By Garry Smith
The latest campaign spending report from Mayor Mufi Hannemann's campaign reports total contributions for the reporting period January 1 to June 30, 2009, as $582,600.72.
How is it possible for any candidate with more than 15 months before any elections are held and who has not even announced officially that he is running for any office to accumulate such a huge amount of contributions?
Let’s see who contributed.
By declared occupation:
By companies they work for or own (individuals in the company)
There were 247 contributions from individuals and PACs. Of these 247 only 12 were for less than $1,000. 235 individuals and PACs donated more than $1,000 each. There were 33 contributions that were at the maximum of $6,000. There were numerous contributors who are in the same family that maxed out their contributions at $6,000 apiece.
When Mayoral candidate Mufi Hannemann ran for his first term in 2004, one of his campaign promises was that no one in his campaign would require a “pay to play” for contributions that the previous Mayor Harris was famous for.
With such a small amount of contributors donating less than $1,000 and such a large number of Presidents, Attorneys and engineers, it takes a great deal of the guess work out of determining whether or not the “pay to play” promise has gone the way of his other forgotten promise to scrutinize each city project with “do we need it, can we afford it, can we maintain it”.
Email Garry P. Smith: garrypsmith@juno.com
See Hannemann's Campaign Spending Commission report: https://nc.csc.hawaii.gov/CFSPublic/xSA.php?REG_NO=CC10132&RP_ID=106&SAPa |