Hawaii
Hawaii County Mayor's Race Is Getting Lots Of Cash This Year
Hawaii County Mayor Mitch Roth has raised and spent tens of thousands of dollars more than his opponent, Kimo Alameda, in his bid to win a second term.
But so far that’s been noticeably less than at the same point four years ago, when Roth easily beat Ikaika Marzo, a business owner.
Marzo in 2020 had far fewer campaign resources than Alameda in 2024, who has attracted a broad range of donations in the contest and is considered a more serious rival.
Both candidates have also held several fundraisers in the waning days of the general election, illustrating their need for cash to garner votes on Hawaii’s largest island.
Roth asked for money at Duc’s Bistro in Honolulu and the Hilo Hawaiian Hotel in September, while Alameda held four fundraisers in September — one each at the Kaimana Hotel in Honolulu and at the Kona Elks Club, and two at the Hilo Lagoon Center.
Roth reported more than $330,000 in contributions, including $50,000 from Sept. 17 through Oct. 21, which covers the latest filing period. Alameda received $284,000 in contributions, with $28,000 coming in during the recent reporting period.
Meanwhile, Roth outspent Alameda by $100,000 — $340,000 to $241,000. Roth is depending heavily on TV advertising. Most of the $109,000 he paid during the recent filing period went to Hamburger Group Creative of Washington, D.C.
For his part, Alameda expended $44,000 during the same period, nearly half of it going to Oahu Publications (it owns newspapers in Hilo and Kailua-Kona) for print ads.
Both candidates have received a number of donations from local sources willing to shell out a minimum $1,000.
For Roth, they include executives with Hilo Auto Sales, Commercial Plumbing and Kona Salt Farm. Groups giving to the mayor include Hawaii Operating Engineers Industry Stabilization, Hilo Opportunity Zone Fund, General Contractors Association of Hawaii and Big Island Federal Credit Union.
Alameda has received similarly sized donations from executives with Big Island Grown, JL Hauling and Dickinson General Contracting. Local Union 1186 IBEW PAC Fund also gave $1,000 in the recent reporting period.
The challenger, a clinic administrator and psychologist, also received $10,000 from executives with businesses in Washington state such as Cedar Grove Electric and Emerald Services.
Senate Races Of Interest
The Roth-Alameda race, which is nonpartisan, is perhaps the most high profile contested election statewide, but there are other competitive, partisan races that have attracted media and donor attention.
They include two races for the state Senate and several in the state House of Representatives.
Republican Sen. Brenton Awa is in his first term representing District 23 (Kaneohe, Kahaluu through Laie, Kahuku to Mokuleia, Schofield Barracks and Kunia Camp) and is one of only two GOP members in the 25-member Senate.
Awa, a former television newscaster, has spoken publicly about his disdain for campaign contributions. He believes donations unduly influence legislators.
To that end, Awa has raised a mere $2,000 and spent just half of it this election cycle. He reported no contributions in his most recent filing and spent nothing on his campaign.
That stands in contrast to his Democratic opponent. And unlike Awa, Ben Shafer faced a primary opponent, former state Sen. Clayton Hee.
Shafer’s latest filing shows that he has a negative cash balance of $1,300, having spent more than the $67,000 he received in contributions.
His most recent contributors include state Sen. Les Ihara, former legislator Pono Chong, Sheetmetal Workers Local Union 293 and AFSCME Local 646.
The District 23 seat has switched parties several times. In an indication of how fluid relations and loyalties can be, a former occupant of the seat, Gil Riviere, sponsored two fundraisers in September for Shafer at Duc’s Bistro. Riviere, a former Republican, narrowly lost his seat to Awa in 2022 as a Democrat.
Another Senate race pits Democrat Cedric Gates against Republican Samantha DeCorte. The District 22 seat (Koolina, Nanakuli, Maili, Waianae, Makaha and Makua) is temporarily occupied by Cross Makani Crabbe, who was appointed to the position this summer to replace Democrat Maile Shimabukuro, who stepped down in May and endorsed Gates.
