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Maui County
The Maui 10
Who's the county's most powerful player?
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November 16, 2006
RANK PREVIOUS COMPANY
1
4
Dowling Co.
2
9
Alexander & Baldwin
3
2
Maui Land & Pineapple Co.
4
1
Tesoro Hawai`i
5
3
Weinberg Foundation
6
5
Makena Resort
7
10
Hawaiian Telcom
8
6
Maui Electric Co.
9
8
Wailuku Water Co.
10
7
Monsanto Hawai`i
MONEY MONEY MONEY
Huge changes this week as we pour over some recent campaign finance
reports, filed with the state Office of Elections in late September.
The campaign contributions from various members of the Maui 10 are, as
expected, quite large, but the above rankings stem not from who gave
the most (any fool can hand over a grand to Dain Kane's mayoral race)
but who gave the smartest. And that was clearly Makena-developing
Dowling Company, donor of nearly $49,000 from Jan. 1 through Sept. 9
(records covering the later part of the campaign aren't yet available),
$12,800 of which went to Maui candidates. There was County Councilman
Joe Pontanilla ($500, reelected); County Council candidate Mike
Victorino ($1,000, elected); Council candidate Gladys Baisa ($1,000,
elected); Councilman Mike Molina ($800, reelected) and Representative
Kyle Yamashita ($2,000, reelected). In fact, except for the $150 in
Longs gift cards to Dain Kane and $250 to Council candidate Sam Kalalau
(matched by $250 to victorious opponent Bill Medeiros), Dowling didn't
back any losers. Too bad the same can't be said for A&B, which
lavished $2,500 on Kane's quixotic run for mayor, another grand on Kimo
Apana's equally failed mayoral race and $300 on Representative Kam
Tanaka, who couldn't even get out of the primary election. Maui Land
& Pine gave to all the usual suspects (Representative Joe Souki,
Victorino, Molina, Yamashita, Pontanilla, Baisa) as well as newcomers
Joe Bertram III and Angus McKelvey and losers Kane ($1,000) and Apana
($500). Carlyle Group-owned Hawaiian Telcom evidently has a lot to
learn about politics, having given a miserly $1,300 to local candidates
including Pontanilla, Souki, Yamashita, Representative Bob Nakasone and
Representative Chris Halford, who earlier this year announced he wasn't
even going to run again. Monsanto, which donated $1,250 to various
candidates in the above period and grows tons of genetically modified
crops on Maui, didn't give a dime to any island candidate. And Tesoro,
which raised more than $11,000, didn't give anything at all.
PINEAPPLE COSTS
Maui Land & Pine would have topped this week's ranking were it not for a pesky Nov. 4, 2006 Honolulu Star-Bulletin
story detailing how the company lost $2.5 million in the third quarter,
due to costs associated with that grand pineapple packing plant the
company boasted about a few months ago. Since the facility is far more
automated than previous operations, the company insists it will
eventually save tons of money on the deal. But revenue on the company's
development side was also off, down to a mere $2 million from the $7.6
million in the same quarter of 2005. MTW
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