Hamburger helper: The dark money super PAC that tried making a last minute splash for state Sen. Jarrett Keohokalole in his bid to unseat incumbent U.S. Rep. Ed Case is back at it again — this time in New Hampshire. 

Newly filed reports with the Federal Election Commission show that Future Progress dropped $1.2 million in advertising in the Granite State’s Democratic primary race between Stefany Shaheen and Maura Sullivan in the days leading up to the contest. 

But similar to its experience in Hawaiʻi, when the group spent $100,000 on advertising in support of Keohokalole, the maneuver didn’t pay off.

Shaheen, the daughter of U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, beat Sullivan, a former Marine and Obama administration official, in a tight race that pitted a candidate with perceived ties to the Democratic establishment (Shaheen) against one who decried nepotism in politics (Sullivan).

What the races in Hawaiʻi and New Hampshire also have in common is that voters still don’t know who funded the Future Progress ad campaigns. 

We know from previous reporting by Nick Grube that Future Progress has hired Hamburger Group Creative, a consulting firm founded by Martin Hamburger, a mainland politico who has worked on several campaigns in the islands, including Keohokalole’s.

A Special Commentary Project

Civil Beat is focusing on transparency, accountability and ethics in government and other institutions. Help us by sending ideas and anecdotes to sunshine@civilbeat.org.

Read More

The super PAC won’t have to disclose its donor information until its quarterly filings become public, which is just one more loophole available to those trying to sway elections to keep their identities secret until after ballots are cast. 

You can bet that we’ll be paying attention when those filings finally come out.

Attention, Mililani voters: There will be three candidates on the Nov. 3 general election ballot to elect someone to complete the final two years of Michelle Kidani’s term. Kidani resigned from her District 18 state Senate seat in June.

The Democratic candidate is Danielle Bass, a state agency employee who was selected by an area group of the Democratic Party of Hawaiʻi for the seat that includes Mililani Town, Waipiʻo Gentry, Crestview, Waikele, a portion of Waipahu, Village Park and Royal Kunia.

Some Dems have grumbled that the selection was a done deal and that District 18 voters are essentially being spoon-fed the candidates. Indeed, Bass is actually serving now as the senator, having been picked on Aug. 9 by Gov. Josh Green from a list of three Dems to hold the seat temporarily. Because Kidani announced her retirement after deadline, the seat could not be openly contested in the primary.

The Hawaiʻi Republican Party, meanwhile, has put forth the candidacy of Kelly Kitashima, a tourism executive.

The third candidate is Max Hanna, a nonpartisan whose name was selected by lot on Sept. 4 by the Hawaiʻi Office of Elections. Hanna’s name was pulled using the now-discredited method of placing names in plastic Easter eggs in a lauhala basket, shaking it all around and then drawing a winner.

Hanna tells The Blog he is a lot technician at the Cutter car dealership in Pearl City. He was born and raised on Oʻahu and is a graduate of Kapolei High School who currently live in Koa Ridge. The loser of the drawing was nonpartisan Ku L. Bobby Cuadra, who previously lost the NP primary contest for Hawaiʻi lieutenant governor.

The Green and Libertarian parties did not submit candidates for the contest.

Costly donation: Last year Rick Egged, the president of the Waikīkī Improvement Association, donated $1,000 to the campaign of Tyler Dos Santos-Tam, the Honolulu City Councilman. Problem was, he made the donation on April 28 while the Hawaiʻi Legislature was still in session.

The Campaign Spending Commission caught the error and tried to reach Egged with no success. On Wednesday, the commission decided to fine him $350 in absentia.

The Blog had better success reaching Egged by phone Friday. It turns out he is retired from the WIA and that the commission may have called the wrong number. Egged assured The Blog he would call the commission to follow up.

The fine was triggered by a 2025 law that prohibits lobbyists from contributing during the five days before and five days after a legislative session, as well as during any extension of any regular session or special session and any legislative recess days, holidays and weekends.

The prohibition applies to donations to all elected officials, candidates, candidate committees “or any other individual required to file an organizational report” with the state, even if they aren’t a member of the state House and Senate, running for a seat there or part of a PAC spending on their behalf.

For his part, Dos Santos-Tam escheated Egged’s donation to the Campaign Spending Commission.

On track: And speaking of lobbying and laws, The Blog was pleasantly surprised to see renewed interest in a Civil Beat story from 2023: our FINAL UPDATE! Civil Beat’s Bill Tracker For Anti-Corruption And Accountability Proposals. It seemed there was fresh interest in trying to help clean up Hawaiʻi government and politics. (Must be all those headlines of late, right?)

Unfortunately, technical glitches made much of the article unreadable. But now that’s all been fixed, so please, dear readers, have at it.

The bill tracker followed the progress of the proposals from the so-called Foley commission on improving the standards of conduct for legislators, inspired by the fall of Sen. J. Kalani English and Rep. Ty Cullen the year before. Many of the bills became law, but many did not. Food for fodder as we near the 2027 session and the expected trial of Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke and four others on bribery and other charges.