My last diary was about the connections--the common donors, staffers, and history--between the organizations of Tulsi Gabbard, a Democratic candidate for Hawaii's open second Congressional district, and her father Mike Gabbard, a well-known anti-gay activist and former Republican. (A 2005 blog post calls him "the gay communities local version of the anti-Christ.")
Tulsi Gabbard's fundraising markedly improved in the last quarter of 2011. As she was also endorsed by EMILY's List at the end of this period, I was wondering if a significant portion of her fundraising would still come from family members and her father's donors and staff--especially since Tulsi Gabbard has repeatedly tried to distance herself from her father's (and what were once her own) socially-conservative views.
You can see the report here. Tulsi Gabbard seems to have raised $172,203.44 from individuals (other than herself). She definitely raised $209,615.42 in all. ($208,255.42 considering that some contributions were refunded.) I say "seems to" because I think at first I was double-counting ActBlue-aggregated contributions, and I think I've eliminated that. Still, I might have made some mistake there.
The following individuals all donated to Tulsi Gabbard's campaign over this fundraising quarter. As far as I can tell from comparing records and so forth, except where noted they are also all either current or former staff of Mike Gabbard and/or donated to Mike Gabbard's campaigns for either Congress or the state Legislature as a Republican.
Amanda Lowther
janet bishop [Same address as John Bishop, linked below, and see also here]
Keith H Kurahashi
Josh Harvey [see also here]
Michael T. Jones
Robert Riggs
Steve A Telander
Anya Anthony
John Bishop
Lawrence Olsen
Erika Tsuji
Bhakti Gabbard
Gerald M. Gabbard
Harry Acuna
Clifford R Hillier
Mary P Hillier
Elsie Porter
Carol P Gabbard
Donna Lay
Devin Bull
Kunti Bull
Richard Fried
Carol Lent
Robert Lent
Franklin Tsuji
Richard Lowther
Simon L. Williams
Fredrick Sands
Eileen Cervantes [see also Eileen Bishop-Cervantes]
Each link should take you to donor records for each name, although I didn't bother to link to some of the names discussed in my last diary, like the Gabbards, the Tsujis, the Bulls, Donna Lay, etc. Note that not all of these are necessarily conservative figures. For example, Richard Fried is a big Democratic donor, and Keith Kurahashi and Michael T. Jones seem to have significant Democratic donations (as well as some Republican ones). Riggs gave to Akaka, although he's also Mike Gabbard's office manager and Tulsi Gabbard's custodian of records. Still, I wanted to be comprehensive.
I thought the Fredrick Sands who donated to Tulsi was a big Democratic donor, but that's the Hawaii Fredrick Sands. The one who donated to Tulsi, like the above, is a Sacramento programmer, not a Paia physician.
Thanks to this blog post for reminding me about Cervantes, and for this colorful description I will repeat:
For those of you that don't live in Hawaii, Mike Gabbard is the gay communities local version of the anti-Christ. When he ran for state senate this year, most gay people I know turned their noses up and said he would never win. Well, surprise to you folks living in State Senate District 19, you can call him Senator Gabbard. Scary, eh?
I came across his campaign contributions from his failed bid against Ed Case in 2004 and found it interesting the sources of the money. Embarassingly enough, I actually know a couple of these names.
Anyway. My impression is that big Democratic donors like Fried are exceptions on this list. See for yourself how many of the above seemingly donated to no other campaign than Mike Gabbard's Congressional campaign, or Mike Gabbard's campaign and Richard Reed's Senate campaign, both as Republicans. Again, click through my last diary for links to some backstory on Reed's Senate campaign, allegedly connected to both the Gabbards' and to Butler's religious group.
Let's get to the final sum:
Between them, by my count, the names listed above gave $53,558.44 to Tulsi Gabbard's campaign last quarter. That's some 31.1% of her fundraising from individuals last quarter, and 25.6% of her total fundraising last quarter.
I was going to end this diary on a somewhat sarcastic note--that Tulsi Gabbard's campaign treasurer is listed as "Talia Khurana", and that this is basically the first staffer on her campaign that I'm aware of that wasn't a relative or someone who worked for her father. But then I read on: "Signed: Ms. Talia Tamayo Khurana". Tulsi Gabbard used to go by Tulsi Gabbard Tamayo--her ex-husband is Eddie Tamayo. (Or Eduardo Tamayo, and see also here. Note that site has Carol Gabbard's maiden name as "Porter", also the name of a common Gabbard donor.)
And Talia Khurana shares an address with Vikram Khurana, and between them they gave an additional $9,500 to Tulsi Gabbard's campaign last quarter. I can't actually find a relationship between Tulsi Gabbard's ex-husband, Eduardo Tamayo, and her campaign treasurer, Talia Tamayo Khurana. But, given how tight-knit and family-based her campaign staff and fundraising have been, it wouldn't exactly be an anomaly.
Note: The FDL article I linked to alleges that Eduardo Tamayo is himself the "son of a Filipino military guy, Col. Antonio Tamayo, Jr., who is said to be a devotee of Jagad Guru Butler." I linked to it because that's how I found Eduardo's full name. I can't evaluate the claim that Tamayo is linked to Butler's group--how can anyone evaluate rumors about who someone is "said to be a devotee of"? But I think the responsible thing to do is to say that outright, rather than link to articles that make claims that I ignore.