Candidates and noncandidate committees (including corporations and political action committees) had a supplemental report of contributions and expenditures due on January 31, 2022, covering the second half of last year.
There are many questions to try to answer from the data reported to the Campaign Spending Commission, which they in turn make publicly available.
I started with a relatively simple question: What individuals donated the most to candidates during 2021, irrespective of their favored candidates.
The answer says quite a bit about the structure of political power and influence in the state, based on the assumption that, well, “money talks.”
There’s a long list of people who contributed a total of $5,000 or more, too long to be of general use. So I limited it to those who gave over $8,000. It’s still a long list, but manageable.
At the top of the list at #1 and #2 are Blake Oshiro ($23,900) and Bruce Coppa ($22,400), principals with Capitol Consultants, which bills itself as the state’s “leading strategic government affairs and business solutions firm.” And Ross Yamasaki, also of Capitol Consultants, ranked at #11, with contributions of $14,750.
Following them at #3 was Kimberley Yoshimoto, an attorney with the firm of Imanaka Asato LLLC, who contributed a total of $18,650. Michael Iosua ($17,730), from the same firm, also ranked in the top ten, while attorney Mitchell Imanaka ($10,750) ranked at #35.
Five R.M Towill officers and employees were among the top 20 contributors, giving a total of $76,000 to candidates.
Keep in mind that these figures don’t represent the grand totals by individuals associated with these firms, but only those who gave over $8,000. A full accounting for each firm will take longer to compile.
I also noticed quite a few husband/wife pairs who would have been included if their contributions were combined. That’s another for the “maybe later” list.
The several relatively prolific contributors by the name of Bert Kobayashi, including Bert A. Kobayashi (Jr. and Sr.) and attorney Bert T. Kobayashi, don’t appear because I had trouble properly separating their respective contributions in time to be included in this post.
Individuals donating the most to Hawaii state and local candidates in 2021 by Ian Lind on Scribd
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“. . . the name of Bert Kobayashi, including Bert A. Kobayashi (Jr. and Sr.) and attorney Bert T. Kobayashi, . . .”
This is a problem in general, because sometimes entries are not consistent. For example, “Bert Kobayashi” could also be listed as “Bertrand Kobayashi.” Search results might not pick up all the instances of Bert one is looking for, at least in my experience.
I’m not sure how to fix that, however. It’s even difficult making sure that contributions or expenditures are posted to the same name within a committee, because of the very clunky way the CSC’s website works.
Curious about firms prodding their employees to be “voluntold” to donate x amount with a promise for some kind of later reimbursement in the form of a “bonus” or pay raise? Naturally this works better in small circle companies like…well…consultants and law firms…who stand a lot to gain from government contracts. Even better if employees in their ranks are former legislators or government bureaucrats.
To further contextualize, it’s interesting that former Governor Abercrombie’s former chief of staff and deputy chief of staff now not only run perhaps the state’s top lobbying firm but are also the state’s top political campaign contributors.
Meanwhile, a controversial engineering company executive who served as the fundraising point man for Abercrombie’s campaign — and for certain earlier campaigns that collected massive amounts of contributions that were found to be illegal — has been reported by testifying witnesses to be the focus of ongoing federal grand jury proceedings scrutinizing campaign contributions and other matters.
Not that there’s any connection, but there certainly are some dots. And it kinda makes one wonder what that floundering and short-lived regime was really all about…
The listed also have Cart Blanche Access to the Capitol, while the public does not!
Nothing has changed in Hawaii, from the days of the exclusive “Big Five” powerhouses.
With the only exception being multi cultural members, who belong to same private clubs and whose children attend the same exclusive private schools as in Pre-Statehood Hawaii.
They don’t pass smell test! The former minorities, have become like kind rulers!
Very Animal Farm-esque wouldn’t you say?