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POSTED: Saturday, November 01, 2008
                       

This story has been corrected. See below.

Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann spent about $566,000 in the six weeks since the primary election, more than five times the amount of his challenger, City Councilwoman Ann Kobayashi, according to the latest spending reports filed by the campaigns.

               

     

 

 

SPENDING LEFTOVERS         A look at the spending between incumbent Mayor Mufi Hannemann and challenger City Councilwoman Ann Kobayashi in the race for Honolulu mayor. The reporting period covers the six weeks since the Sept. 20 primary election:                   Mufi Hannemann         Cash on hand entering the general election period: $1,703,701.55         Amount raised: $51,050.00         Amount spent: $566,583.90         Amount remaining: $1,188,167.50         No debt                   Ann Kobayashi         Cash on hand entering the general election period: $7,782.26         Amount raised: $134,870.00         Amount spent: $110,847.92         Amount remaining: $31,804         No debt         Spending reports for all candidates and all non-candidate committees are available online at hawaii.gov/campaign/

The bulk of Hannemann's funds were spent on advertising, including about $162,400 for ads in Honolulu's two daily newspapers.

“;His mindset is, 'I've got it, so I can spend it, and she doesn't, so I can use it as an advantage,'”; said Neal Milner, a University of Hawaii political scientist. “;The other mindset is that you never take your opponent for granted if you can afford not to take your opponent for granted.

“;I think he thought she did better than he thought she would in the primary and just wants to make sure.”;

In the Sept. 20 primary, Kobayashi and UH engineering professor Panos Prevedouros managed to win enough support to prevent Hannemann from gaining the “;50 percent plus one”; margin needed for an outright victory that night.

Hannemann fell 924 votes shy of the margin needed.

Campaign spending reports for the six-week period since the primary election were due yesterday.

Hannemann entered the general election campaign with $1.7 million on hand and still has $1.2 million in his campaign fund.

Kobayashi spent roughly $94,000 on her primary campaign and entered the race against Hannemann with $7,782 on hand.

For the general election, she raised about $135,000 and spent $111,000, according to her report.

Meanwhile, Hannemann's advocacy for rail transit was boosted by a handful of groups that also support the project.

The Hawaii Carpenters Union, Hawaii Laborers' Union and Support Rail Transit Association combined to spend about $243,000 in their lobbying efforts supporting the proposed $4 billion rail-transit system.

The anti-rail group Stop Rail Now ended the primary season $43,000 in debt, and did not have a spending report filed by yesterday evening.

A campaign opposed to holding a Constitutional Convention in 2010 spent almost $400,000 on that issue.

The Hawaii Alliance, a coalition of primarily labor and business groups heavily funded by the lobbying arm of the mainland-based National Education Association, has spent a total of just more than $500,000 urging voters to reject a Con Con.

Ads in support of a Con Con, to review the state's constitution and determine whether changes should be made, have begun to appear only recently.

A group called Yes for Constitutional Convention raised $10,000 last month, and spent $7,382 on ads.

               

     

 

 

CORRECTION         » A photo caption on Page A1 Saturday misidentified supporters waving signs for mayoral candidates. The photo showed Chad Haili, not Bob Iinuma, holding a sign for Mayor Mufi Hannemann. Also, the caption named but did not show Helene Kiyono, who is a Hannemann supporter.