Posted on: Saturday, May 10, 2003
Campaign contribution fines reach $365,850
By Bruce Dunford
Associated Press
Since November 2001, the state Campaign Spending Commission has fined 63 companies a total of $365,850 for making over-the-limit campaign contributions, primarily to Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris.
The latest fines came Thursday as the commission voted to approve conciliation agreements with four companies, including a $32,000 administrative fine against the engineering firm of Shimabukuro, Endo & Yoshizaki Inc., accused of making excessive and false-name contributions to Harris, former Gov. Ben Cayetano and former Maui Mayor James "Kimo" Apana during the 1998 and 2000 election periods.
Also approved were agreements that fined Group 70 Ltd., a local architecture firm, $2,000; Hida, Okamoto & Associates Inc., a consulting engineering firm, $1,000; and local insurance broker Alan Nishimoto, $500.
Robert Watada, executive director of the Campaign Spending Commission, said the agency's staff is working with at least 20 other companies on conciliation agreements for illegal practices that allowed them to exceed statutory limits for individual contributions to candidates.
State law sets a limit of $4,000 in donations to mayoral candidates and $6,000 to gubernatorial candidates during a four-year election cycle. Contributors also are barred from making donations in others' names.
City Prosecutor Peter Carlisle in January 2002 launched a separate criminal investigation into suspected ties between the award of city contracts and contributions to Harris' 2000 mayoral campaign.
In May of that year, Harris announced he was backing out of the governor's race, blaming it on a poor showing in the polls and denying it had to do with the investigation.
An O'ahu grand jury began hearing testimony in the Harris probe last September and in December. Michael Matsumoto, chief executive of SSFM International Inc., was charged with money laundering and violating campaign spending laws, resulting in a no contest plea.
The commission has postponed a scheduled vote to approve a $53,000 penalty against the engineering firm of Edward K. Noda and Associates in the laundering of $90,000 in campaign contributions to Harris, Cayetano and former Lt. Gov. Mazie Hirono.
Watada said that case was delayed after staffers discovered additional illegal contributions.
The $365,850 collected thus far goes into the Hawaii Elections Campaign Trust Fund, which provides matching public funds to candidates who agree to abide by a schedule of spending limits in their campaign.
Watada, however, said some of that money has been used to support the commission's investigations into illegal bundling and excessive contributions.
Since the investigations of campaign contributions began two years ago, state lawmakers have considered measures to bar government contractors and labor unions from making contributions.
A measure passed last year was vetoed by then-Gov. Ben Cayetano, who complained the lawmakers had exempted their campaigns from the prohibition.
This year, the House rejected a compromise campaign reform bill.
However, Gov. Linda Lingle insists that major changes approved by lawmakers this year to allow greater public scrutiny in the contracting process negated the need for a campaign spending reform bill.
