The two biggest fundraisers in the Maui County mayoral race each brought in over $100,000 in July, the final month of campaigning before the primary election on Aug. 8. 

Incumbent Mayor Richard Bissen raked in $102,799 from July 1 to 24, putting him at a total of $395,447 across the entire election period, while Maui County Council Vice Chair Yuki Lei Sugimura pulled in slightly more at $110,702 in July, giving her $446,259 in total campaign contributions, according to the latest spending reports. 

The two candidates have built formidable war chests that far outpace any of the other eight candidates in the mayoral race, as well as the top fundraising candidates running for Maui County Council.

No other mayoral candidate has amassed more than $250 except for P. Denise La Costa, who reported $53,829 in July and a total of $156,944, although $126,615 has come from personal loans to her own campaign. 

Here’s a look at how the top-funded mayoral candidates are spending their money and who’s putting money into their campaigns in the lead-up to the primary.

SPENDING BIG ON ADS

Both Bissen and Sugimura spent heavily on advertising this month, paying for Mainland-based marketing firms and investing in local ads in print and online media. 

The incumbent mayor spent $127,683 in July, with $89,660 of that going toward the Maryland-based marketing firm Buying Time for media advertising and another $12,337 to Oregon-based Eagle Mailing Service for direct mailers. He also paid $3,642 for ads in The Molokaʻi Dispatch.

Bissen honed in on digital platforms, paying $2,500 to Abigail Samuelson of Pā‘ia and $1,500 to Alex Stone of Colorado for social media advertising, as well as $2,827 to Meta/Facebook and about $1,120 to Google for social media advertising. 

During the January to June reporting period, Bissen also paid Pacific Media Group $20,942 for ads on Maui Now. (Pacific Media Group is a funder of the Hawai‘i Journalism Initiative and Maui Now is a partner of HJI).

Over the course of the campaign so far, he has spent $365,917. With $44,770 on hand and $28,302 in loans, he has a surplus of $16,468. 

Bissen did not respond to a request for comment by Thursday evening.

Sugimura spent $86,209 in July, with her largest single expense of $18,712 going to Virginia-based Maverick Strategies & Mail for campaign mailouts, and another $10,560 going to Washington, D.C.-based Hamburger Group Creative for digital ads. 

Locally, Sugimura shelled out $13,089 to Pacific Media Group for ads on Maui Now (she also paid PMG $71,517 for ads during the January to June reporting period) as well as $1,099 for ads in Maui Family Magazine and $1,018 for ads in the Maui News. She also paid about $374 to Facebook and $27 to Google for social media advertising.

Other top expenses included $9,947 to Four Sisters Catering for food and beverages at a Wailuku fundraiser as well as meals after sign-waving and a Filipino gathering. 

The council vice chair has spent a total of $393,453 this election period. She had $139,495 on hand and no loans at the end of July. 

“What you’re seeing is our efforts to win this primary,” Sugimura said of the major fundraising and spending in both camps.

She compared herself and Bissen to a David and Goliath face-off.

“I am not the incumbent,” she said. “So I need to work harder and do more.”

Sugimura said she wished the Maui County Charter could be changed so that if a candidate won more than 50% of the vote in the primary, they would automatically win the whole race and eliminate the need to spend even more for the general election. Regardless of the spending, “voters are going to speak whatever they want” in the end, she said.

SuperPACs, which can’t give directly to candidates, also shelled out large sums for advertising in the mayoral race. For a Better Tomorrow, which is propelled by the carpenters union and is one of the richest superPACs in the state with nearly $10 million on hand at the end of July, paid D.C.-based DSPolitical $183,517 this month alone for digital, radio and mail advertising in support of Sugimura.

HiVISION2020, which is funded by the Plumbers and Pipefitters PAC, spent $94,302 on radio, digital, and social media advertising in support of Sugimura, including $84,029 to Pacific Media Group.

Meanwhile, Hawaiʻi Workers Strong paid Honolulu-based CGO Marketing $24,091 for media advertising in support of Bissen. The superPAC is backed by HGEA, the state government employees union that has endorsed Bissen.

La Costa spent $51,407 in July and a total of $144,802 across the election period, leaving her with a deficit of $141,899, primarily due to personal loans to her own campaign.  

Over half of her spending since January has gone to Wailuku-based videographer and campaign consultant Aker Media for media and advertising. La Costa has so far paid Aker Media $88,279, including $53,779 from January to June and $34,500 in July. Paul Aker, who runs the company, also donated $200 to her campaign in May. 

La Costa has also paid a total of $20,421 to Honolulu-based Cardinal Services for candidate postcards, and spent $9,112 on radio and digital advertising with Pacific Media Group. 

To compete with two well-known public officials, La Costa has billed herself as the “Cost Cutter” and gone after both Bissen and Sugimura, objecting to the growing county budget, the inadequate supply of affordable housing and the high cost of living. She thinks the advertising is working, saying she has gotten noticed at Costco and been stopped by people on the street.

“That is why I have been advertising so heavily, so that people will recognize me, read my message, understand that I’m here for them, and then vote accordingly,” she said.

DONORS PLAY BOTH SIDES

Some of the biggest donors gave to both Bissen and Sugimura in July.

Bissen’s top donors, who gave $4,000 apiece, included Privateer Space CEO Alex Fielding and therapist/author Amyen Fielding, who both listed a Kula address; Hawai‘i Operating Engineers Industry Stabilization Fund PAC; Lānaʻi Resorts; Lauren Lipcon of marketing firm Lauren Lipcon LLC in Makawao; Tyler Saenz, CEO of Parklinq; Tiffany Stenger, vice president of Kahului-based Alpha Inc.; Mikayla Stenger, marketing intern at Alpha Inc.; and the United Public Workers. 

