Panel to reissue subpoenas

Advertiser Staff

The state Campaign Spending Commission will modify and reissue seven quashed subpoenas for financial records of contributors to Mayor Jeremy Harris' 2000 re-election campaign, commission executive director Robert Watada said.

Circuit Judge Dan Kochi ruled Thursday that the subpoenas, which sought banking records and other documents from people associated with the Honolulu engineering firm of Ernest K. Hirata and Associates, were overly broad.

The commission is investigating whether contributions to Harris from employees of the firm and their relatives were used to illegally circumvent limits that allow a business to contribute no more than $4,000 to a mayoral candidate.

Watada said the new subpoenas, to be issued early next week, will explain in more detail why the commission needs to review the requested documents. He said the judge's decision to rule in favor of a motion by those named in the subpoenas was not a significant setback.

"It just kind of slows us down a couple of days," Watada said. "There's a solid basis for why we want the information."

The commission has fined nine companies and individual donors since November for making excess contributions to Harris and other Hawai'i politicians.

In January, the commission requested a criminal investigation of allegations that the Harris campaign intentionally attributed donations to people who never made them. Harris and his campaign deny wrongdoing and say they are confident they will be exonerated.