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How does a company whose downed power lines triggered the deadliest wildfire in Hawaii history avoid having to pay millions of dollars in fines and is able to convince the state Legislature to approve corporate bailout bill that caps its liability to a disaster that killed 102 people, destroyed more than 2,200 structures and caused more than $5.5 billion in damages?

It doesn't hurt to be near the very top of the food chain when it comes to political juice.

The Deep Blue State reviewed state Campaign Spending Commission records from 2019 to 2025 and organizational expenditure reports filed with the State Ethics Commission during the same six-year period and found that Hawaiian Electric Industries Inc., its subsidiaries, its political action committee and its executives and employees spent more than $1.6 million to help re-elect incumbent legislators and to persuade them to support their bills and pet projects.

That's a spending rate of more than $4,500 for each day that the Legislature was in session during the past six years.

Only one entity, the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts or NAREIT, spent more during the same period: $1.7 million.

The Deep Blue State's study, which we named the 2025 Hawaii Juice Politics Top 50 looked at more than 100,000 campaign contributions linked to hundreds of corporate and individual donors along with more than 8,200 lobbyist expenditure reports filed by those same companies.

Our analysis showed that Hawaiian Electric's monetary political clout far exceeds the combined reach of Hawaii's largest and most powerful unions such as the Hawai'i Carpenters Union and the United Public Workers as well as that of traditional government contractors such as SSFM International, Royal Contracting and Bowers & Kubota, companies that were ensnared in the pay-to-play scandals during the early 2000s.

It also exceeds the combined political spending of the so-called disruptive technology companies, Air BNB, Uber and Lyft, which faced several efforts to impose strict regulations on their businesses in recent years.

Based on a review of Hawaiian Electric's website and its filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, it's unclear how much of the utility's lobbying expenditures were paid for by HEI's shareholders and how much was paid for by its consumers.

Hawaiian Electric's political money doesn't include political donations that company executives gave to lawmakers under the radar.

The Deep Blue State's analysis shows that HECO and HEI executives provided more than $26,000 in campaign contributions between 2019 and 2025 to more than three dozen political candidates where the executives' employer wasn't disclosed.

That's because the state's campaign finance laws only require political candidates and their committees to list their donors' employers' names if the donors contribute more than $1,000 to their campaigns during a four-year election cycle.

The shadowy money includes $1,400 that HECO vice president and bailout spokesman James Kelly gave to seven lawmakers during the six-year period, including two $150 contributions to Senate President Ron Kouchi.

Bottomline, the findings of The Deep Blue State's Hawai'i Juice Politics Top 50 helps explain why Hawaiian Electric enjoys unprecedented access to lawmakers, especially in the case of the securitization bill which was approved by the Legislature despite opposition from consumers, unions, small businesses and even from lawmakers. Cold, hard cash speaks volumes when a company's executives walk the hallways of the state Capitol.