Half a dozen others also gave $2,000 each, including the Hawai‘i Hotel Alliance, whose president Gerard Gibson also gave $1,000; Micah Kane, the former CEO and president of the Hawai‘i Community Foundation (he’s now given $4,000 total to Bissen’s campaign); Ruth Mills, director of marketing for Honolulu-based Kobayashi Group (she has also given $4,000 total); Agnes Ngo, president and chair of the Central Pacific Bank Foundation in Honolulu; David Tanoue, vice president/manager of RM Towill Corporation in Honolulu; and the United Food and Commercial Workers Union in Honolulu. 

Over 20 donors gave $1,000, including Naomi Landgraf, his campaign chair; Cades Schutte partner Calvert Chipchase, who has now given $3,500 total; Dexter Kubota, vice president of Bowers and Kubota Consulting in Honolulu who has given $3,000 total; Outrigger Hotels Hawai‘i, its CEO Jeffrey Wagoner and Executive Vice President Sean Dee; Race Randle, CEO of Maui Land & Pineapple, who recently reached an agreement that would allow the county to acquire its private water system in West Maui; and Wailuku attorney Anthony Takitani, a board member of the Hawai‘i Journalism Initiative. 

(HJI’s newsroom operates independently of its board and maintains control over editorial decisions.)

Fourteen Maui County employees also contributed to Bissen’s campaign in July. The top donor for the month was Public Affairs Director Mahina Martin, who gave $780 and has contributed a total of $1,280. 

Many of Bissen’s top officials have donated to his campaign over the last several months, including Managing Director Josiah Nishita ($2,000) and Deputy Managing Director Erin Wade ($3,500), Chief of Staff Cynthia Lallo ($2,105), Finance Director Marcy Martin ($2,000), Deputy Finance Director Maria Zielinski ($2,000) and Environmental Management Director Shayne Agawa ($1,000). Several other county officials have made contributions under $1,000. 

In July, Sugimura’s top funders at $4,000 each include Lahaina tax accountant Christina Falcetti of Falcetti Financial; Alex and Amyen Fielding; Beau and Andrea Guyette of Insulite Glass in Olathe, Kan.; Sam Hirbod of Danville, Calif., whose company EC Pāʻia LLC bought 339 acres of former sugar cane land on the edge of town; Makawao realtor Grant Howe; Lānaʻi Resorts; Painters Union Local 1791 PAC; Tapers Local Union 1944 PAC; and Nan Chul Shin, president of Nan Inc., who also donated to Bissen earlier this year. Ha‘ikū resident David Ching, an executive with Maui Disposal Co., also gave two donations totaling $4,000.

Sugimura also received $3,000 from James Haynes, manager of Hawai‘i Petroleum in Kahului. 

Other donors who gave $2,000 included ATC Makena Management Services Corp., the developer behind the Mākena Golf and Beach Club; Salt Lake City-based AES Distributed Energy, which operates the Kūihelani Solar and Storage Project in Central Maui; and Mohannad Mohanna, president and principal of California-based Highridge Costa, a developer of multiple affordable housing projects on Maui.

Businesses and officials including South Pacific Motors in Makawao, JPW Services in Wailuku, Maui Disposal Co. General Manager Roger Yamagata, Omai Creations owner Xuan Mai Tran of Honolulu and Reed Kishinami of Resort Management Group in Kamuela also gave $2,000 each. Honolulu-based MK Advocacy Group also gave $2,000 and has now given $4,000 in total.

Makawao resident Whitney White and Honolulu real estate agent Anthony Pace gave $1,500 apiece, while 13 donors gave $1,000, including Wailuku retiree Caroline Stoner, who has now given $2,500 total; Terrance Gomes, manager of T.J. Gomes Trucking Co. in Wailuku, who has given $2,000 total; Carpet Linoleum and Soft Tile Local Union 1926 PAC; Kaiser Permanente administrator Mary Hew of Kula; and Carol Takahashi, executive director of the Hawai‘i Hotel and Lodging Association.

In addition to $50,000 in loans she gave her own campaign in July, La Costa brought in $3,515 from 10 donors, with Daniel Francis of Waco, Texas, Richard Hoffman of Kīhei, Jeffrey Jasper of Mountain View, Calif., and Denise Nussbaum of Kā‘anapali the top contributors at $500 each. 

She also brought in $22,775 from January to June, with her biggest donors including retired Kā‘anapali resident Meredith Miller, who gave $4,000; Kapalua audiologist Shari Eberts, who gave $2,500; and Kīhei investor Young Ko, who gave $2,000. Ingrid Eichenbaum of Kā‘anapali, attorney Thomas Fox of Sherman Oaks, Calif., Gary Kukar of Kent, Wash., Arnold Ness of Kīhei and realtor Fred Romvari of Wailuku also contributed $1,000 apiece. 

The owner of La Costa Realty Hawai‘i, she said she has been able to fund most of her own campaign because “I have saved 25% of everything I’ve made from the time I was 5 years old.”

“I’m using my retirement fund to run for office because that’s how important it is to me,” she said. “I have no big money behind me.”

She wasn’t too concerned about the fact that less of her campaign funds came from community contributions, pointing out that “people are really struggling” financially and that some may be hesitant to invest in a crowded field, especially with a candidate they don’t know.

She said what is most important to her is the “people who really believe in me gave me money.”

Among the fringe mayoral candidates whose spending reports were available, Amy Petterson brought in $15 in July and $54 in total. Travis Liggett brought in $210 from January to June; he hadn’t filed a report for July as of the deadline Wednesday evening. 

No spending reports were available for John Dunbar, Justin Herrmann, Joseph Moses, Callahan Welsh and Laurent Zahnd.