Djou Rakes In Campaign Cash, Caldwell Spends Heavily
The latest campaign finance filings in the Honolulu mayor’s race were made public Friday.
Charles Djou raised three times more money than Kirk Caldwell in the last two weeks leading up to the Aug. 13 primary.
That’s according to state reports filed Sept. 2.
But Caldwell, the Honolulu mayor,聽has still far outraised his challenger in total. He has also spent more money throughout the campaign聽and still has more cash on hand as compared with his opponent.
The mayor even dropped $87,000聽on polling in just two weeks. The money went to聽SMS Research & Marketing Services of Honolulu and聽Campaign Communication Solutions of Rancho Mirage, Calif.
Though聽Djou had led Caldwell in opinion polls with a 9 percentage point lead, he lost to the mayor聽by less than 1 percentage point. The two are now competing for the Nov. 8 general election.
From July 30 through Aug. 13, Djou raised聽$167,828, spent聽$216,204 and had聽$146,688 in cash on hand remaining. He has raised a total of聽$653,612.
Recent contributors maxing out at the $4,000 limit include聽heiress聽Abigail Kawananakoa, Eric Tema of the聽MacNaughton Group and Chan Mitsunaga of Mitsunaga & Associates.
Caldwell raised $57,616, spent聽$331,683 and had聽$499,944 in cash left over. He has raised聽a total of聽$2,908,714.
His contributors maxing out include people聽who work for him: George Atta,聽director of Planning and Permitting; Michele Nekota, director of Parks and Recreation; and Keith Ho, deputy director of Information Technology.
The latest campaign filings do not reflect what may have been raised since the primary.
Caldwell has already held three fundraisers during that time while Djou has held none — that is, at least none that required filing with the spending commission.
