Category Archives: lobbyists

A quick look at the top lobbyists during Hawaii’s current legislative session

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On Monday morning I decided to take a look at lobbyists’ activity during the current legislative session, digging into the online data posted by the State Ethics Commission.

The data come from lobbyist registrations, and expenditure reports.

I thought it could be an easy and quick post. But I’m sitting here 24 hours later trying to get at least a preliminary post done with the basic information.

State law requires each lobbyist to register within five days of becoming a lobbyist. Registration includes reporting contact information, the name and contact info of any person or organization the lobbyist is employed by, or on whose behalf they will lobby.

Three reports of expenditures and (less often) contributions must then be filed over the course of the year. The first two reports cover the bulk of the annual legislative session. The report due on March 31 cover the January-February period. The next report, due May 31, covers the period from March 1 through April 30. The final report, due January 31 of the following year, covers the period from May 1 through the end of December. The lists below are based on the reports that were due on March 31, 2025.

After some browsing, I ended up with three “big picture” snapshots–the top individual lobbyists ranked by their reported compensation from all employers or clients, the top lobbying firms ranked by the total compensation paid to the lobbyists they employ, and the top organizations represented by lobbyists (again ranked by compensation paid to lobbyists).

A total of 512 individual lobbyists registered for the 2025-2026 biennium. The list ranked by compensation is very top-heavy, with only 14 (2.8%) receiving more than $50,000 in compensation from their employers or clients during the reporting period (January 1 through February 28). In total, the top 14 highest earning lobbyists represent about one in five of all organizations hiring lobbyists, and accounted for 39% of total lobbying fees paid.

At the top of the list, and far ahead of the next highest earning lobbyist, is Michael Iosua, an attorney with the firm of Imanaka Asato LLLC. He represents clients through his firm, and also through an independent lobbying firm, MK Advocacy Group LLC, co-owned with Kimberley Yoshimoto, also an attorney with Imanaka Asato. The two are listed as partners in the Imanaka firm’s Government Relations Law group. Iosua, a former UH football player, was a member of the Stadium Authority and was required to file a financial disclosure report, which reported ownership of 50% of MK Advocacy Group.

In the second spot, with just over half the lobbyist fees earned by Iosua, is Ann Chung, and her company, Chung Associates LLC. Although using the “associates” label, Chung is the sole lobbyist registered with the company. She reported seven clients, including the client that paid the highest amount of lobbyist compensation during the two month period. That client, Waikai Consulting LLC, reported spending $65,000, but is kind of a mystery. State business registration records have no company by that name licensed to do business in the state, either as a Hawaii company or a foreign firm doing business here.

According to Chung’s ethics commission filings, Waikai Consulting LLC used the same Laukahi Street address that serves as Chung’s residence and the business address of Chung Associates.

After getting this far, I was running out of time. So what follows is quite sparse, although there are lots of interesting questions to be pursued about what’s shown in these data.

The next table lists the top lobbying firms, several of which employ more than one of the top ranked lobbyists. There are 275 organizations registered as employing lobbyists, but the top 12 firms control 51% of the total compensation paid.

The #1 firm, Imanaka Asato LLLC, employs three of the top paid lobbyists, including Iosua, Kimberly Yoshimoto, and Evan Oue.

Top Lobbyists

The third list ranks the organizations represented by lobbyists according to the amount of lobbyist compensation they pay. While somewhat concentrated at the top, the spending is more evenly spread among the 425 organizations. About 5 percent of the organizations account for 20% of the total compensation paid.

Top Lobbying Firms

Whew. Now I’m going to get this basic information posted for your review.

Lobbyists should disclose specific bills they are working for or against

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A column on Sunday by the Civil Beat Editorial Board highlights the lack of information the public is provided about the origin of bills introduced on behalf of publicly unidentified special interests (“Hawaii Lawmakers Should Identify The People Asking For Legislation“).

…it’s puzzling, then, that lawmakers continue to allow for the anonymous introduction of hundreds of bills each year.

A search shows that, out of the more than 2,300 bills introduced in the Hawaii House of Representative in the 2021-2022 biennium, more than 100 where “introduced by request of another party” without actually identifying who or what that party is.

The same goes for the Hawaii Senate, where, of the more than 2,600 bills introduced during that same period, nearly 100 have anonymous authorship.

Civil Beat suggests that the solution would involve tweaks to legislative rules and procedures on bill introduction.

I have another solution, which is to require lobbyists to disclose specific bills they draft, introduce, or which they support or oppose in their lobbying rounds.

Right now, the state law which regulates lobbyists (Chapter 97, Hawaii Revised Statutes) requires only the vaguest identification of what specific issues each lobbyist will be working on.

Currently, lobbyists are required to register before they can undertake active lobbying. The requirements for registration involve disclosing a lobbyists mailing address and telephone number, along with the name and principal place of business of their employers, as well as clients they are authorized to represent.

Then they are asked a final piece of information: “(3) The subject areas on which the lobbyist expects to lobby.”

The categories are so general and broad that they are essentially meaningless, and tell little about what the lobbyist is actually interested in. Here are the subjects that currently appear in lobbyist registrations. This happens to be from the registration for the 2019-2020 period filed by Ross Yamasaki, who was employed by Capitol Consultants of Hawaii to lobby on behalf of Airbnb.

