Harris campaign takes another hit
By Johnny Brannon
Advertiser Staff Writer
Jeremy Harris, already at odds with the state Campaign Spending Commission, may face a new obstacle over how much money his most reliable donors can contribute to his gubernatorial campaign.
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State law allows each person or business to contribute up to $6,000 to a candidate for the office, but a legal interpretation by the Campaign Spending Commission allows many donors to give Harris no more than $2,000.
Mayor Jeremy Harris says the Campaign Spending Commission is targeting his campaign.
That's because the election period for the governor's race began in November 1998, and any subsequent donations to Harris count toward the $6,000 limit, even if they were made — and spent — when he was running for reelection as mayor of Honolulu in 2000.
Shortly after he won that election, Harris announced he would run for governor, which will require him to step down halfway into his new term. The contribution limit for the mayor's race was $4,000 per donor, so anyone who gave Harris that amount after November 1998 can give only $2,000 to his gubernatorial campaign, according to a 1997 advisory opinion by the commission.
"The law is the law, and it simply says that if you're running for governor in 2002, you can get no more than $6,000 from one person," commission executive director Robert Watada said.
No comment from Harris
The Harris campaign declined to comment on the issue or to say how much money it had raised so far. According to the most recent campaign disclosure statements, which were filed last July, Harris reported that he had $130,495 available for the governor's race. His Republican opponent, Linda Lingle, reported that her campaign had raised $454,673.
A Honolulu law firm whose principals have been supportive of Harris — Kobayashi, Sugita and Goda — contends that the commission's view of the contribution limit is legally wrong and that it has crippled Harris' fund-raising efforts. The firm has threatened to sue the commission unless it reconsiders its position.
"Everyone is aware that this next election will be substantially impacted by the ability to raise funds, and the (commission's) opinion ... discriminates only against Mayor Harris," attorney Bert Kobayashi wrote in a letter to Watada.
"We have also been told you and the commission communicated this opinion to potential Harris contributors with the apparent purpose of stopping potential contributors to the mayor's race for governor from contributing to his gubernatorial campaign," the letter continued. "There is no question that your actions have had a chilling impact upon these potential contributors and that your actions are unconstitutional."
The letter calls for the commission to publicly state that its view of the contribution limits is subject to interpretation by the courts. The letter said the firm will file a lawsuit in federal court "if nothing mutually acceptable can be resolved."
Kobayashi could not be reached for comment. Watada said he views the letter, and a later one by another partner at the firm, as part of a continuing attempt by the Harris campaign to intimidate the commission, which is in the midst of an investigation into the sources of contributions to Harris and others.
"It's part of the stream of things they're trying to do to take up our time and discredit us," Watada said. "It's just harassment. They know we don't have too many people over here, so they just want to tie us up with these things."
The commission has issued seven fines against Harris supporters since November for making contributions that exceeded the $4,000 limit for the mayor's race.
The campaign says Kobayashi's law firm is acting independently and does not represent Harris or his campaign.
Commission records show that Kobayashi and other partners in the firm contributed nearly $9,000 to Harris' 2000 campaign. And city contracting records show that the Harris administration awarded the firm 13 city contracts, worth a total of $545,000, since mid-1999.
Harris also appointed a partner in the firm, Lex Smith, to the city's Ethics Commission about three months ago.
Smith said he wants to give more money to Harris than the Campaign Spending Commission's opinion would allow, and that he wants to explain to the panel's five voting members why the opinion is faulty. He said he would not discuss his position publicly until then.
But in a letter to the commission, Smith argued that donations to Harris' 2000 mayoral campaign should not be counted toward the limit in the governor's race because Harris had not been running for a statewide office in 2000. Harris raised $2.8 million for the mayor's race and spent $2.5 million, according to reports filed with the commission.
Municipal vs. statewide
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State law bars contributions to a candidate for "a four-year state-wide office ... in an aggregate amount greater than $6,000 during an election period." The commission's opinion states that all contributions during the election period count toward that limit, but it does not specifically address whether contributions to candidates for municipal office should be counted toward later statewide races.
Robert Watada could face a federal lawsuit.
Micah Kane, executive director of the Hawai'i Republican Party, said he found it impossible to believe the Kobayashi law firm is not working at Harris' behest.
"That's totally false," he said. "This guy's nose is going to start growing like Pinocchio."
Kane said the limits on Harris contributors could clearly hurt his campaign if they are upheld, because they mainly impact Harris' core of regular supporters on O'ahu.
"He has a very small group of wealthy contributors, basically those people who do business with the city," Kane said. "His system is to recycle money through the city contracting process. If his support was more grass-roots, he wouldn't have that problem."
Some companies with city contracts, their employees and family members donated several hundred thousand dollars to Harris' two mayoral campaigns, records show.
Harris and his campaign have emphatically denied any link between campaign contributions and the awarding of city contracts, and say the contracting system's structure precludes favoritism and patronage.
Watada has said he has identified more than 60 companies or individuals that appear to have given illegal donations to Harris' mayoral campaign, and that some business executives told him they felt pressured by the campaign to contribute.
Harris has accused Watada of waging a political vendetta against him, and the campaign last month filed an ethics complaint against Watada for publicly airing details of his investigation and his suspicions.
Reach Johnny Brannon at jbrannon@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8070.
