UPDATED: Kai Kahele filed his report late Wednesday showing he’s spent more than $200,000 on the race so far.
Honolulu businesswoman Vicky Cayetano continued to pump hundreds of thousands of dollars of her own money into her campaign for governor last month, and has now loaned her campaign a total of $2.235 million in an effort to keep up with the well-funded apparent frontrunner in the race for Hawaii governor, Lt. Gov. Josh Green.
Cayetano loaned her campaign $715,000 last month alone, which was nearly 10 times the amount she was able to raise in private donations in July, according to campaign finance reports filed Wednesday. That’s an obvious sign the private contributions she has received were not nearly enough to meet the demands of the campaign as she approaches the closing days of the Democratic primary.
Green, meanwhile, raised another $201,870 during July.
However, Cayetano’s loans to her campaign allowed her to significantly outspend Green in July. In the latest campaign filing covering the period from July 1 to July 29, Cayetano spent slightly more than $800,000, while Green spent $309,723 during the same period.
To date Cayetano has spent $3.05 million on the race, while Green has spent slightly more than $2.96 million. More than 70% of the money available to Cayetano in the Democratic primary has been her own cash, while Green has relied entirely on contributions from private donors and political action committees.
Democratic U.S. Congressman Kai Kahele has pledged to accept donations of only $100 or less in his bid for governor, and therefore raised far less money. He also missed a critically important deadline for qualifying for public funding, which has further limited the amount of campaign cash he has available.
UPDATE Kahele’s filing late Wednesday showed he had spent a total of $257,349 on the primary race as of July 29, including $79,155 in July.
Primary election voting is well underway and will end on Aug. 13, and Green has the largest campaign cash reserves heading into the final stretch of the Democratic primary. His report filed Wednesday shows he ended the July reporting period with $521,591 in cash on hand, while Cayetano has $52,170 held in reserve. Kahele had a cash balance of $24,062.
Cayetano has been able to raise just $858,112 in private contributions from local business leaders and others so far, while Green has raised more than $3.37 million from private donors.
Green’s most generous donors last month included Katherine Holland, who is CEO of an ignition interlock provider called Intoxalock; Event Manager Kenneth Kanter of Douglas Trade Shows; AJW Inc. lobbyist Joseph Colaneri, whose firm specializes in advocating for technology companies; and Paul Edgerley, an investor with the Kansas City-based VantEdge Partners LLC investment fund. Each of them gave the maximum allowable donations of $6,000.
The Hawaii Realtors Political Action Committee; the Hawaii Electrician Market Enhancement (HEMEP) PAC; and the Hawaii Operating Engineers Industry Stabilization Fund each donated the maximum $6,000 to the Green campaign last month, while Hawaiian Airlines Inc. PAC has donated $4,000 to date.
Also giving the maximum $6,000 last month was Samuel Stern, CEO of Affinity Healthcare.
Geotech Solutions President Troy Ogasawara and retired First Hawaiian Bank executive Walter Dods Jr. each donated $4,000 to Green; while Coastal Construction President Kenneth Sakurai and Five Minute Pharmacy owner Derek Tengan each donated $2,000.
Cayetano’s largest donors last month included former Hawaii television and film producer April Masini, Charlyn Honda-Masini and Eric Goldberg, an executive with PureStar/Atlantic City Linen Supply LLC, who each donated $6,000.
Also donating was Chef Kelvin Ro of Hawaii International Foods Inc. and Michael Irish, CEO of Diamond Head Seafood Wholesale, Inc. who each have contributed $5,000; and Hawaii National Bank Chairman Warren Luke and Realtor Donna Walden, who each contributed $2,000.
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