This is simply not adequate to inform the public of any lobbyist’s interests.

I would suggest that the lobbyists law be amended to require each lobbyist to disclose as part of their registration the name, bill number, or brief description of any measure they will be lobbying on that hasn’t yet been given a number, along with a checkbox to indicate whether they have submitted a draft bill to any legislator or legislative officer with a request that it be introduced “by request.” And lobbyists should be required to update this information as part of their required periodic disclosures of contributions and expenditures.

In terms of transparency, Hawaii should follow the several states that also require lobbyists to submit a recent passport-type photo as part of their lobbyist registration, which would aid the public in recognizing lobbyists at work in the hallways and offices of the capitol.

These likely aren’t the only tweaks that the lobbyists law needs, but they would address the issue raised by today’s Civil Beat editorial.

Also see:

“Monthly public disclosure by lobbyists? Yes, it can be done,” iLind.net, July 23, 2021.

“It’s time to shine some light on special interests lobbying the Ige administration during this pandemic,” iLind.net, August 12, 2020.

The Silence from the Fifth Floor: Is This the Transparency We Were Promised? Ililani Media, February 4, 2015

Ian Lind: Lawsuit Exposes Blind Spot in Hawaii Lobbyist Law, Civil Beat, September 9, 2015.

“Regulating executive branch lobbying”, iLind.net, February 25, 2016.

Ian Lind: Lawsuit Exposes Blind Spot in Hawaii Lobbyist Law, Civil Beat, September 9, 2015.

Is it lobbying or just schmoozing?

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Legislators have been invited to attend a legislative “Meet & Greet Reception” this evening sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce Hawaii. It is pitched to legislators as “an opportunity to meet with Hawaii’s business leaders.” The event is scheduled for Cafe Julia in downtown Honolulu starting with a cocktail reception at 5 pm.


Legislators are asked to register online for a $25 Legislator ticket “in order to be in compliance with the Ethics Committee….”

There’s nothing untoward or inappropriate about such meetings, but there is a question: Does this constitute lobbying? And do the costs to put on such an event have to be reported as lobbying expenditures in lobbyist disclosure reports required to be filed by the Chamber with the State Ethics Commission?

This appears to a regular Chamber event. In 2020, for example, it was held on January 16. I did a quick look at the lobbying expenditure report filed by the Chamber covering the January-February 2020. There do not appear to be any expenditures related to the event reported by the chamber, although the organization reported paying lobbyists $8,000 during the two-month period.

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Monthly public disclosure by lobbyists? Yes, it can be done.

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Public disclosure of the amounts special interest lobbyists spend to influence public policy just isn’t taken seriously here in Hawaii.

First of all, reporting is sporadic at best, with only three reporting periods each year. Lobbyists, and those that employ them, are required to disclose their compensation and expenditures on March 31, May 31, and January 31 of each year, and within thirty days after adjournment sine die of any special session of the legislature.

It you are trying to utilize these data to track and attempt to counter undue influence of these monied interests, good luck. The relative lack of full and timely reporting results in a system rigged against the public interest, and in favor of lobbyists and those that employ them.

This week, I was working on something else that led me to the lobbyist disclosure section of the Washington State Public Disclosure Commission.

Some quick comparisons between Washington and Hawaii.

First, Washington lobbyists are required to file a monthly report as long as they are employed as a lobbyist, even if they are inactive during the month. Monthly disclosure. Imagine that! What a concept! Compare that to Hawaii’s three reporting periods for the year.

Second, the required disclosures in Washington are more detailed than anything required by the Hawaii lobbyist law, and include in one place contributions, expenditures, spending on subcontractors, campaign contributions made by the lobbyist or transmitted by the lobbyist to candidates or political action committees, etc., although I’m not sure whether there is more detailed reporting by lobbyists, or whether it is just packaged more comprehensively for online public inspection.

Third, their law covers executive branch lobbying of state agencies, including the governor’s office. Lobbyists are asked the amount of time spent lobbying the legislature, and lobbying the executive branch.

Fourth, Washington requires public agencies to disclose their state-level lobbying activities as wel

All state and local agencies, including individual state agencies, each state-funded university or college, and any county, city, town, municipal corporation, quasi-municipal corporation and special purpose district (e.g., school, port, water, sewer, fire, library, hospital, and public utility districts), that lobby at the state level are required to report their expenditures quarterly. An agency does not file the L5 expenditure report for a quarter if no lobbying occurred, unless the agency has a contract lobbyist on retainer.

Fifth, the Washington Public Disclosure Commission offers its data for download, although the data for download appear to be split up by year, and according to the way it is reported in summary tables online, reported separately for lobbyist, lobbying firm, employers of lobbyists, and public agencies. So the data can be downloaded, but it looks like it would take a bit of work to put the different pieces together to get an overall searchable database.

But here in Hawaii, the State Ethics Commission’s switch to a reporting system powered by Salesforce left the public out in the cold. The data sets, which were formerly available for download through the state’s data portal, are no longer available to the public.

And it’s depressing to note that Honolulu’s lobbyist disclosure is even less public friendly than the state’s system, even though the city and county are home to two-thirds of the state’s population.