Vote cost
Vote cost
Why spend so much?
What does a vote cost? Apparently a lot in Hawaii County.
By the time the primary elections rolled around Billy Kenoi had already spent $474,302 (WHT Aug. 3) on his bid for re-election. He garnered 17,549 votes in the primary, that’s a cost of $27.03 per vote.
In contrast, the second-highest vote getter in the mayoral race, Harry Kim, spent $3,563 (WHT Aug. 3) on his campaign and received 14,084 votes, at a whopping 25 cents per vote.
Before condemning Kenoi’s spending, I thought it would be good to look at what other politicians in our state had spent on their primaries.
Ben Cayetano raked in a total of $961,000 (I could not find how much he actually spent of that amount) but Cayetano received 90,151 votes or $10.66 per vote.
Now, numbers are sketchy and vary depending upon your source and their political affiliation (as all numbers are nowadays), but best I can tell during his 2008 presidential campaign, the most expensive campaign in history, Barack Obama spent approx $740 million and received 69,456,897 votes for a total of $10.65 per vote.
By my calculations (and I’m no math whiz) Billy Kenoi spent more money to remain mayor of Hawaii than Barack Obama did to gain the most powerful political office on the planet.
I’m sure someone with the ability to perform Washington, D.C.-type accounting maneuvers will be correcting my numbers soon in an attempt to make this all more palatable.
This point will stand: Billy Kenoi spent an inordinate amount of money in his attempt to win re-election.
The question is: Why?
Gregory Slingluff
Kailua-Kona
Political signs
Another form of litter on our roadways
It’s bad enough that we have to look at the countless memorials of dead people, most whom killed themselves by speeding, driving drunk, or falling asleep behind the wheel.
But now we have to look at every corner and intersection and see there are election signs.
If these people want to do something good for Hawaii, maybe they can start by removing their litter from the roads and our sight.
David Bertuleit
Kona