Mayor’s race tops
$4M in spending
Duke Bainum continues to
outspend Mufi Hannemann
2-to-1 as the Sept. 18 primary nears
Duke Bainum and Mufi Hannemann have already spent $4 million to become Honolulu's next mayor, more than the total spending for candidates in the 2000 campaign.
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Bainum spent nearly $1.2 million during that period, a little less than half of his total spending of $2.8 million in this contest so far.
Hannemann's expenditures, meanwhile, totaled a little more than $600,000 for the reporting period. Hannemann reports $1.27 million in total spending so far in the race.
In the 2000 race between Mayor Jeremy Harris, Hannemann and former Mayor Frank Fasi, final tallies after the primary election, when Harris won the nonpartisan race, came to about $4 million.
Bainum also raised more money than Hannemann this reporting period, but the bulk of new money came from loans to his campaign.
Bainum reported $1.1 million in receipts, with $935,000 of that amount in loans. Total loans to his campaign come to nearly $2 million.
"From the start, this has been a campaign about honest change and ending the influence of campaign contributors on city government," Bainum campaign communications director Phyllis Kihara said. "Duke feels so strongly about this that he's willing to finance a large part of his own campaign. It allows him to stay independent and to put the peoples' interests before the special interests."
Hannemann raised about $197,000 and has no outstanding loans.
Both candidates have plenty of money left over to carry them through the primary election, when one candidate could win outright with 50 percent plus one vote.
Bainum has $299,000 in his campaign war chest, while Hannemann has $224,727 remaining.
If a single candidate fails to garner more than 50 percent of the vote, the top two vote-getters go on to the general election.
Costs for advertising continue to make up the majority of spending for both candidates.
"It's important that Mufi's message gets out to the people, and that's what we've been trying to do," said Elisa Yadao, spokeswoman for the Hannemann campaign.
"We're going to do what we can do and what we need to do to make sure that people have enough information to make up their minds."
Yadao said some of the advertising was geared toward "correcting the flat-out mis-characterization" of Hannemann's campaign spending reports.
But most of the advertising, she said, was aimed as showing Hannemann as a tested leader.
"This is a bellwether issue for the campaign -- who has the leadership ability to be the leader of the City and County of Honolulu," she said.
Hannemann has made an issue during the campaign of Bainum's family wealth and the loans to his campaign.
"I think what (the loans) shows is that he has a lot of money, personal money that he can devote to this campaign. It highlights that we have to work very hard to get the message out to the people," Yadao said.
Yadao said that the reports also show that the majority of contributors to Hannemann's campaign have given $500 or less, which she said shows "broad support for his ability, and we're very proud."
www.hawaii.gov/elections Duke Bainum campaign
www.dukebainum.com Mufi Hannemann campaign
www.votemufi.com