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Seven of the nine Maui County Council seats are contested in the Nov. 3 election, and the county's elected leadership could see a shake-up based on the results.
The County Council chooses what bills to discuss, votes on county policies and approves the annual budget, and more than 450 donors have poured over $465,000 into these races.
Maui residents can vote for all the County Council seats, regardless of where they live.
Looking at the numbers behind each race, here are five things voters should know about the upcoming election.
Top fundraisers
Marvin Moniz, who is running for the Wailuku-Waihee-Waikapu council seat, has raised more money than any other County Council candidate this year.
Before running for council, Moniz worked for 20 years with Hawaiian Airlines and for 20 years helping to manage Maui's airports. At an October candidate forum hosted by Lahaina Strong, Moniz said his campaign contributions come from his 40 years of service.
More than 160 donors have contributed over $103,000 to Moniz's campaign, according to campaign finance records.
The records show a wide range of people donated the $2,000 maximum, including unions representing warehouse workers, plumbers, pipefitters and electricians, painters and tapers.
Castaway Construction, which built Kapalua Airport, also donated $2,000 to Moniz's campaign, as did the Maui Hotel & Lodging Association and Ledcor, a construction company that develops luxury apartments in South Maui.
Still, Moniz said he can't be expected to vote one way or another.
"People always ask if I will be the five or the four on the council," Moniz said. "I like to say, 'I'm the nine.'"
To guide his decisions, Moniz said he will follow what's best for his future generations.
Moniz will face off against Ashley Awakea Lindsey in the Nov. 3 election, as Maui County Council Chair Alice Lee, who currently holds the seat, is not seeking re-election.
Lindsey served on Maui's Planning Commission for six years before filing to run for the County Council.
At a Lahaina Strong candidate forum, she said she hopes to bring more local people into politics and aims to use generational knowledge to guide policymaking for affordable housing and food security.
Heavy advertising
Candidates do not collaborate with super PACs or large political action groups that buy radio, TV, social media or mail advertising, but County Council member Kauanoe Batangan has been one of the most advertised candidates, attracting over $179,000 worth of advertising for his campaign specifically.
The advertising is paid for by super PAC For A Better Tomorrow, which is funded by the carpenters union and also supports mayoral candidate Yuki Lei Sugimura, Maui County Council members Tom Cook and Nohelani Uʻu-Hodgins.
Super PACs usually buy ads to support multiple candidates at once, making it unclear how much money they actually spent on each candidate. In total, For A Better Tomorrow has bought ads for Batangan 14 times.
Batangan is running against Carol Lee Kamekona for the Kahului seat on Maui County Council.
The seat came open when former County Council member Tasha Kama passed away in October 2025. Her family and friends said her dying wish was for Batangan to continue serving in her role.
Mayor Richard Bissen appointed Batangan to the position the following December after listening to resident testimony.
Kamekona also applied for the position at the time, but this is the first time Kamekona and Batangan will go head to head in a general election.
Kamekona has served in the Navy for 22 years and is a cultural defender with Malama Kakanilua and Hoʻoponopono o Makena to protect ancestral bones and natural resources from overdevelopment. She currently works for County Council member Shane Sinenci, who holds the seat representing Hana and East Maui.
Kamekona is no stranger to fighting for the Kahului seat. She ran against Kama in 2020, 2022 and 2024, trailing by about 9% of votes in 2024.
If elected, Kamekona said she hopes to fund a Kahului bowling alley, direct money to small farmers and focus on funding small organizations and individuals like Maui's Housing Hui and wetlands restoration project Āinakūkoʻa O Waiohuli Kai.
Batangan did not respond to The Maui News' request for comment on his budget priorities should he be elected to another term.
South Maui donations
The race for the South Maui seat features a rematch between incumbent Tom Cook and Kelly King.
Donors have spent more money on the race than any other County Council race this year. Cook's campaign received over $98,000 in donations, and King has received over $23,000.
Each candidate has experience representing South Maui. King, the vice president of Pacific Biodiesel, a renewable energy company, represented South Maui from 2016 to 2022.
