������Ƶ

The incredible shrinking ballot: This month’s Hawaii primary attracted the fewest candidates in a decade, but the general election ballot will be even lonelier, especially on Oahu.

A total of 279 candidates ran in the primary, but barely more than half — 141 — are still campaigning ahead of the Nov. 5 general election.

All of the Honolulu City and County contests were decided in the primary, including the mayor’s race and five council races. (Good thing we have a presidential election on the ballot.)

The neighbor islands have more happening:

• Hawaii County: a mayoral runoff and two council races.
• Maui County: thanks to different election rules, nobody wins outright in the Valley Island’s primary, where there are seven contested and two uncontested council races.
• Kauai County: really different rules here, with 14 candidates vying for seven at-large council seats.

Meanwhile, all Hawaii voters get to cast ballots in three contested races for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.

Over in the state House of Representatives, where all 51 seats were up for grabs entering this election cycle, 35 contested races are left to be decided in November. In the 25-member state Senate, there are still eight contested races.

By now, The Sunshine Blog is sure you’re wondering, how many of those 141 general election candidates responded to Civil Beat’s Candidate Q&As? So far, 86 of them.

A few are being published for the first time this week because they are from Maui County Council candidates who weren’t on the primary ballot. The responses of all general election candidates who bothered to send their surveys in will be republished on the Civil Beat homepage in the weeks to come, and links to them can also be found in our just-published general election ballot.

By the way, we’ll again be naming the scofflaws — general election candidates who haven’t responded to the survey. But first we’re going to invite them one more time to tell our readers why they deserve their vote.

Tulsi turns up again: On Monday, Tulsi Gabbard, the former Democratic Hawaii congresswoman who now identifies as independent, endorsed former President Donald Trump.

“If you love our country as I do, if you cherish peace and freedom as we do, I invite you to join me in doing all that we can to save our country and elect President Donald J. Trump and send him back to the White House to do the tough work of saving our country and serving the people,” in Detroit.

Gabbard, who managed to score debate points against Kamala Harris when both women were running in the 2020 primaries against Joe Biden, is now said to be advising Trump in his debate prep for Harris. If he wins, there is talk of Gabbard joining a second Trump administration.

For its part, the Democratic National Committee dismissed the endorsement as — well, weird. It issued this statement:

“Gabbard and Trump have a lot in common — they have both earned the praises of white supremacists and other extremists, celebrated the overturning of Roe v. Wade, and campaigned for dangerous election deniers. Rather than focusing on earning the support of hardworking Americans, Trump is more fixated on winning the backing of extremists like Gabbard and RFK Jr. — and they’ll do nothing but weigh down his sinking ship of a campaign.”

UPDATED: Gabbard and Kennedy are now part .��

His kind of town: Gov. Josh Green led the Hawaii delegation at the DNC, but he also managed to get in a little fundraising along the way. It took place Wednesday, the day after the roll call vote of the states, and was held at the Sycamore Hills Golf Club in Fort Wayne, Indiana, according to Green filed with the Hawaii Campaign Spending Commission.

The persons in charge of the fundraiser were Fort Wayne residents Michael and Gretchen Gouloff. Michael Gouloff leads an architectural firm and the couple runs Blessings in a Backpack, which helps provide food to children in schools.

Green continues to score well on the national scene. Last month, Morning Consult released of all 50 governors, and had Green coming in at No. 10 with a 60% approval rating. He’s even more popular among Hawaii Democrats with 77% approving — not at the same level as Andy Beshear of Kentucky, Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan or Tim Walz of Minnesota, according to Morning Consult, but high enough that national Dems are likely paying attention to Hawaii’s physician in chief.

Counting on it: The latest edition of the is out, and it’s chock full of interesting, even revealing nuggets.

The compilation covers population, education, environment, economics, energy, real estate, construction, business, government, tourism and transportation. Among the items of interest to The Blog:

• Fast food and counter workers again topped the list of Hawaii’s largest occupations, employing 24,080 people.
• The statewide average daily hotel room rate continues to climb. In 2023 it was $377 a night.
• The inventory of cattle and calves was the largest it’s been since 2010 — 148,000 total in 2023.
• Oahu has more than one-third of all streets and highways in the state, or 1,720 miles. Only eight of them are unpaved.
• The number of cremations is four times greater than burials.