News Releases
La Costa Surveys Show Her Leading Named Candidates as Undecided Voters Dominate Maui Mayor’s Race
Two campaign surveys show La Costa first among named candidates, with undecided respondents the largest group; campaign discloses its own limitations and urges one transparency standard for all polling.
WAILUKU, Hawai‘i — P. Denise La Costa today challenged Maui County to examine how two recent mayoral polls were constructed before treating them as a settled picture of the race. Her campaign also released two of its own online poll results, disclosed their limitations, and called for the same transparency standard to be applied to every survey.
Ten candidates filed for Maui mayor. But the two surveys showing Council Vice-Chair Yuki Sugimura ahead tested only two names: Sugimura and incumbent Mayor Richard Bissen. For A Better Tomorrow — a super PAC that spent heavily on the 2024 Maui County races in favor of candidates including Sugimura — posted one survey. Maui Nui Empowered distributed the other. In response to campaign inquiries, neither polling firm identified who commissioned its survey.
A two-name poll is not a full-field test of a 10-candidate primary. It narrows the choice before voters have made it. I am not asking anyone to trust my numbers over theirs. I am asking for one standard for every survey, including mine. — P. Denise La Costa
The Ballot Question, Released in Full
The campaign conducted two online questionnaires over a 10-day period in April 2026, using different candidate lists and question orders. It reports them separately rather than as one pooled poll, and stresses that neither is a scientific probability survey.
“If the primary were held today, which candidate would you vote for?”
Bars are scaled to each survey’s largest response (undecided). The two surveys used different candidate lists and sample sizes and are not pooled — shown together to show the ordering held in both: undecided first, then La Costa, Bissen, and Sugimura.
The descriptive ordering was the same in both: undecided respondents formed the largest group, followed by La Costa, Bissen, and Sugimura.
These don’t prove who’s winning, and I won’t pretend they do. They show that among respondents who chose to take our surveys, I drew the most support of any named candidate in both — and the biggest group in both was still undecided. This race is wide open. — P. Denise La Costa
What Else the Surveys Found
Net favorability among candidates tested (Survey 1)
La Costa was the only candidate rated favorably on balance (32 favorable to 10 unfavorable). A majority of respondents disapproved of the mayor’s job performance, the County Council’s performance, and Sugimura’s record on the Council.
“Who do you trust most to lead Lahaina’s recovery?”
“Which issues matter most to you?” (top selections)
Accountability led the closed-ended issue question, followed by cost of living and water and infrastructure. Housing was among the most frequently raised concerns in respondents’ open-ended answers.
Two Questions Were Message Tests, Not Neutral Polling
After hearing Sugimura’s housing votes & GET surcharge record
After hearing La Costa’s “Cost Cutta” message
One Standard for Every Poll
The campaign called on every campaign, PAC, advocacy group, and polling organization releasing Maui mayoral numbers to disclose who paid for the survey, the field dates, the full questionnaire and question order, every candidate named, the sample source and recruitment method, any weighting, and complete toplines including undecided responses.
None of these is a full-field benchmark — not theirs, not mine. A truly independent poll that names every candidate, discloses its funder, and screens for the people who actually vote in August hasn’t been published yet. Until it is, no one should be calling this a two-person race. — P. Denise La Costa
La Costa’s Full Agenda
The Cost Cutter Plan
Easing the cost county government places on residents — with no new taxes — through a county fuel-tax holiday, rollbacks of selected county-controlled fees, raising the homeowner exemption from $300,000 to $400,000, and returning excess revenue where legally and financially possible. The campaign estimates roughly $1,200 a year in relief for a homeowning family of four.
Homes Together
Down-payment grants of up to $80,000 for first-time and working-family buyers — Lahaina fire survivors first — paired with rental subsidies for working renter households, reaching approximately 2,400 households a year. “You don’t build houses by taking somebody else’s house away.”
Honest Government
With accountability the top-ranked concern in the survey: an independent forensic audit by an outside firm with no county financial ties, a public dashboard of county-controlled taxes and rates, and measurable performance standards for department directors.
The most important finding isn’t that 18 people picked me. It’s that these respondents are angry about accountability, worried about affordability, and still looking for leadership. I intend to earn their trust with a written plan and a government Maui residents can actually measure. Voters decide on August 8. — P. Denise La Costa
P. Denise La Costa is a 36-year Maui resident, former chair of the Maui County Planning Commission, and a small-business owner. She is a candidate for Mayor of Maui County in the August 8, 2026 primary.
This race is wide open — tell us where you stand.
Share the issue that matters most to you and get La Costa’s plan for it.
Take the 30-Second Survey →PO Box 12424, Lahaina, HI 96761
electme@mayorlacosta2026.com · MayorLaCosta2026.com