The state Campaign Spending Commission has a slew of online data available for viewing and download, both raw data and useful summaries.

Here’s part of the chart showing campaign contributions by zip code during the 2024 election. You can view the full chart here.

The Supreme Court has said that money equals speech.

If that’s the case, then it’s easy to see that the political conversation is dominated by Oahu individuals and businesses.

The only neighbor island areas accounting for 2% or more of total campaign contributions were zip codes for Hilo and Wailuku.

I’ll have to search for a similar chart limited to legislative candidates to see how money talks to the members of the House and Senate. And perhaps looking at contributions during a non-election year will identify money coming from special interests rather than individual voters.

Screenshot