Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell has spent nearly $40,000 on polls since he took office in January 2013 even though he’s not up for re-election until 2016.

Hawaii Sen. David Ige spends $2,000 more per month on rent for his gubernatorial campaign headquarters than Gov. Neil Abercrombie despite trailing by more than $2 million on the fundraising front.

And Honolulu City Councilwoman Kymberly Pine is the top Republican fundraiser since the last general election even though she holds a nonpartisan office.

Those are some of details buried in 85,000 records filed with the Hawaii Campaign Spending Commission since Nov. 8, 2006.

Civil Beat examined the commission’s data, which tracks all campaign contributions and expenditures. We looked at records with an eye toward the governor’s race and city council campaigns — which began in November 2010 — and other state races that are on a two-year-cycle that began just after the November 2012 general election.

Voters won’t have much information beyond what we know now if they go to the polls to vote in the Aug. 9 primary, usually the election where most of the important races are decided in our heavily Democratic state. The next batch of campaign finance reports don’t come out until July 10, about a month before the primary.

Here’s an early look at what some of the records are showing. Civil Beat will be doing more analysis on the candidates and campaigns throughout the election cycle.

Neil Now and Then

Nearly a quarter of all political donations made to state and local candidates in the reporting period from July 1 to Dec. 31 went to Abercrombie’s campaign.

Abercrombie pulled in just over $524,000. That makes him the top earner in that period.

Interestingly, that puts him just ahead of Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell, who raked in nearly $450,000. And he’s not even up for re-election until 2016.

But Abercrombie has raised nearly $3.4 million since he was last elected in November 2010, making him the top money guy in the state. That’s quite a change from where he was at this point in the campaign the first time he ran for governor when he was third in fundraising behind both his primary and general election opponents.

The Richest Races

Beyond Abercrombie and Caldwell, Maui Mayor Alan Arakawa, Honolulu City Council Chair Ernie Martin and Lt. Gov. Shan Tsutsui have taken in the most money between July and December.

Arakawa, Martin and Tsutsui are all up for election in 2014, but perhaps most surprising is Martin’s take.

The councilman, who represents the North Shore and Wahiawa, has come under fire over the past year for his budgeting tactics, his possible involvement in a federal grant fund scandal and a questionable political maneuver that might have contributed to the collapse of a $142 million deal to sell Honolulu’s public affordable housing stock.

In the six months from July through December, Martin pulled in $119,490 in campaign contributions. Added to his previous cache, the council chair has more than $350,000 on hand for his race.

But Martin has also expressed his interest in possibly running for mayor, and any leftover campaign funds from this year could be rolled over into a mayoral race.

In the races for Legislature, which began after the November 2012 elections for many candidates, state Senate candidates brought in about $765,000 while those in the House picked up nearly $540,000.

Honolulu City Council candidates, on the other hand, raised $470,000.

Republicans vs. Democrats

If money controls politics, it’s no surprise Republicans have had little sway in Hawaii.

Republican candidates struggle to scrape together money for their campaigns, at least according to state campaign spending data.

Since the last general election — Nov. 6, 2012 — Hawaii’s minority party candidates have taken in 2.4 percent of all political contributions.

That’s a meager $128,588 of the total $5.3 million that has been donated to candidates in local and state elections since then.

Obviously, candidates with D behind their names have swept up most of the campaign cash, or about $3.5 million.

The rest has gone to nonpartisan races, including city council and mayoral contests. Just over $1.7 million has been donated in nonpartisan races since the last election.

Still when it comes to Republicans and Democrats, most of the Republican dollars are funneled to House candidates, where Republicans hold more seats than in the Senate.

Republican Kymberly Pine, who’s in a nonpartisan seat on the Honolulu City Council, still took in more campaign cash than any other Republican and her council race accounted for about one-third of all Republican cash. She was a state House member before she switched to the City Council.

Advertising Takes Much of the Cash

Voters can expect the usual barrage of political advertising as campaign season heats up. Memorial Day weekend is generally seen as the official kick off of what’s often called the “silly season.”

The most recent campaign expenditures reflect the slower political pace until then. In fact, since the November 2012 election candidates have spent just under $200,000 on advertising although they’ve dished out more than $544,000 for food and beverage.

Overall, advertising tends to be the largest expenditure of any campaign. Since November 2006, candidates have spent more than $18 million on TV commercials and newspaper and web advertising.

Abercrombie, of course, has spent more than anyone else since the November 2012 election, dropping just over a half million dollars on advertising-related campaign expenditures. He’s closely followed by Caldwell and Arakawa, the Maui mayor.

One expenditure that sticks out: how much Caldwell has spent on polling.

The Honolulu mayor has spent nearly $40,000 on surveys, polls and voter lists even though his next election isn’t until 2016. That’s second only to Abercrombie, who spent just over $55,000 in the same period on polling.

• Contact Nick Grube via email at nick@civilbeat.com or follow him on Twitter at @NickGrube.