Gates, a state representative, pulled in $139,000 in contributions and spent $148,000. But he still has $12,000 in cash on hand, thanks in part to funds transferred from his previous House campaigns.
Recent contributors to Gates include Hawaii Gov. Josh Green and state Sen. Jarrett Keohokalole. Gates spent $17,000 during the latest reporting period, including for advertisements in the publication Westside Stories and to pay for postage on mailers.
DeCorte has raised and spent far more modestly — $48,000 and $36,000, respectively. Contributors include businessman Christopher Flaherty. DeCorte’s latest expenditures include paying for graphic design, printing and text messaging.
And In The House
The District 22 race is one of several in the Ewa and Westside regions of Oahu that have seen Republicans make gains in recent elections. They include three House races where GOP incumbents hope to fend off Democratic challengers. Democrats currently hold 45 of the 51 House seats.
In one of those races, Democrat Corey Rosenlee, a former head of the Hawiai State Teachers Association, is challenging Rep. Elijah Pierick for the District 39 seat (Royal Kunia, Village Park, Honouliuli, Hoopili and portions of Waipahu).
Rosenlee has raised $30,000 in donations but has spent $47,000, an amount that includes $20,000 the candidate gave to himself. His contributors include the HGEA Political Contribution Account, the University of Hawaii Professional Assembly, the United Public Workers PAC and state Reps. Della Au Belatti and Sean Quinlan.
The candidate spent $22,000, according to his most recent filing, with most of the money going to pay for mailing campaign postcards.
Pierick reported $40,000 in contributions in the current election cycle but has spent only $17,000. Most of his expenses went to Meta, the company that runs Facebook, Instagram, Threads and WhatsApp.
One of the contributors to Pierick, James Adamson, is listed on Pierick’s filing as having an unknown occupation because, as the representative wrote in his report, “I was sign waving and he gave me a check.”
House and Senate districts are much smaller political divisions than counties, which is why legislative campaigns spend so much money on mailers and postage.
Anthony Makana Paris, a Democrat running against GOP incumbent Diamond Garcia in District 42 (portions of Varona Village, Ewa, and Kapolei, and Fernandez Village), paid Cardinal Services of Honolulu nearly $5,000 for printing and mailing charges in October. Roughly the same amount went to Service Printers of Honolulu for similar services.
Paris has spent $38,440 this election, using up nearly all of the $39,275 he raised. Contributors include Masons Local 630 PAC.
Garcia has raised and spent much less. Contributors include Pono Petroleum of Kapolei, while expenditures include $590 to American Campaign Finance of Honolulu for a database subscription. Garcias also paid Villages of Kapolei magazine $1,397 for an advertisement.
Meanwhile, GOP incumbent David Alcos is up against Democrat John Clark III in the District 41 House seat (portion of Ewa Beach, Ocean Pointe and Barbers Point). Neither had raised much money, nor spent much.
Nevertheless, Alcos paid $1,535 for food and beverage related to his campaign at the Costco Wholesale Corporation Golf Tournament Event, and another $2,940 for events and activities at the Coral Creek Golf Course in Ewa Beach. And Clark paid $1,257 to Reskyu of Honolulu for postcards and $2,717 to Cardinal Mailing Services of Honolulu for postage fees to mail the postcards.
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Hawaii
Everyone Says Oahu’s Overcrowded. We Drove 20 Minutes Past Haleiwa And Found Beautiful Empty Beaches
Most visitors think Oahu’s North Shore stops at Haleiwa because that is where traffic builds to pandemonium, where beach parking fills earlier than you can imagine, and where sitting in your car between the familiar lineup of surf breaks and food trucks largely defines the experience. Once people have crawled through and found a place to stand at Waimea or Sunset, the mental box gets checked, and the car points back toward Honolulu fast, as if everything worth seeing has already been seen. But it hasn’t.
