Three Democratic candidates running for the congressional seat being vacated by Congresswoman Colleen Hana­busa indicated to a national health care lobbyist in private meetings and other surveys that they oppose a single- payer health care system, despite campaigning in favor of it, according to documents and a story published this week by the online news site The Intercept.

The Healthcare Leadership Council, a coalition of executives from major health care organizations, such as insurance companies, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies and medical device manufacturers, reportedly reached out to Honolulu City Council Chairman Ernie Martin, Lt. Gov. Doug Chin and state Sen. Donna Mercado Kim at the beginning of the year to request a meeting. The organization has been in part monitoring support for a single- payer system and has run a national campaign to stymie the momentum behind progressive health care policies.

Part of that effort involves meeting with members of Congress and congressional candidates and apparently maintaining dossiers that detail their political views. The council’s regional advocacy program has conducted more than 3,900 meetings and events with members of Congress, congressional candidates and staff, according to its website.

The dossiers, published online by The Intercept, include notes on the candidates’ overall health care philosophy as well as their positions on a laundry list of issues that are often obscured by industry rhetoric. All three candidates are listed as opposing a single-payer health care system — something they deny ever telling the lobbyist in interviews with the Honolulu Star-Advertiser after the story ran.

Martin has made his support of a single-payer health care system a central part of his campaign. “Ernie’s the only candidate who is baldly progressive — pro-choice, pro-Medicare for All — he will make this guy flip his wig,” one of his campaign ads says over a shot of President Donald Trump’s blond, combed-over hair flapping in the wind.

During a Hawaii News Now debate last month, Martin called a single-payer system a “no-brainer.” And in candidate surveys conducted by the Star-Advertiser earlier this week, Martin, like the other Democratic candidates, said he supported a single-payer system.

Martin says he recalls meeting with someone from the Healthcare Leadership Council in January or February but not the person’s name.

“The lobbyist pretty much articulated the interests of the group that he was representing, and that was the end of the discussion,” said Martin. “In terms of committing to any position, I don’t think I committed to any position either way at that particular time. … I can remember him telling me that he was going to also meet with Donna (Kim) and Doug (Chin).”

Martin said that he does support a single-payer health care system, contrary to the lobbyist documents.

The Healthcare Leadership Council’s profile on Kim also says that she opposes a single-payer system. “She is very pro-market, opposes any attempt at single payer, does not support price controls on pharmaceuticals and agrees that Medicaid and Medicare need to be managed by the private market,” according to the profile.

Kim said she had never heard of the health care council and hadn’t met with it.

“I don’t know who these people are; I never spoke to anybody. I have no clue,” Kim told the Star-Advertiser. “It’s not like me even to talk to these people or to say the kind of things they said that I said. It’s crazy. Who are they?”

Kim says she supports a single-payer system, but has equivocated on the issue in the past. During the Hawaii News Now debate, she said that it was a “good concept” but that she would need more information and wanted to make sure people could still choose their doctors.

The profile for Chin states that he “supports the market concept advocated by HLC and does not think a single payer/Medicare-for-All approach would work in Hawaii.”

Chin said that he remembers meeting with the lobbyist but that he was “dumbfounded that the notes would say something like that, and that’s not what I recall from the conversation at all.” He also questioned the authenticity of the documents, which he said he had never seen until The Intercept published them.

“On my website, in my interviews and forums, I’ve been crystal clear that, one, I support single payer, and I also support steps like empowering the federal government to be able to negotiate lower drug prices,” Chin said.

The candidate profiles state that information was pulled from the Healthcare Leadership Council’s regional director, who is listed as Paul Pearson, as well as other sources, such as the National Journal, The Cook Political Report, the Federal Election Committee and the candidate’s website.

Pearson did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Other Democratic candidates in the race include state Reps. Beth Fukumoto and Kaniela Ing, who have been outspoken in their support for a single-payer system, and former Congress­man Ed Case.