Posted on: Friday, December 6, 2002
Lingle spent $5.4M to win governor's race
By Kevin Dayton
Advertiser Capitol Bureau Chief
Linda Lingle set a record for expenditures for a single candidate in a Hawai'i governor's race, spending more than $5.4 million during the past election to become the first Republican governor since 1962.
Gov. Ben Cayetano, who spent $4.85 million in his successful 1998 re-election bid against Lingle held the previous record.
Democrat Mazie Hirono, who was dogged by a cash shortage throughout the campaign this year, spent less than half as much as Lingle. According to a Campaign Spending Commission report filed yesterday, Hirono reported spending just $2.37 million in her run against Lingle.
Hirono had about $237,000 on hand at the end of the campaign but also listed more than $95,000 in debts and unpaid bills. Lingle had $154,300 on hand at the end of the campaign and listed no debts, according to her report.
Lingle raised a total of $5.56 million for the campaign, while Hirono raised less than $2.61 million, according to the filing.
During the campaign Lingle demonstrated that she had access to a non-traditional campaign fund-raising system, raising money from a wide variety of small donors across the state as well as some corporate and out-of-state contributors.
At the same time, some traditional Democratic sources of campaign money were cut back or dried up completely, which many believe hurt Hirono.
For more than a year leading up to the election, a number of architects, engineers and other state and city contractors were investigated, fined or both in a series of inquiries by the state Campaign Spending Commission into fund-raising by prominent Democrats.
The inquiry in large part focused on Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris' fund-raising during his 2000 re-election bid. Harris, who had planned to run for governor, finally withdrew from the governor's race in May, taking more than $1 million in campaign contributions with him.
A number of prominent Democrats believe the investigation, along with Harris' withdrawal, sharply reduced the pool of cash available for their candidates, including Hirono.
In the state legislative races, campaign spending reports available yesterday indicated that Sen. Lorraine Inouye, D-1st (Hamakua, S. Hilo), spent the most money to win a Senate seat, dropping more than $165,000 in her primary and general contests.
Sen. Sam Slom, R-8th (Kahala, Hawai'i Kai), apparently spent the least of any successful candidate in a contested senate race, reporting that he spent only $13,855.
State Rep. Barbara Marumoto, R-19th (Kaimuki, Kahala, Wai'alae Iki), reported spending more than $76,000 to win re-election, which apparently makes her the biggest spender among the winners in the House.
Rep. Tulsi Gabbard Tamayo, R-42nd (Waipahu, Honouliuli, 'Ewa), reported spending $12,162 to win her House seat, and listed $3,640 in unpaid expenditures for a total of $15,802. That was the smallest amount reported so far by a winner in a contested House race.
Some campaign spending reports either had not been filed by yesterday's deadline or were unavailable last night, however.
Reach Kevin Dayton at kdayton@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8070.
