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Hawaii’s statewide, mail-in poll election is on. Voters are making selections with the Honolulu race for mayor among the many most necessary native elections of the season.
The candidates are two untested Honolulu businessmen: Rick Blangiardi, the retired Hawaii Information Now tv govt; and Keith Amemiya, a well-connected insurance coverage govt. He’s the son of former Hawaii Lawyer Common Ronald Amemiya and the cousin of Roy Amemiya, Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s managing director.
Blangiardi’s marketing campaign
is generally self- or family-
funded. Marketing campaign spending experiences present he loaned the marketing campaign $450,00Zero along with his spouse tossing in one other $15,000.
The large bucks within the marketing campaign, nevertheless, come from the Amemiya marketing campaign, the place the donors serve a go-to checklist of Hawaii’s political insiders together with Micah Kane, Bert Kobayashi, Robert Kurisu, Colbert Matsumoto and Robert McFarlane.
Amemiya has raised $1,611,026 and spent $1,813,132.
The candidates’ methods seem getting into two instructions. Amemiya is campaigning exhausting because the Democrat
within the group and casts Blangiardi as a conservative businessman whereas, satirically, saying it’s Blangiardi who’s operating “a political insiders marketing campaign” pointing to supporters like former Govs. Linda Lingle, a Republican, and Vicky Cayetano, the spouse of the previous Hawaii Democratic governor.
Amemiya can also be strongly supported by Hawaii’s senior U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz, and it’s anticipated that Amemiya will try to attract Honolulu Democrats collectively to rally round his marketing campaign though the race is nonpartisan and there’s no Republican or Democratic candidate.
Blangiardi is aiming his marketing campaign at selecting up the assist of girls voters. His marketing campaign has opened up a “Girls for Rick” effort to function girls supporters, together with Cha Thompson, Colleen Hanabusa, Maile Meyer, Ginny Tiu and Ann Botticelli. Marketing campaign sources say analysis reveals girls voters to be a considerably undecided voting group that Blangiardi hopes to win.
Within the August main election, Blangiardi was the highest mayoral candidate, selecting up 69,661 votes to Amemiya’s 55,116 votes.
As for marketing campaign points, Blangiardi final week put up his personal “motion plan” for Oahu — which though not as particular because the one already posted by Amemiya, accommodates most of the identical broad points regarding COVID-19, restarting the economic system and attempting to manage the spiraling prices for the town rail challenge.
Amemiya, nevertheless, groused in regards to the Blangiardi plan, saying: “My opponent nonetheless hasn’t finished the exhausting work of studying the town and determining what to do aside from assembling his CEO mates to make a plan in February.”
Blangiardi’s plan requires taking a look at metropolis property “for financial growth in partnership with the personal sector.” He provides that he needs metropolis cash to go for metropolis development that might combat sea-level rise and local weather change.
Each candidates say they might not elevate property taxes to pay for will increase in the price of rail.
However as hypothesis will increase that the half-finished, almost $9 billion challenge goes to expire of cash, neither man has been in a position to say what they’ll do if that occurs.
Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays. Attain him at 808onpolitics@gmail.com.
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