Waters out-raising and out-spending Ozawa

Tommy Waters raised more and spent more than Trevor Ozawa through March 29 in their winner-take-all, third-round election duel for the Honolulu City Council District 4 seat.

Waters collected $289,368 and spent $230,365 while Ozawa listed $196,706 in receipts and $191,588 in expenditures, according to reports filed Wednesday with the state Campaign Spending Commission.

Both men have accused the other of gaining favor from special interests, but both candidates donor lists are chock-full of powerful organizations and individuals, including some who donated to both. For instance, various officers with PVT Land Co., the Waianae-based construction and demolition landfill, contributed equal sums to both candidates.

The candidate committee totals, however, do not include $101,668 spent by the union super PAC AiKea Unite Here to support Waters and oppose Ozawa, and $27,800 spent by the United Public Workers, AFSCME, Local 646 AFL-CIO, PAC to support Waters.

The super PAC AiKea Unite Here, headed by the Local 5 union, which represents hotel and restaurant workers, listed three contributors for its funding: the New York-based Unite Here Tip state and local fund, the Iron Workers for Better Government, Local 625 Stabilization Fund and the Bricklayers Local 1 Political Action Committee.

Meanwhile the United Public Workers AFSCME, Local 646, AFL-CIO reported $22,716 in expenses to support Waters.

Ozawa, who held the Council seat through the end of 2018, led the November general election against Waters by 22 votes. Waters petitioned the Hawaii Supreme Court for a recount or do-over election. The court sided with him and invalidated the November election, noting that officials erred by picking up votes from the U.S. Post Office after 6 p.m. despite laws that say mail-in votes need to be in hand by 6 p.m.

Council District 4 runs from Hawaii Kai to Ala Moana Park. The election’s outcome likely will determine if Mayor Kirk Caldwell will have a friendlier or more hostile relationship with the nine-member Council. That’s because four of the existing members have historically been more testy with the administration while the four others have been more cooperative. Ozawa, during his four years on the Council, has been among Caldwell’s most outspoken critics.

In a statement, Ozawa said the larger sums of contributions picked up by Waters’ campaign are from donors “beholden to the mayor and would expect my opponent to be the mayor’s rubber stamp.”

Ozawa noted that a large piece of the AiKea funding is from New York-based Unite Here Tip state and local fund. That funding is “being used for mainland style negative, misleading attack ads and a smear campaign coming from the mainland super PAC and its affiliate special interest unions,” he said.

The AiKea ads question Ozawa’s temperament, pointing to the scathing criticism he lodged at Hawaii Supreme Court members the day after it announced it was invalidating the results that declared him the winner. They also raised the findings of an internal investigation by Council staff that concluded Ozawa had violated the city’s Respectful Workplace Policy when he allegedly verbally abused a staff aide to Councilman Ikaika Anderson who was sign-waving for Waters.

Most individuals and entities can spend a maximum of $4,000 on each candidate in this election. The exception, however, is with PACs, which are allowed to spend unlimited amounts of cash in support or in opposition to a candidate so long as they do not contribute directly to a candidate and do not coordinate their efforts with any candidate’s campaign.

Local 5 spokesman Cade Watanabe, in response to Ozawa’s criticism of the ads, said, “This race is about which candidate has the right temperament and character to represent Oahu, and the facts are the facts.”

Waters, in a news release, said his healthy campaign finance report is “a testimony to the momentum we’re feeling as we walk the district and hear voters agreeing that it’s time for a change in representation at City Hall.”

Waters pointed out that he was outspent by Ozawa by a 3-to-1 ratio in the 2018 primary, which concluded in August.

In response to criticism by Ozawa that Waters is getting too much labor support, Waters campaign manger Amy Luke said in the same news release that the same groups once supported Ozawa. “We believe their support now is a reflection of the change people are looking for that’s focused on real results and not personality politics.”