������Ƶ

A political organization with deep connections to the local construction industry has found a new tool to help candidates get elected: train them.

Over the past two election cycles, four political action committees with ties to the Hawaii Carpenters Union has spent more than $70,000 to instruct 17 people in running for office.

They include candidates and incumbents for the state House and Senate, county councils on Maui and Kauai and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.

Representatives of the three of the four PACs did not respond to requests for comment as of Monday.

But several of the candidates running for office this year praised the program, crediting it with teaching the basics of campaigning such as running phone banks, mailing fliers and improving public speaking.

They also have helped candidates make direct connections to people in state and county government, and to learn in person from political and policy experts at educational forums.

But the carpenters also have a jaded history in political contests, including as recently as 2022 when the union spent heavily to favor Ikaika Anderson, a Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor. Sylvia Luke, also a Democrat, won despite a barrage of negative ads from the carpenters’ Be Change Now super PAC.

The race for Honolulu mayor between Kirk Caldwell and Ben Cayetano in 2012 showed the Pacific Resource Partnership, which is affiliated with the Hawaii Regional Council of Carpenters, actively working to undermine the campaign of Cayetano, the former governor. Caldwell was a pro-rail candidate while Cayetano opposed the controversial project.

At minimum, the Hawaii Regional Council of Carpenters Political Action Fund, the Hawaii Carpenters Political Action Fund, the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, Local 746 Political Action Committee and the Hawaii Carpenters Market Recovery Program Fund PAC appear to be now expanding their influence in the political sphere.

The training is done through what’s known as in-kind contributions. A common example is a restaurant that contributes food, beverages and space for campaign events like fundraisers. A candidate then reports the contribution as a campaign expenditure — in effect, reimbursing the donor.

In this case, the three PACs spent nearly $70,000 since 2021 to help train candidates. The figures are found in candidate and noncandidate committee reports filed with the state Campaign Spending Commission last month.

The Hawaii Carpenters Market Recovery Program contributed the most training funds. The group does business as the Pacific Resource Partnership, or PRP, which represents 6,000 working members of the Hawaii Regional Council of Carpenters and 250 contractors that employ unionized workers. Entities that entered labor agreements to employ carpenters union workers pay into the fund.

The market recovery program is also the main funding source for the super PAC Be Change Now, which was instrumental in propelling Josh Green from the Senate, to the lieutenant governor’s office, to his current role as governor.

In 2022, the Hawaii Carpenters Political Action Fund, which is funded by contributions from union members, contributed to candidates attending the training program.

And this year, the Hawaii Regional Council of Carpenters also contributed training funds to candidates through its own political action committee funded by the carpenters union.

A fourth group, the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, contributed funds through its new political action committee.

According to several candidates who have participated in the training, it has come at three separate times described as cohorts.

The cohorts are run by , billed as a civic leadership program sponsored by PRP.

“We identify and support current and future leaders who are willing to participate in the civic process and find solutions to the critical issues we face in Hawaii,” according to PFD’s website.

The training incudes classroom instruction, issue-awareness programs, hands-on work study, relationship-building opportunities and networking.

State Rep. Trish La Chica, who was appointed to her House seat last year and is hoping to be elected to the office this year, described the experience as both professional training but also one that leads to a lasting camaraderie.

“Campaigns can be really exhausting and can be really lonely sometimes,” said La Chica, a Democrat who represents House District 37. “The training feels like a classroom setting. We attend classes and then we hang out with each other because we're all classmates.”

She is in what is shaping up to be a tight primary race against Ken Inouye, the son of former U.S. Sen. Dan Inouye.

Those relationships continue once candidates are in office. State Rep. Darius Kila, a Democrat representing District 44, said it helped him bond with fellow Democrat and representative Kirstin Kahaloa from House District 6 and Nohelani Uu-Hodgins, who is on the Maui County Council.

Another future colleague who was part of the 2021-2022 cohort (one conducted mostly on Zoom due to the pandemic) was Tyson Miyake, who at the time was working for the Maui mayor’s office and would later be appointed to House District 10.

Partners For Democracy divides its students into two groups: candidates for office and advocates for policy issues.

Many of the “future leaders” are younger people who are in the early part of their careers in government and politics. While they are aware of some of PRP’s past activities, Kila and La Chica said their primary interest was to better serve their respective communities. Both rejected any notion that they might somehow feel obligated politically to the carpenters.

Ian Ross, who ran unsuccessfully for state Senate District 11 in 2022 and this year is running for state House District 23, agreed with Kila and La Chica. He learned about the program by talking with other cohort graduates about their “positive experiences.”

Correction: A previous version of this story said Ross ran for city council.

“They emphasized the high quality of the training, the focus on how to become a better community leader,” he said. “And that really resonated with me as someone who at that time had just finished running for office in 2022.”

The training, the three candidates agreed, was non-ideological and was not limited to Democrats, the dominant political party in Hawaii.

Ross was particularly impressed with the level of discussion and invited speakers. For him, that included learning about Hawaii’s 2045 goal of 100% renewable energy and hearing from the chair of the Public Utilities Commission, a senior advisor to Gov. Josh Green, the state’s chief energy officer and someone in the construction industry focused on renewable energy projects.

“It was a very in-depth, long discussion, and we actually followed up with a tour of solar farms,” he said. “We sometimes go very deep into how certain issues work, and some of the specifics into it.”

This election, Ross is in a four-way primary race for the open seat. The other candidates are Ikaika Olds, Pat McCain and Paul Robotti.

In a statement late Monday, Andrew Pereira, PRP's director of public affairs, said, "As a civic leadership program, Partners For Democracy identifies and supports current and future leaders who are willing to participate in the civic process and find solutions to the critical issues facing Hawaii. Through a best-in-class learning experience, participants are empowered with the training, tools, and resources to develop and implement forward-thinking public policies to ensure Hawaii remains a place for everyone who lives here, not just the privileged few."

This story was supported with funding from the Data-Driven Reporting Project. The Data-Driven Reporting Project is funded by the Google News Initiative in partnership with Northwestern University | Medill.