Instead of turning around at Haleiwa, we continued west on Farrington Highway and watched the storefronts fall away in the rearview mirror. The line of rental cars thinned fast as the road narrowed and the mountains got closer to the pavement. On the ocean side, long stretches of sand opened up, and within a few miles, we were seeing more wind in the ironwood trees than cars on the road or people on the beach.
Most visitors leaving Haleiwa head east toward Sunset Beach and Pipeline, where traffic stacks up endlessly and parking lots overflow. We went the other way. Out toward Mokuleia, the commercial North Shore disappears fast, and what replaces it is space. There are no visitors circling for stalls and no steady lines at food trucks. You can pull over without searching for the one open spot in a packed lot, and entire sections of beach sit quietly without the usual cluster.
Dillingham Airfield and the working North Shore.
One of the first landmarks after Mokule’ia Beach (which we will write about soon) is what most people still call Dillingham Airfield, though its official name is Kawaihapai Airfield. It is owned by the U.S. Army and managed by the State of Hawaii Department of Transportation under a 50-year lease, and it has been operated as a military installation since the 1920s, with HDOT taking over management in 1962. HDOT leases 272 acres of the 650-acre Dillingham Military Reservation and operates the single 9,000-foot runway, with the civilian side used heavily for gliders and skydiving while the Army retains first priority for air/land operations and uses the field for helicopter night-vision training.
As we drove past, it did not feel like a visitor attraction at all, even though you can spot the roadside signs for glider rides and skydiving. A small single-engine plane rolled down the runway and lifted off against the Waianae Mountains, then a glider followed, towed upward before separating and moving almost silently above the coastline. It is one of those North Shore scenes that makes you slow down without thinking about it, because it looks like real working Oahu rather than the marketed version, with runway, mountains, and open water all in the same frame and very few people around to make it feel like a production.
Camps that have been here for generations.
Close to the airfield are two oceanfront camps that rarely enter any typical Oahu visitor’s plans. The first is Camp Mokuleia, which sits along the shoreline and is owned by the Episcopal Church. If you’re not on a retreat, you can rent a campsite or tentalo on the beach. A little farther west is YMCA Camp Erdman, which opened in 1926 and is approaching its 100th anniversary, still renting oceanfront cabins and yurts to the public.
The accommodations are straightforward, with sand steps away from the doors and long views of the horizon. This is not a resort strip, and you won’t find any valet stands or infinity pools. Families gather around grills, kids move freely between cabins and the beach, while the ocean feels part of the daily backdrop more than it is an Instagram photo opportunity.
Camp Mokuleia tentalos start at $100 a night. Camp Erdman yurts and cabins range from $250-$450 per night for up to 6 guests. For context, the average vacation rental in the Mokuleia area lists above $500 a night.
The shoreline here is not known for calm, protected swimming, and currents can be strong without lifeguard towers stationed every few hundred yards. The beach also has a lot of coral, which keeps swimmers more limited than some other beaches. And that fact alone keeps casual beach traffic lighter, and it helps explain why this stretch feels so different from busier Oahu North Shore stops. The camps and the character of the water belong to the same landscape, shaped more by geography than by commercial branding.
Where the pavement ends.
Eventually, Farrington Highway reaches a gravel lot where the pavement stops and a locked gate marks the entrance to the Mokuleia section of Kaena Point State Park. There is no visitor center funneling people through an entrance plaza. Instead, there is open sky, steady trade winds, and a handful of parked cars facing a dirt road that continues on foot toward the westernmost tip of Oahu, where you can meet the road that comes from the other side. This is truly a part of Oahu that most visitors never see.
Hikers follow the old railroad route for roughly 2.7 miles to Kaena Point itself, where seabirds nest behind protective fencing and monk seals are sometimes seen along the shore. The trail is exposed, hot, and largely flat, with no services and little shade, which naturally limits casual foot traffic. Consider not trying it in the middle of the day. But, standing at the end of the paved road, with the Waianae Mountains behind you and nothing but raw coastline ahead, feels less like arriving at any Oahu attraction and more like standing at the literal end of the island.
