With friends like these: Election Day is almost here and none too soon given the constant thrum of political advertising flooding the airwaves and The Blog’s mailbox, which is stuffed so full sometimes it’s even hard to find MidWeek these days.

A perusal of the state Campaign Spending Commission’s website shows the culprits — super PACs who are paying for mailers, flyers, social media and TV spots for candidates who must have looked like they needed some last-minute help. A handful of independent expenditure committees, also known as super PACs, have ramped up spending in the last month before the Nov. 3 general election with millions of dollars going to advertising and marketing firms (many of them out of state.)

In just the past month — since late September and through Friday — super PACs have reported spending $3.8 million on electioneering communications to support or oppose about three dozen candidates. Under state law, anyone who spends more than $2,000 on a candidate and is spending money 60 days before the general has to disclose that right away, so the filings are fast and furious these days. This does not apply to candidates or candidate committees but it does apply to everyone else including PACs.

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Much of that money has been dropped by (no surprise here) For A Better Tomorrow, the super PAC affiliated with Pacific Resource Partnership, a consortium of the Hawaiʻi Regional Council of Carpenters and the 250 contractors who employ them. The carpenters have accounted for $3.4 million of the total electioneering reports filed in the past month or so.

The big winner is Yuki Lei Sugimura, the Maui mayoral candidate, who has benefited from more than $1.7 million of For A Better Tomorrow’s assistance with TV and social media spots and mailers. The Blog says “more than” because that’s just the total dollars reported on filings naming Sugimura alone. She is also included in For A Better Tomorrow reports listing multiple candidates on each document that add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars more but aren’t accounted for separately.

The Plumbers and Pipefitters PAC — called HIVision 2020 — is also supporting Sugimura with about $19,000 in independent expenditures.

Sugimura, a Maui County Council member, is in a close race with incumbent Mayor Richard Bissen who bested her in the primary by a decisive 46% to 33%.

For A Better Tomorrow released a new poll Oct. 14 (grain of salt time) showing Sugimura ahead 45% to 44% with 11% undecided. The poll was conducted Oct. 6-10, which was right when Maui Police Chief John Pelletier let loose with the bombshell that Bissen was under criminal investigation. The poll suggests that had at least a little something to do with people turning negative about the mayor.

“Notably, the decline in the Mayor’s job performance ratings comes amid growing scrutiny of Bissen’s administration, with the October survey fielded around the time news emerged about criminal investigations involving Maui County officials and allegations concerning the mayor,” the poll says.

Bissen is getting just a a bit of outside help, this from Hawaiʻi Workers Strong, which reported $38,598 in electioneering filings.

Beyond the mayor’s race, For A Better Tomorrow is banking on other Maui candidates this year including incumbent Tom Cook ($109,697) who’s locked in another matchup for County Council against Kelly King, the former council member, and Kauanoe Batangan ($109,531), who is trying to hold onto the council seat he was appointed to after Tasha Kama died last year.

The Carpenters Union super PAC is also backing Ikaika Anderson in his bid for a seat on the Office of Hawaiian Affairs board, Bernard Carvalho for Kauaʻi mayor, Dane Smith, Arryl Kaneshiro and Todd Ozaki for Kauaʻi County Council and various state lawmaker candidates.

Three House Republicans also got a little love from the carpenters in recent weeks to the tune of $85,851 — Joe Gedeon, Diamond Garcia and Chris Muraoka.

And of course no PRP campaign filing would be complete without the usual support for Josh Green and Derek Kawakami. The super PAC reported spending more than $250,000 in electioneering communications for the governor and lieutenant governor running mates in the past month.

The Hawaiʻi Electrical Workers Stabilization Fund is fueling a super PAC called Local Jobs For Local People. Since late September, the PAC has spent more than $90,000 (a distant second to the carpenters) in support of legislative candidates Sne Patel on Maui and Micah Aiu, Darius Kila and Rachele Lamosao on Oʻahu. The electrical workers like Mel Rapozo for Kauaʻi mayor, too.

One last interesting tidbit from the super PAC filings: The state Democratic Party spent more than $52,000 for materials opposing GOP legislative candidates Elle Cochran (Maui) and Danny de Gracia (Oʻahu).

