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James “Duke” Aiona wasn’t up against any serious competition in the primary election, yet he has spent $2.3 million on his campaign for governor — roughly half a million less than the two major Democratic candidates.

Aiona breezed past his competition, getting 93 percent of votes against John Carroll, who spent only $26,326 on his campaign. Aiona had raised $2.82 million as of Sept. 15. Now he faces Democrat Neil Abercrombie in November’s general election.

Unlike Abercrombie and Mufi Hannemann, who competed in a hotly contested primary, Aiona didn’t have a heavy presence in television advertising during the primary, other than limited ads paid for by the Republican Governors Association.

The campaign has spent just $3,151 on eight advertisements to date, all print ads:

• The Honolulu Advertiser: $628 on an “ad for bio video.”
• Westside Stories of Waianae: $470 for “advertisement.”
• Westside Stories of Waianae: $680 for “advertisement.”
• Waianae Boat Fishing Club: $375 for “advertising.”
• Filipino Chamber of Commerce: $250 for “advertising.”
• Candonians of Hawaii: $100 for “advertising.”
• Hawaii Christian Coalition: $200 “for ad in luncheon brochure.”
• The Maui News: $448 for “ad for event.”

So what has Aiona’s camp bought with that $2.3 million?

Civil Beat analyzed Aiona’s expenditure reports with the state since he announced his candidacy for governor in 2007.

From Jan. 1 to Sept. 3, 2010, Aiona spent $953,577. He had spent $1.36 million, the rest of his $2.3 million, through the end of 2009. (Some interesting expenses — $200 for voice lessons, $129 for statewide maps, $119 for a software training manual for Microsoft Office 2008.)

Looking specifically at expenses since January of this year, the biggest costs have been consulting and professional services, wages and taxes, airfare and lodging.

The Campaign Spending Commission defines allowable expenditures as ones “predominantly and directly related to a candidate’s campaign to influence the nomination or election of the candidate.”

From Jan. 1 to Sept. 3, Aiona’s campaign reported 942 expenses. Only 370 of those were listed under the following categories:

• Professional services
• Printing
• Advertising
• Food and beverage for events and volunteers
• Office supplies
• Lease/rent
• Postage/mailing
• Surveys and polls
• Computer services

The rest of the expenses were categorized as employee services/wages, taxes, travel and lodging, parking, bank charges, insurance, newspaper subscriptions, utilities and food & beverage — all acceptable expenditures.

From Jan. 1 to Sept. 3, the biggest recipient of Aiona’s spending was , a campaign management firm in Sacramento, Calif. Aiona spent $236,097 with Meridian in 27 transactions that included $25,329 for consulting, $17,192 for “postage and printing,” $15,029 for stationery. The campaign also spent $31,000 on a “survey of voter attitudes in Hawaii” with The Tarrance Group Inc. of Virginia.

A total of $193,677 was spent on 80 expenses listed as “professional services,” including consulting, preparing a tax return, event planning, design of rally signs and T-shirts, web hosting and costs for “special duty law enforcement” (presumably for a large event.)

Salaries, health care benefits and payroll taxes were the next biggest expenses during the nine-month period. The campaign spent $146,231 on wages for six individuals, including campaign manager Mark “Dutch” Hanohano and communications director Travis Taylor. An additional $77,737 was reported for payroll taxes and $4,679 for health insurance for the same period.

The campaign appears to have done quite a bit of traveling for the primary. Airfare costs totaling $24,983 were reported for 33 flights on eight different carriers. An additional $9,487 was spent on “lodging” (eight of the 14 hotels were Hawaii-based) and $7,096 on parking.

On the other end, some of the smallest charges included a 75-cent bank charge, $8.79 for calendars from Fisher Hawaii and $10 for a rubber stamp.

The Aiona campaign also lists “in kind” services as expenditures. The campaign received 47 “in kind” services totaling $31,494 for everything from a $10 tuna casserole to a $200 birthday cake and $200 for four voice lessons.