What stood out most was how little competition there was for space. There were only a few cars in the lot when we arrived, and long portions of the beach were untouched compared with the chaotic churn nearby at Haleiwa. It was a bit windy, the mountains anchored one side of the horizon, and the coastline extended westward without any indication that you were sharing it with scattered other people.
If you have been to the North Shore more than once and believe you have already seen it, have you ever kept driving past Haleiwa until the pavement runs out? It’s worth the drive.
Photo Credits: © Beat of Hawaii at Kaena Point State Park, Oahu.
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Hilo
Tonight: Cloudy. Scattered showers in the evening, then isolated showers after midnight. Lows 59 to 66 near the shore to 48 to 54 at 4000 feet. Southeast winds up to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40 percent.
Monday: Cloudy with isolated showers. Highs 75 to 80 near the shore to around 65 at 4000 feet. East winds up to 10 mph. Chance of rain 20 percent.
Monday Night: Cloudy with scattered showers. Lows 59 to 65 near the shore to 48 to 54 at 4000 feet. East winds around 10 mph. Chance of rain 50 percent.
Kona
Tonight: Cloudy. Isolated showers in the evening. Lows around 69 near the shore to 45 to 52 near 5000 feet. Light winds. Chance of rain 20 percent.
Monday: Cloudy. Highs 81 to 86 near the shore to around 67 near 5000 feet. Light winds becoming west up to 10 mph in the afternoon.
Monday Night: Mostly cloudy. Lows around 69 near the shore to 44 to 51 near 5000 feet. Northwest winds around 10 mph in the evening becoming light.
Waimea
Tonight: Cloudy and breezy. Isolated showers in the evening. Lows 59 to 68 near the shore to 53 to 59 near 3000 feet. East winds up to 10 mph increasing to up to 20 mph after midnight. Chance of rain 20 percent.
Monday: Cloudy and breezy. Isolated showers in the morning. Highs 72 to 78 near the shore to 67 to 75 near 3000 feet. East winds up to 20 mph. Chance of rain 20 percent.
Monday Night: Mostly cloudy. Breezy. Isolated showers in the evening. Lows 59 to 67 near the shore to 52 to 58 near 3000 feet. East winds 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 20 percent.
Kohala
Tonight: Cloudy and breezy. Isolated showers in the evening. Lows 59 to 68 near the shore to 53 to 59 near 3000 feet. East winds up to 10 mph increasing to up to 20 mph after midnight. Chance of rain 20 percent.
Monday: Cloudy and breezy. Isolated showers in the morning. Highs 72 to 78 near the shore to 67 to 75 near 3000 feet. East winds up to 20 mph. Chance of rain 20 percent.
Monday Night: Mostly cloudy. Breezy. Isolated showers in the evening. Lows 59 to 67 near the shore to 52 to 58 near 3000 feet. East winds 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 20 percent.
South Big Island
Tonight: Cloudy. Isolated showers in the evening. Lows around 71 near the shore to around 51 near 5000 feet. Northeast winds up to 15 mph. Chance of rain 20 percent.
Monday: Cloudy and breezy. Highs around 83 near the shore to around 64 near 5000 feet. East winds up to 20 mph.
Monday Night: Mostly cloudy. Breezy. Lows around 70 near the shore to around 50 near 5000 feet. East winds 10 to 20 mph.
Puna
Tonight: Cloudy. Scattered showers in the evening, then isolated showers after midnight. Lows 59 to 66 near the shore to 48 to 54 at 4000 feet. Southeast winds up to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40 percent.
Monday: Cloudy with isolated showers. Highs 75 to 80 near the shore to around 65 at 4000 feet. East winds up to 10 mph. Chance of rain 20 percent.
Monday Night: Cloudy with scattered showers. Lows 59 to 65 near the shore to 48 to 54 at 4000 feet. East winds around 10 mph. Chance of rain 50 percent.
Waikoloa
Tonight: Cloudy. Lows around 70 near the shore to 48 to 54 above 4000 feet. Light winds.
