Who paid for the vote?

The government tells you what was decided. It rarely tells you who funded the people deciding. Here is that question for Kauaʻi County — the same real record, explained for every reader, from a first-grader to an analyst. Every figure is public; every line is a question to verify, never an accusation.

the sky above · ka lani Waimea — seat of Kaumualiʻi, last ruling aliʻi of the independent Kauaʻi kingdom Līhuʻe — county seat today

Choose how it's told

for keiki · ages 5–8

Some grown-ups give money to help a leader

On Kauaʻi County, some grown-ups give money to help people become leaders who make the rules. Giving is kind. This map shows who gave money to our 7 leaders. One helper gave money to 4 of them.

Our one gentle question: when the leaders choose about land and houses, do they help everybody — or mostly the people who gave them money? Asking is how we take care of each other.

for grade school · ages 8–11

Follow the money — it's allowed to ask

To get elected you run a campaign, and campaigns cost money, so people give. In the kauaʻi county council, one leader — Bernard Carvalho — drew 17.0% of their donations from real-estate businesses (the highest here). One donor, Hawaii Regional Council Of Carpenters, appears behind 4 different members. None of this breaks the law.

The smart question: when they vote on building and land, are they thinking about everyone — or the people who helped pay for their campaign? You can check the real records yourself.

for middle school · ages 11–14 · drafted by the local civic AI

Campaign money, and the land it clusters around

Every campaign contribution in Hawaiʻi is public record. Added up across the kauaʻi county council's 7 tracked officials, patterns appear: the highest real-estate donor share falls on Bernard Carvalho, at 17.0% of their donations. One donor, Hawaii Regional Council Of Carpenters, appears behind 4 different members. None of it breaks the law — 'follow the money' just means checking whether the people funding a campaign also have business before the body, and whether the votes line up. It stays a question, checked against the record, not an accusation.

Correlation is not causation — but a sourced, checkable question is exactly what a resident deserves.

for high school · ages 14–18

Concentration, near-unanimity, and how to verify

Hold two things together. Concentration: real-estate/development money can make up a large share of a member's funding — here as high as 17.0% for Bernard Carvalho. One donor, Hawaii Regional Council Of Carpenters, appears behind 4 different members. And the vote record: Hawaiʻi councils often vote near-unanimously, which is common and is not proof of anything by itself — but paired with concentrated funding it's the pattern watchdogs watch.

How you verify: pull the Campaign Spending Commission filings, the roll-calls, and the recusals. If the money and the votes are unrelated, the record shows it. A checkable question, not a verdict.

for college & adult readers

The method, and its honest limits

We join Hawaiʻi Campaign Spending Commission filings — donor → official, amount, employer — against the kauaʻi county council's 7 officials and their votes. One donor, Hawaii Regional Council Of Carpenters, appears behind 4 different members. The signal is a donor (or PAC) recurring behind several members; the concentration figure (17.0% for Bernard Carvalho) is the individual tilt.

The limits are the honest part: a near-unanimous record can reflect consensus, agenda-setting, or pressure — the data can't distinguish them, and a name-match must be verified per identity. The output is not a finding; it's a sourced, reproducible map that makes the question answerable.

for analysts · provenance & reproduction

Sources, the graph, and the caveats

Sources: Hawaiʻi Campaign Spending Commission filings, USASpending awards, roll-calls. The per-official aggregates live in donor_profiles_hi-kauai.json; the money graph in Neo4j (12sgi-king-neo4j-1) as :Donor–[:FUNDED]→:Representative.

Caveats before any conclusion: near-unanimous vote records are a signal to interpret, not evidence; donor→official name-matches are candidates to verify; facts split hi-<county> + legacy IDs — union both. Every figure is public record; allegation framing is mandatory; the prosecutorial file stays private.

The record, in numbers

17.0%

the highest real-estate donor share on the body — Bernard Carvalho — a question to verify, not a verdict

members share one donor — Hawaii Regional Council Of Carpenters — the cross-member signal to read (a question, not proof)

tracked Kauaʻi County Council — every contribution a public Campaign Spending Commission filing

officialtotal raisedreal-estate

Derek Kawakami - Kauai County Mayor$1,045,71312.6%

Bernard Carvalho - Kauai County Council$447,53617.0%

Mel Rapozo - Kauai County Council Chair$374,2227.3%

Arryl Kaneshiro - Kauai County Council$143,9026.4%

Felicia Cowden - Kauai County Council$111,2407.7%

Totals from Hawaiʻi Campaign Spending Commission filings · real-estate share = donations from real-estate / development donors · lawful contributions, shown as a question to verify.