Hate speech: Gov. Josh Green is no stranger to criticism, even the kind that crosses the line into threats against him and his family. Perhaps most infamously, Green, who is Jewish, was the target of antisemitic threats in 2021 when as lieutenant governor he took a strong role in Hawaiʻi’s Covid-19 prevention efforts. Protesters showed up at his downtown condo shouting death threats and plastering hate signs in the neighborhood.

Now, the FBI has arrested a 51-year-old Montana man for leaving nine threatening voicemails on the gov’s office phone line that are honestly so terrible The Blog isn’t going to embed the criminal complaint because it just seems wrong to perpetuate incivility that runs that deep.

The complaint alleges that in December, over a 10-day period, Eric Lee Boltz threatened to kill Green and his family and rape his daughter. Here’s the first one, as laid out in the federal complaint, and it gets worse from there:

“We’re gonna fucking kill you and your fucking kids. Put them in the fucking oven, you stinking fucking Jew, you dumb fucking Jew.”

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The caller allegedly used a cell phone with a Pennsylvania number (Green is from Pittsburgh, perhaps coincidentally or perhaps not).

The feds say they caught up with Boltz in Arizona and questioned him about the calls and that he acknowledged making them.

“Boltz said he ‘just wanted to shake him (Governor Green) up’ and was ‘being weird,'” according to the complaint. “Boltz said he understood how the voicemails would be perceived by Governor Green and his family. Boltz described his actions as ‘dumb’ and said he ‘went a level higher than I should have.'”

Unfortunately, the 11-page complaint gives no clue as to what exactly Boltz was allegedly upset about or why he wanted to shake Green up. Hopefully, we will hear more about that when Boltz is returned to Hawaiʻi to answer to charges of sending interstate communications containing threats and cyberstalking, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Boltz was arrested and made an initial court appearance in Montana on Wednesday but is expected to be brought here where he faces up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 if convicted.

One note to the U.S. Attorney’s Office though: Get a proofreader. The complaint which was sent around to local media presumably after it was unsealed and filed in court is full of typos, including misspelling Boltz, which is noticeable considering they put it in capital letters — BOTLZ — throughout the complaint.

They even get special agent Randall Baker’s name wrong:

The Blog is shocked at the sloppiness but perhaps not surprised. This is, after all, the U.S. Attorney’s Office that failed to properly redact key elements of the sentencing recommendation memo in the bribery case of former state Rep. Ty Cullen in which he got a lighter sentence because he helped the feds record $35,000 being given to a still-unidentified “influential state legislator.” The U.S. attorney handling the case thought pertinent sections had been blacked out but they were easily viewed once the document was copied into a Word file. (It’s a trick they teach you in journalism school.)

Birds of a feather: There’s a big reason that incumbents easily win reelection most of the time — they have more money to pay for all those mailers and campaign signs and bottled water for sign-wavers, not to mention advertising for those who can afford it.

With Hawaiʻi’s primary just two months away, dozens of sitting lawmakers are passing the hat, often at the same time and place to pool their resources and save on rental costs. That’s another advantage for incumbents over challengers.

Such was the case recently for Democratic Reps. Darius Kila, Kirstin Kahaloa, Tyson Miyake, Daisy Hartsfield, Mahina Poepoe, Jenna Takenouchi, Andrew Garrett, Luke Evslin and Cory Chun, who posted notices for fundraisers at BSIDE Lounge + Venue in Ward Centre in May. Also scheduled to raise money at the same time was Micah Aiu, who hopes to wrest his seat back from Republican Garner Shimizu this year.

Another hui of House Dems was identified by the Campaign Spending Commission as raising money the day before at the Old Spaghetti Factory downtown: David Tarnas, Lisa Kitagawa, Adrian Tam, Shirley Ann Templo, Dee Morikawa, Scot Matayoshi, Mike Lee and Lisa Marten.

