When it comes to politics, money talks, but it’s not always exactly clear what it’s saying. Trying to glean local political lessons from the ebb and flow of campaign cash isn’t always a straightforward proposition, but ‘following the money’ can provide clues as to how political power and influence are distributed.

A quick look at contributions reported to the Federal Election Commission during the first nine months of 2007 and made public via the website [CampaignMoney.com] illustrates the point.

Political parties

The Hawai’i Republican Party continues to be the party of high rollers, those with money to spare (or perhaps to invest?) in five-figure portions.

The island GOP raised more than $377,000 during the first nine months of 2007, while the Democrats brought less than half that amount into the party coffers, about $155,000. Add in the party’s national committees and the disparity widens further, with the Republican Party bringing in more than $504,000 and Dems with just $188,000.

The reported numbers only include donors who contributed $200 or more, leaving small donors out of the picture.

The largest reported contribution was a $25,000 pop to the Republican National Committee back in August by Christopher Haig.

The Hawai’i Republican Party counted nine donors of $10,000 each and 26 who contributed $5,000 to the party during 2007, while Hawai’i Democrats could claim only a single donor of $5,000.

Those who gave $10,000 to the Hawai’i Republican Party included Joe Pickard, president of Environet Inc., whose company has landed millions in planning and engineering contracts from the Department of Hawaiian Homes Lands during the Lingle administration, Maui developer Everett Dowling, Ko Olina president Jeff Stone, real estate investor Jay Shidler, Virginia Weinman of Dragon Bridge Capital, dentist and GOP stalwart Lawrence Tseu, Okada Trucking executive Gavin Hubbard, former Honolulu City Council member John Henry Felix and Gary Okamoto, president of Wilson Okamoto & Associates.

It isn’t the first time Dowling has been at or near the top of the party’s donor lists. During Linda Lingle’s successful 2002 campaign for governor, a Dowling-controlled company on Maui, W.K.3 LLC, gave an astonishing $250,000 to the Republican National State Elections Committee, money that presumably could have filtered back down into island races. The contribution was made just before a ban on previously allowed corporate contributions, referred to as soft money, went into effect.

Not all of the big contributors are simply partisan. For example, Russell Figueiroa, president of R.M. Towill Corp. gave $8,000 to the Hawai’i Republican Party while attorney William McCorriston gave $7,500, but both balanced that off with donations of $2,300 to each of the islands’ Democratic members of Congress, Mazie Hirono and Neil Abercrombie.

Parties plus candidates

Despite the Republican Party’s seeming fundraising advantage, add federal candidates to the mix and the numbers flip-flop, with the Democrats taking an overall 2 to 1 edge, $1.17 million to $626,000.

This could be because of the widespread interest in the Democratic presidential primary, which includes ex-islander Barack Obama as a top contender, but could also reflect local Democrats’ lesser reliance on the local party structure to provide political leadership in a state dominated by the party’s elected officials. Throughout the last decade, the Republicans have had few office holders and a top-heavy party, with a strong figure in Gov. Lingle but a very shallow political bench, leaving the party to try to take up the leadership slack.

The candidates

If dollars were votes, Obama would have a lock on Hawai’i. The 1979 Punahou graduate reported raising $309,000 from sources in Hawai’i through the end of September, 50 percent more than all the other presidential candidates of both parties combined.

Hillary Clinton is a distant second in terms of island fundraising, taking in just $50,275 in itemized contributions through the end of September, followed by John Edwards with $22,000 and Dennis Kucinich, the only presidential candidate to campaign in Hawai’i so far, with $17,672.

But Hirono ($229,804) and Abercrombie ($197,169), as well as Sen. Dan Akaka’s 2012 campaign committee ($117,500) attracted more support than most of the field of presidential candidates.

On the Republican side, candidates Ron Paul, Mitt Romney and John McCain topped island fundraising, each taking in around $24,000.

Political action committees

Federal political action committees, set up to accept contributions from individuals associated with corporations, trade and ideological organizations and unions, are farther down the political food chain in Hawai’i.

The Hawai’i Medical Association PAC led the way with $32,250 in contributions from islanders, followed by the National Association of Realtors ($15,800), Central Pacific’s federal PAC ($14,000), National Automotive Dealers Association PAC ($11,750), Emily’s List, which supports women candidates ($11,035) and the Marriott International PAC ($10,000).

Labor-affiliated political committees attracted far fewer individual contributions. The National Education Association’s Fund for Children and Public Education led the way with just $4,761 raised in Hawai’i, followed by the International Association of Firefighters with $4,375. No other labor group raised more than $2,200.

These amounts would be in addition to and separate from any local political committees set up under Hawai’i law by affiliates of these organizations, and reflect only current contributions and not the full amounts on hand to influence candidates and elections.

For more information about politics and money, check the Federal Election Commission ([FEC.gov]), The Center for Responsive Politics ([OpenSecrets.org]) and [CampaignMoney.com], a non-partisan website.

For more by Ian Lind, visit [iLind.net].