Playing the gift card: Not long after Civil Beat ran a story on how the Campaign Spending Commission was looking into whether Hawaiʻi state House candidate Micah Aiu, a Democrat, might have violated the law for attracting potential voters to a rally with drawings for a television and trip to Las Vegas, several folks reached out to ask whether Aiu’s Republican opponent, Rep. Garner Shimizu, might be also violating campaign spending law with a few offers of his own.

At issue is a laminated campaign mailer from Friends of Garner Shimizu that includes an ‘Ohana Card — one that can be detached from the mailer or viewed via a QR code.

The card offers a $16 admission to the Ice Palace in ʻAiea, $2 off a drip cup from Dipped by Dee (also in ʻAiea, where it serves up chocolate-covered strawberries, caramel apples, cheesecakes and other sweet treats), $2 off with purchase of two Cutie Pies at Slice by HB Baking (yep, ʻAiea — it’s part of House District 32, of course) and an appointment for a BOGO “Stay and Play” Makeover at nearby Storybook Station Pearlridge.

The Blog checked with the Campaign Spending Commission, which said it called Shimizu, who explained that ʻOhana Card was part of an in-kind donation — that is, non-monetary gifts of goods and services contributed to a campaign. As long as the dollar amount is less than $500, and as long as the in-kind contributions are reported in Shimizu’s next filing with the CSC (due Oct. 26), it’s OK by the commission.

Do not proceed to checkout: The Honolulu City Council last week took a step toward restricting the use of shopping carts. Bill 53, as currently drafted, would “generally” prohibit possession any use of the carts on Oʻahu unless the cart is identified by the legal owner and used on a premises under legal control of the owner.

The idea is to regulate the stealing and abandoning of shopping carts “in order to reduce the threat they pose to the health, safety, and welfare of the public.”

(Translation: Homeless people should not use shopping carts to store and transport their personal belongings.)

Bill 53 received a lot of opposition Thursday, however, in particular because of the proposed penalty.

“The severity of the penalties in this bill is shocking. It proposes up to 30 days in jail and a $2,000 fine for the possession of a shopping cart,” Jonathan Huynh wrote in testimony. “We must ask ourselves: is it just to imprison a person for a month and fine them thousands of dollars for the act of carrying their belongings? This is a draconian response to a symptom of poverty.”

The fine and sentence were dropped from the latest draft of Bill 53, which awaits more council action. But violators still face a petty misdemeanor penalty.

Matters of the HART: The Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation may soon be welcoming a new member on its board of directors, and his background in “campaign spending” could prove invaluable — especially with a new proposal to extend the still unfinished Skyline.

On Thursday a Honolulu City Council committee gave tentative approval to appoint Tony Baldomero to succeed Anthony Aalto, whose term expired June 30. If approved by the full council, Baldomero will serve until June 30, 2030 — by which time, The Blog figures, the long delayed and long over-budget project will be pau … right?

Baldomero was associate director of the Hawaiʻi Campaign Spending Commission from 1993-2025 before launching the consulting firm Hokupaʻa Strategies. He has served as a board member of the Hawaii Public Charter Schools Network and ‘Olelo Community Media.

Oyez! Oyez! Oyez!: Two Hawaiʻi jurists are earning national recognition. Mark Recktenwald, the former Hawaiʻi Supreme Court chief justice, was recently named the recipient of the National Judicial College’s Sandra Day O’Connor Award, while Associate Justice Sabrina McKenna will receive the American Bar Association’s 2027 Spirit of Excellence Award.

Recktenwald, who will be recognized Nov. 12 during the Appellate Judges Education Institute Summit in Philadelphia, is credited in a press release with leading efforts “to modernize Hawaiʻi’s court system, expand access to legal services, strengthen community partnerships, and promote public understanding of the judicial branch.”

McKenna, who has on occasion served as the acting CJ, is lauded for “her longstanding efforts to promote diversity, equal opportunity, and inclusion in the legal profession,” according to a press release. She will be honored Jan. 30 during the Titans for Change Gala at the ABA’s Midyear Meeting in Chicago.