Monday: Cloudy. Highs around 83 near the shore to 65 to 71 above 4000 feet. Light winds becoming northwest up to 15 mph in the afternoon.
Monday Night: Mostly cloudy. Lows around 70 near the shore to 47 to 54 above 4000 feet. North winds 10 to 15 mph shifting to the east after midnight.
Synopsis
The cold front has dissipated into a trough and remains northwest of the Hawaiian Islands this evening. High pressure will build in from the north and allow the trade winds to strengthen from Monday through Wednesday. Brief passing showers will favor windward and mountain areas in the overnight to early morning hours through Wednesday and then over southeastern slopes and island interior sections from Thursday onward. Winds will weaken and veer slightly from a more east-southeast direction from Thursday on into the weekend. Shower activity will remain limited during this time period.
Short term update
The large band of high level cirrus clouds and mid level alto stratus clouds currently over the islands will continue to slowly diminish through Monday. The cold front approaching the islands has stalled and diminished into a trough just northwest of the island of Kauai.
Trade winds blow into the region and strengthen into the moderate to locally breezy range from Monday through Wednesday. A slight decrease in wind speeds and a shift from a more east- southeast direction remains in the forecast from Thursday onward as another cold front approaches the islands from the northwest, weakening and lifting the ridge north of the state. Local scale sea breeze winds will develop along terrain sheltered slopes of each island as the large scale winds weaken. Limited shower activity will prevail into next weekend with only brief showers possible.
The afternoon forecast looks good. No evening updates.
Previous discussion
Issued at 302 PM HST Sun Mar 1 2026.
Expectations for this afternoon remain on track. The boundary upstream of Kauai has made little to no forward progress today, sea breezes have struggled to establish owing to abundant high clouds, and showers southwest of Kauai and Oahu have essentially remained in place while stratiform elements peel off to the northeast. In addition, regenerating showers over Windward Oahu have dissipated in response to backing low-level flow. All told, an uneventful, cloudy, and mostly dry day across the state. Going forward, building heights over the N Central Pacific will maintain strengthening, but progressive high pressure at the surface. This in turn ensures the return of trades tonight which then become breezy during mid-week. Winds diminish slightly by late week as trades veer to ESE in advance of another round of upstream height falls. Typical trade wind weather anticipated throughout this time with showers focused windward and mauka. High clouds gradually clear from west to east Monday into Tuesday before exiting the area altogether by Wednesday.
Aviation
A weakening stationary boundary will allow for abundant high clouds and relatively light land/sea breezes to prevail across most TAF sites. This front will also allow for disorganized showers across Kauai and Oahu tonight, however confidence was on the lower end based on weather model guidance, so made use of VCSH and PROB30 where rain chances were felt to be the highest. MVFR conditions may prevail under shower activity, otherwise VFR is expected across most sites for the period.
AIRMET Tango remains in effect across the islands due to upper- level turbulence from FL200-400 due to this front, with conditions expected to improve into tomorrow as this system continues to weaken. Patchy mountain obscuration may occur due to the presence of this front, however observations and webcams suggest that the threat is not widespread enough to warrant an AIRMET at this time. Light icing is also possible in cloud layer 120-180.
Marine
Issued at 302 PM HST Sun Mar 1 2026.
A dissipated front will linger into Monday just northwest of the area. Fresh to locally strong easterly trades will build in by Tuesday as surface ridge strengthens to the north. Winds will maintain strength but veer east southeast towards the end of the week as another system approaches from the west.
Surf along north and west-facing shores will be above seasonal average as a northwest swell (310 degrees) is expected to impact through Monday. Surf should remain small though the week with a small northwest bump expected next weekend.
Surf along exposed east-facing shores will be a bit elevated due to a short-to medium-period northeast (40 degrees) swell, then decline Tuesday. However, period and choppy conditions are expected to return by Tuesday as fresh trade winds redevelop and expand upstream of the state.
Surf along south-facing shores will remain near the seasonal average into March.
HFO Watches/Warnings/Advisories
None.
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Data Courtesy of NOAA.gov
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