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Ige raises more than $800,000 for re-election bid

Nanea Kalani
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BRUCE ASATO / basato@staradvertiser.com

Gov. David Ige’s reelection campaign raised more than $800,000 in the last six months of 2017. Ige is shown here at Jan. 15 news conference to discuss the false missile alert two days earlier.

Gov. David Ige garnered more than $800,000 in campaign donations for his re-election bid through the end of the year — short of the $1 million he planned to raise in that time frame, but more than his Democratic opponent U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa.

Ige’s campaign raked in $810,903 in contributions for the reporting period covering July 1 to Dec. 31, according to a report filed today with the state Campaign Spending Commission. The donations add to more than $246,000 the campaign reported in cash on hand at the start of the period.

A total of 36 donors contributed the maximum $6,000 allowed for the election cycle, including 13 employees from the construction and engineering firm Bowers & Kubota Consulting. Other donors giving the maximum include attorneys Jeffrey Ono, Dean Yamamoto and Bert T. Kobayashi Jr.; Oceanit founder Patrick Sullivan; Matson Navigation Co. and Alexander & Baldwin HiPAC.

Donors also included some of Ige’s cabinet members and department heads, including Linda Chu Takayama, Tax Department interim director; Suzanne Case, director of the Department of Land and Natural Resources; Catherine Awakuni, director of the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs; Audrey Hidano, deputy comptroller; Keith Kawaoka, Health Department deputy director; Craig Hirai, director of the Hawaii Housing and Finance Development Corp.; and Public Utilities Commission Chairman Randy Iwase.

Meanwhile, Hanabusa, who formally launched her campaign for governor this month, raised $731,945 in contributions for the reporting period. Donations didn’t start flowing into Hanabusa’s war chest until September, when she announced she was considering a run for governor.

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