And yet another hui of the same were reported to be at the Old Spaghetti Factory May 27: Gregg Takayama, Kyle Yamashita, Sam Kong, Greggor Ilagan, Linda Ichiyama and Mark Hashem. Another House member, Jackson Sayama, posted a fundraiser notice for the same date, location and time, but he’s jumping ship to run for state Senate.

No wonder the Lege never passes legislation to create a comprehensive public financing system for Hawaiʻi elections! Who would pay for all those meatballs? And here The Blog does mean the food, which the Old Spaghetti Factory does well.

Democrats seeking the top two elective offices in the state, meantime, also held fundraisers recently: Gov. Josh Green at a home near Roundtop Drive in Honolulu May 15, at Legend’s Seafood Restaurant May 21 and at The Pacific Club June 3. Kauaʻi Mayor Derek Kawakami, who wants to be Green’s No. 2, was scheduled to raise money at Umi Sushi in Wailuku June 3 and to raise even more kālā at developer Stanford Carr’s residence June 10. Kawakami also held two other fundraisers earlier in May.

One of Kawakami’s opponents, Rep. Della Au Belatti, marked June 10 for her fundraiser at Inspiration Hawai’i Museum. Honolulu City Councilman Tyler Dos-Santos Tam was booked that same day at Fete Honolulu. And Rep. Trish La Chica was raising money June 9 at Paradise Ciders.

And, just as The Blog was finishing this post on Wednesday, three more reps indicated that they planned to fundraise together that same evening at the Velma McWayne Santos Community Center in Wailuku: Maui Dems Kyle Yamashita, Troy Hashimoto and Tyson Miyake.

Pass the plate: Gary Cordery, a Republican candidate for governor, has held no less than 18 campaign fundraisers over the past year — an impressive tally, given the GOP’s minority status in the islands. Two of those events (including one just last month) were held at a church (the Light of the World Ministries on Oʻahu) prompting the question, “Can you do that?” You know, separation of church and state and all that.

The answer, from the Hawaiʻi Campaign Spending Commission, is that there are no state campaign finance laws or administrative rules prohibiting the holding of a campaign fundraiser at a religious facility. Cordery told The Blog that his campaign paid to rent the ministry and is not being endorsed by it.

Cordery also said he is aware of the Johnson Amendment, a federal ban on political campaign activity by charities and churches created by Congress more than a half century ago. Named for then Sen. Lyndon Johnson, the law, says the IRS, prohibits political campaign activity by charities and churches by defining a 501(c)(3) organization as one “which does not participate in, or intervene in (including the publishing or distributing of statements), any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for public office.”

The Johnson Amendment was in the news earlier this year, when a federal district court struck down a proposed settlement in National Religious Broadcasters v. Bessent. The IRS, Reuters reported, pushed for a consent agreement between religious organizations “that would have gutted” the Johnson Amendment. The IRS and Trump Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent subsequently announced plans in April “to develop and issue additional guidance” on the application of the Johnson Amendment to religious organizations.

I swear: The Blog was asked recently why Derek Kawakami, mayor of Kauaʻi, is allowed to run for lieutenant governor, as Hawaiʻi’s resign to run law suggest that that’s illegal. The law was crafted at Hawaiʻi’s Constitutional Convention of 1978 and ratified by state voters that November.

Accordingly, Article II, Section 7 of the Hawaiʻi Constitution states, “Any elected public officer shall resign from that office before being eligible as a candidate for another public office, if the term of the office sought begins before the end of the term of the office held.”

But the Office of Kauaʻi County Clerk tells The Blog via email that, because the terms for both offices end at roughly the same time, “the Mayor does not need to resign to run for Lt. Governor.” The office cited the constitution and the Kauaʻi Charter Commission to back that up.

The next Kauaʻi mayor will be sworn in at noon on the first “working day” in December, which this year is Dec. 1. The next LG and governor will be sworn in at noon on the first Monday in December, which is Dec. 7 this year.