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This is a place for members of Progressive Democrats of Hawai‘i to express their thoughts
and exasperations about political happenings. The opinions and views are not necessarily
those of PDH's steering committee or membership as a whole.

July 18, 2006

Campaign Finance

Filed under: Uncategorized — rachel @ 2:29 pm

The Star Bulletin ran an article today listing the amounts of money raised so far by the candidates for the 2nd CD US Representative race (I have re-ordered them by amount rather than alphabetically as they were originally listed).

Mazie Hirono, D: $438,713
Quentin Kawananakoa, R: $377,770
Colleen Hanabusa, D: $248,603
Brian Schatz, D: $221,794
Gary Hooser, D: $167,043
Clayton Hee, D: $66,680
Nestor Garcia, D: $44,400
Bob Hogue, R: $30,956
Joe Zuiker, D: $3,830
Total: $1,599,789

The sad reality of our political system is that you need access to large amounts of money in order to be a “viable” candidate and get your message out. I truly hope that the outcome of this race will reflect more than just the amount of money put into it by the different campaigns.

This report only covers 9 candidates in this race, yet according to the Hawaii Office of Elections website currently there are 21 people who have pulled papers for this race and 9 have filed (not the same 9 as above). It will be interesting to see how many file their papers by the deadline next week (7/25).

PDH will be hosting a candidate forum for this race next week Weds at McCoy Pavilion. More info about this coming soon…

2 Comments »

  1. Aloha, Rachel,

    Thanks for posting this interesting info. In his July 17 post, Ian Lind provided even more relevant data than what the newspaper had (i.e., “cash on hand” instead of raw fundraising):

    http://www.ilind.net/2006/july/jul16-22.html

    Ian also has direct links to the reports.

    Please note that Matt Matsunaga has filed a report but has only $85.03 on hand. I can’t imagine he’s going to actually enter the race.

    I agree with you that the importance of money is unfortunate (although the financial reports can provide some insight about strength of support). But we’re lucky in this race that the leader in fundraising is also the most progressive candidate. Mazie Hirono is the only candidate who’s pledged to join Neil Abercrombie and Dennis Kucinich in the Congressional Progressive Caucus. For more on Mazie’s record and positions, please see her website: http://mazieforcongress.com

    Mahalo!

    Comment by David Raatz — July 19, 2006 @ 12:50 am

  2. Thankyou for your comment and the reference to Ian Linds post David.

    2 things:
    First as to financial reports showing “strength of support,” one could argue that would depend on the type of support you are talking about. Support of industries and unions who have money to donate to campaigns or support of the grassroots who don’t typically donate large amounts. I don’t mean to imply anything specific regarding the amounts in this race, I just want to point out that a candidate can have a large amount of grassroots support without a large campaign chest.

    Second, while Mazie is definitely a progressive candidate worth supporting, I think it is arguable whether she is the “most progressive” as you claim. Gary Hooser, for example, is very progressive although he doesn’t have the same level of name recognition that Mazie has. Perhaps Mazie is the “most progressive” candidate with a legitimate chance in this race… but that is a completely different statement altogether.

    Even though I live in the 1st CD so cannot vote in this race, I am hoping to learn more about each of these candidates in the upcoming “political speed dating” event next week.

    Comment by rachel — July 19, 2006 @ 10:39 am

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