $6,000, as did his wife, Wilma. Adding another $6,000 was Artiesha Maes, a consultant for Webb’s company.

Webb, whose company specializes in working with cities to manage and promote large infrastructure projects, has made several trips to Honolulu to participate as a rail advocate in what has become the city’s annual rail transit symposium, most recently in June 2009.