Incumbency almost always translates into campaign cash during election season. Most incumbents are reelected in a typical year, and those who depend on their decisions–that is, those who make up most of the money going into election campaigns–tend to be conservative and put money into the campaigns of incumbents.
The power of incumbency can be seen quite clearly contested race for the Honolulu City Council’s District 4 seat. I’m still looking through the data, and here are a few more relevant facts and figures. Keep in mind that these numbers reflect contributions through October 22, 2018, the latest complete figures available, and will be updated when final reports covering the period through the General Election are due on December 6.
There were 41 donors who gave the incumbent, Trevor Ozawa, the maximum $4,000 contribution allowed by law during the campaign during the campaign period through October 22, 2018. These “maxed out” donors contributed a total of $164,000, or 31% all the contributions received.
By comparison, Tommy Waters, the challenger, had just 13 contributors giving the maximum allowed.
There were several groups of corporate execs and family members who combined to give larger amounts to Ozawa and, presumably, enjoy added influence and access following the election. Officers and employees of The Kobayashi Group, along with family members, topped the councilmember’s contributor list with a combined $27,500 in campaign contributions. Donors associated with R.M Towill gave $15,000, while those linked to Mitsunaga & Associates and H2O Process Engineering Limited each added $14,000.
Waters, by comparison, did not have a single group that combined to give more than the $4,000 maximum.
Here are the lists of the top contributors to both candidates, drawn from their reports filed with the Campaign Spending Commission.
Contributors to Trevor Ozawa who gave the maximum $4,000 allowed by law through October 22, 2018:
Contributors to Tommy Waters who gave the maximum $4,000 allowed by law through October 22, 2018:
Discover more from i L i n d
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Perhaps Councilmen & -women, at Council meetings and public appearances, should wear jackets like the NASCAR drivers with the names of their sponsors’ business or union or fellow legislators groups all over the jackets. I think that would help.
Thanks Ian for the sunlight it’s a good disinfectant.
“Friends of Caldwell” supporting Waters, of course Thanks for the data.
Another interesting metric to look at is donations that were $100 or less. Total dollar amounts for the 10/22/18 period were $6,575.79 for Ozawa (or 1.3%) and $10,239.49 for Waters (6.3%). It would also be interesting to see how many people donated $100 or less.
Like the NASCAR idea as a way to remember who gets favors. Pay to play is an Ozawa rep.
But Waters didn’t do himself any favors by aligning himself w/the mayor.
Ozawa is one of 9 votes on the city council. He’s not the mayor. All this huffing-and-puffing about “pay to play” is just gratuitous hand-wringing, AFAIAC. Besides, it’s not as if Waters’ side of the ledger is totally free of contribution from special interests. Carpenters, laborers, ironworkers, engineers, painters.
What does stick out like sore thumbs to my eyes are “Friends of Caldwell” & “Friends of Ikaika Anderson” supporting Waters’ camp. I wonder if this might have tipped the balance in favor of Ozawa for independent-minded District IV voters, even if some of them aren’t particularly enamoured with the incumbent.
I love how people like to point out the $28,000 Waters got from Caldwell, Anderson and a few construction folks, but totally ignore the nearly $100,000 Ozawa got from developers and the $28,0000 just from tourism folks, especially when District IV suffers from too much development and tourism. Ozawa is not going to go against his special interests, especially when he is known for playing favorites (you only need to read Ian’s lighted Christmas Tree story to see how underhanded he does this). If only 11 people had not voted for Ozawa, he would have lost. Pretty amazing when you consider he outspent Waters 3 to 1 and that half a mil only got him 22 more votes. I hope Waters wins his lawsuit. At some point, Hawai’i will have to acknowledge that mistakes happen and that making sure the count is accurate can only strengthen people’s faith in our elections.