Following determination of the COMPAC Chair, the COMPAC itself was established. It included diverse representation of: men and women; small, medium, and large businesses; coverage of various geographic regions across the island, including Central, South, Upcountry, and West Maui; ethnic diversity; newer and long-time members; members who sit on Chamber Committees, including Business Education, Executive, Government Action, Made In Maui, Small Business and Westside committees; and Chamber leadership.

The COMPAC chose to include County and State races in the process, but not the Federal races. 10 questions based on Chamber positions statements were then created by the COMPAC for Mayoral, County Council, Gubernatorial, and State House and Senate races.

All County and State candidates were invited to participate in the Chamber’s endorsement process and were sent the questions for their race. They were told that they had to provide both a written response to the questions and participate in the interview process to receive a Chamber endorsement. A number of candidates didn’t respond, however, 32 candidates did and fully participated in the process.

32 candidate interviews were scheduled and later held between August 22 & 23, with candidate scoring following the interviews.

Candidates were scored by each COMPAC member based on their written and oral responses to the 10 questions they received and replied to, with each question specifically scored on a point scale of 0 to 5, with 5 being the maximum points available and indicating an excellent response to that question. The maximum points each COMPAC member could award a candidate was 50 points. The point totals from all COMPAC member scorecards for each candidate were totaled to reach an overall candidate total. This number was then divided by the number of COMPAC members to obtain an average score for each candidate. A minimum score of 30 points (as set by the COMPAC) was required for a candidate to be endorsed. Candidates with the highest score (above 30)—meaning their responses were most congruent with the Chamber’s values and positions—in each race became the candidate the Chamber is endorsing.

Out of 16 County and State races with more than one candidate, the COMPAC process included one or more candidates in 15 of the 16 races and interviewed 32 out of 65 total candidates for those races. The 16th race was for the West Maui County Council seat. Deidre Rockett did not respond and JoAnne Johnson noted that she is not seeking a Chamber endorsement. Therefore, no endorsement will be made for this race.

In two other races where candidates participated in our process, but the candidates did not meet the minimum score required. As a result, there will be no endorsements for these races.

Additionally, 3 County Council Members are running unopposed and did not respond to our request for participation. No endorsements will the made for their races. They are: Michelle Anderson (South Maui), Riki Hokama (Lanai), and Danny Mateo (Molokai).