In 2022, King left the position to run for mayor, and Cook, a retired carpenter and contractor, was elected as South Maui's County Council member. In 2024, Cook defended his seat by a slim margin, winning by just 97 votes.
For A Better Tomorrow has spent over $153,000 on ads for Cook, making South Maui one of two races where the super PAC has bought ads for individual candidates.
Wailea developer Ledcor, along with other contracting groups, carpenter, construction and electrical work unions have donated the maximum $2,000 to Cook's campaign.
King's campaign has the largest in-district donors of any candidate. Of King's 25 donors, 17 come from Kihei.
In King's campaign, she said she wants to support wetland restoration efforts, fund a Maui marine institute and defend Maui from invasive technologies like Flock cameras and data centers. She also said the County Council has been too lenient on luxury developers in South Maui.
One example, King said, is the controversial Honuaula project formerly known as Wailea 670. The County Council approved the mixed-use development project in August with about 400 fewer affordable units than originally promised.
"I sat through six hours of testimony to testify against that project," King said at a West Maui Taxpayers Association community forum. "The reason why that project has been on the books for more than 30 years and hasn't broken ground is because it's a bad project and our community doesn’t want it."
At the West Maui forum, Cook defended the project. He pushed back against King's claim the community doesn't want the project, highlighting how five County Council members voted in favor of it. He said the developers will build workforce housing first and widen Piilani Highway connecting Central Maui to South Maui before 2030, or they will lose the project.
"I stand by it, and the reason I did it was for the money that it would bring into the local community, not just through long-term taxes. But also through over time, those are high-paying jobs," Cook said.
Construction groups
The Goodfellow family donated the most money in this year's County Council elections, based on every candidate's campaign contributions through Oct. 19.
Looking at the donors with the same last name, the Goodfellows, Dowlings and Turtletaubs all stand out.
Tamar, Stephen and Chad Goodfellow donated a combined $18,500 to candidates Jon Yokouchi, Batangan, Moniz, U’u-Hodgins and Cook.
The Goodfellow Bros is a fourth-generation family-owned construction company founded in Washington state. They've put up projects in Washington, Oregon, California, on Oahu, Big Island, Kauai and Maui.
Widespread donations
Upcountry council candidate and Hawaiian kalo farmer Bobby Pahia has the most unique supporters funding his campaign.
Pahia raised the third-most money out of any County Council candidate this election cycle, but he ranks seventh in the amount raised from big donors.
The Pahia campaign received over $64,000 in reported campaign contributions, but only about $3,000 of that money comes from big donors that donated to multiple campaigns.
Even then, much of that $3,000 comes from the Maui Pono Network, a political action group that funds candidates that vow to protect Maui's land and water resource. The other chunk comes from the engineer union, which also donated to Batangan, Moniz, Uʻu-Hodgins, Cook and Maui County Council member Tamara Paltin, who represents West Maui.
Some of Pahia's $2,000 donors include a food workers union, the founder of Hale Pono Youth Shelter, and Hoʻomana Farms.
Pahia is running against Jon Yokouchi in the general election after Pahia received 42% of the vote in the primary compared to Yokouchi's 17%.
In an interview with Honolulu Civil Beat, Yokouchi said he is against reclaiming control of water infrastructure from private companies and said officials should focus on drilling new wells. He said his approach to creating more affordable housing will be to approve more commercial and residential building projects.
As a council member, Pahia said he would prioritize finding ways for Maui's existing water supply going to the community instead of private owners. To protect housing, Pahia supports land trusts to stop outsider speculation from driving up prices. To address food security, Pahia said he wants to invest in local farmers to grow and distribute food.
"It kind of makes sense if we invest in agriculture because we’re 2000 miles away from where we bring in the food," Pahia said, "and we have weather and water and the wherewithal to grow food here."
Yiming Fu is reporting for The Maui News as part of the Maui Nui Media and Creativity Collaborative Investigative Elections Reporting Fellowship, which supports expanded reporting on Maui County elections.