Astroturf in Kona
Phony grassroots group loses

by Matt Binder

On October 29, 2006, nine days before last Election Day, a series of expensive ads began appearing in West Hawaii Today and on LAVA 105 and KAPA radio stations.
The ads appeared to be sponsored by then-County Councilor Virginia Isbell; but in tiny print below the bottom border of the newspaper ads, and in a speedy narration at the end of each radio ad, it was revealed that the ads were paid for by they group Citizens for Kona. In the last ten days of the election, CFK spent of $15,200 trying to get Isbell re-elected-more than twice as much as Isbell's official campaign committee spent the entire election.
Four days before the election, West Hawaii Today (11/03/06) reported that Kailua-Kona resident Rick Vidgen and/or his wife, Jeanette Vidgen, were part of CFK. It turned out that the address listed at the bottom of each newspaper ad was the Vidgens' residence in Kailua-Kona.
Rick Vidgen is a realtor, a board member of the Kona-Kohala Chamber of Commerce and chairman of Governor Linda Lingle's West Hawaii Advisory Committee. Jeanette Vidgen is an employee of Current Events, a Kailua-Kona PR firm. (Current Events is also the designated agent for Jacoby Development Incorporated's Honokohau Harbor project, Kona Kai Ola.) Jeanette Vidgen's previous job was as Senior County Clerk in Kona, appointed by former mayor Stephen Yamashiro.
At least some of Isbell's ads in West Hawaii Today, KAPA and LAVA 105 were paid by Current Events checks, not CFK checks -even though CFK claimed on their Organizational Report that they had opened a bank account at First Hawaiian Bank in Kealakekua prior to the placement of the ads. Only after the Isbell's opponent, Brenda Ford, campaign filed a complaint with the state Campaign Spending Commission (CSC) did CFK filed its Organizational Report. This was October 31, two days after the first ads first came out. In that Organizational Report, CFK stated that the group was organized on October 19 and opened an account.
The officers of CFK: Chair, Henry Cho Sr. of Honaunau, a retired Deputy Managing Director for Mayor Yamashiro; Treasurer, Ernie Okumura of Kealakekua, a Kona coffee farmer; and Custodian of Books and Accounts, Ross Wilson, Jr. of Kailua-Kona, President of Current Events.

Follow the money
Yet none of the officers of CFK-nor either of of the Vidgens-contributed one penny to the committee. Of the $18,200 CFK raised to help Isbell, most of the contributions were from off-island real estate developers, lobbyists and lawyers.
Of this, $11,000 came from Honolulu and $4000 came from Atlanta, Georgia and Memphis, Tennessee-including $1000 from Kona Marina Development, a Jacoby subsidiary. The largest Hawai'i Island contribution was $1000 from Fred T. Yamashiro of Waimea, owner of Menehune Development. In 2004, Menehune Development became a partner with Kona Development Group and Jacoby Development in an agreement to lease 200 acres from the State Department of Hawaiian Home Lands as part of Jacoby's billion-dollar Kona Kai Ola project. The second largest Hawai'i Island contribution was $950 from Pacific Waste.
The money from actual citizens of Kona: were $250 from A.D. Ackerman of Kealakekua, $200 each from Carl Carlson, Jr. of Kailua-Kona and Gregory Hendrickson of Kealakekua, and $100 from M.E. Greenwell of Captain Cook. That's just 4 percent of the money raised by this so-called Kona citizens' group.
Fifteen CFK contributors gave the maximum $1000 allowed under state law: Richard Wheelock, an O'ahu realtor; Richard Nakao, a Honolulu businessman; Sterling Kim, a developer from Maui; Fred Ya-mashiro; Robert Rohrer, a developer from North Bend, Washington; Duncan MacNaughton (The MacNaughton Group), a developer from Honolulu; Jeffrey Dinsmore, a developer from Honolulu; Jeff Arce, a developer also with the MacNaughton Group; Kona Marina Development (Jacoby Group) of Atlanta; Pacific Resource Management of Seattle; ILWU Local 142 of Honolulu; Gerry Horii, a businessman from O'ahu; Lani Hau Properties of Honolulu; MFH Industries of Memphis; and Joseph Santimer, an investor in Honolulu.
On December 13, the Campaign Spending Commission fined CFK a mere $150 for three campaign spending violations. Commissioner Dean Robb bemoaned the low fines, saying that they should escalate with repeat offenses. Executive Director Barbara Wong favors a change in the law to require non-candidate committees to register and file spending reports within two days of spending their first thousand dollars, rather than the current ten days.
Others at the trough
The big contributors to CFK also were major contributors to other Council campaigns: Stacy Higa, Donald Ikeda, J Yoshimoto, Gary Safarik, and Fred Holschuh. Yet none of them gave a single penny to Bob Jacobson, Angel Pilago, Brenda Ford, Pete Hoffmann or Dominic Yagong.
As the political landscape changes on Hawai'i Island-from Hilo-centered Plantation Politics to Kona-centered Development Politics-campaign strategies will change. Labor unions are clout and the De-mocratic Machine is losing steam; new coalitions are forming. As the Citizens For Kona incident shows, sophisticated mainland campaign techniques are being introduced here, such as phony grassroots (i.e. "astroturf") organizations like CFK, with last-minute media onslaughts, intentional obfuscation of the issues, and funneling of much more money into our little county council races than anyone has ever seen before.
Can democracy survive when the odds are tilted toward big money? Can we keep our way of life when O'ahu and mainland interests try to take over our political process?
Yes! Despite CKF's money, Isbell lost-possibly because they were exposed by alert citizens and the media before it was too late. Will we be as alert next time?
Matt Binder is a freelance news videographer and substitute teacher. For 15 years he worked as a reporter and producer for numerous public radio networks and stations.

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