Big Island Mayor Outpaces Lone Challenger In Election Fundraising
Mitch Roth’s war chest is tens of thousands of dollars larger than that of rival candidate Kimo Alameda with nine months to go before the election.
In the Big Island mayor鈥檚 race, incumbent Mitch Roth is far ahead of his lone opponent Kimo Alameda when it comes to fundraising.
As of Wednesday at midnight when the current reporting period closed, Roth had $165,680 in cash on hand compared to Alameda鈥檚 $21,033, filed with the state .
Roth, a former Hawaii County prosecutor who is completing his first, four-year term as mayor, received $111,980 in campaign donations during the second half of last year.
Alameda, who officially in mid-January, collected $52,266 during the same period.
Alameda, a clinical psychologist and health care executive, recently led the Big Island鈥檚. He’s also a former campaign manager for the late Billy Kenoi, who served as Big Island mayor from 2008 to 2016.
For Roth, notable donors included Honolulu developer Stanford Carr, who specializes in building affordable housing projects and donated $2,500 in the election period.
Former state Rep. Jerry Chang, a supporter of the Hu Honua tree-burning plant that has been rejected by the Hawaii Supreme Court and the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission, gave $1,000.
Roth鈥檚 donor list also included real estate, construction, hotel and tourism interests, including Kona restauranteur Mattson Davis, owner of Magics Beach Grill, who donated $3,000.
Other supporters included Tanya Jernigan, vice president of , a tech firm that provides certification for companies fighting forced labor, who donated the maximum amount for an individual of $4,000 to Roth鈥檚 reelection campaign. She also runs the , a family philanthropy.
Roth also accepted a $4,000 from California consultant Zengdi Cui with Launching Pad LLC. The company describes itself as 鈥渃utting-edge full-service center located in the San Francisco Bay area of California.鈥 State business records list Cui as a manager with Nani Mau Garden Group, a Hilo business whose as a venue for special events.
John Bertsch, executive director of Global Safety & Security, Ironman Group, is another Roth supporter who contributed $4,000.
Alameda drew support from several people with ties to Kenoi’s administration, including former managing director Randall Kurohara with $1,800 and Lincoln Ashida with $500.
The biggest donation, at the maximum of $4,000, came from the Iron Workers Stabilization Fund.
Alameda also racked up a slew of smaller donations, many in the $200 range. Some came from therapists, construction workers, trades people, the self-employed and retirees.
C.K. Toafili, listed as a commercial driver, donated $2,000. Alameda also received two other $2,000 donations from Winton Nicholson, owner of and general contractor with Nicholson Construction, and from Carrie Nicholson, a luxury realtor with Hawaii Life real estate company.
Some of Alameda鈥檚 biggest expenditures included $6,505 on banners and yard signs in October, $4,202 for a Kona fundraising dinner and $1,808 on campaign shirts. In all, he spent $55,882 and had loans of $3,157 in the most recent reporting period.
Roth spent $32,758, with major expenses including $16,500 on a voter survey in July, $5,416 on a fundraiser venue fee and $1,761 on campaign T-shirts.
The deadline to file as a candidate for Big Island mayor in the Nov. 5 election is June 4.
