Posted on: Monday, July 19, 2004

GOP to end some political groups

By Gordon Y.K. Pang
Advertiser Capitol Bureau

The Hawai'i Republican Party raised eyebrows last year when it set up more than 20 independent political action committees to help GOP candidates get elected to the House of Representatives.

But party chairman Brennon Morioka said most of those committees will be terminated, including five that have raised questions from Democrats and the Campaign Spending Commission.

The party encouraged members last year to create House district committees to focus their efforts at the grassroots level, Morioka said. "The money that they raised is to run their own district activities, hold their meetings, hold events, help develop their own district issues, go out and recruit candidates," he said.

But Bob Watada, executive director for the commission, told Morioka last week that the district committees are not required to be set up independently of the state organization. Watada also suggested that five of the committees, which list candidates among their officers, be merged with their respective candidate committees to avoid potential problems.

The party will still retain House district subcommittees and encourage them to continue the same activities, Morioka said. Their finances, he said, simply won't be reported separately from those of the party.

Morioka said the independent committees were not set up by the party as a means to circumvent campaign spending limits by giving donors new outlets to contribute money.

"Everybody thinks these were our way of getting away from campaign spending laws and getting more money but that's not even close to what our district organizations and district PACs are for," he said.

He pointed out that a legal opinion issued by Watada's office in 1999 clearly states that any contributions received or expenditures made by the district committees count toward the aggregate limits of the party.

The Hawai'i Republican Party, like the state's other registered political parties, can receive up to $25,000 from a single source. It can contribute a maximum $2,000 per election cycle to a House candidate and $4,000 per election to a Senate candidate.

So any contributions received or expenditures made by the district committees would count toward those totals, Morioka said.

Watada said he expects the money from most of the committees, which all have several hundred to several thousand dollars, will be merged with the state party's finances.

That may not apply, however, with as many as five of the committees that have raised some concerns with Watada because they included among their officers people who are now candidates in each of those respective districts.

GOP House candidates Meiling Akuna, Kaipo Duncan, Tracy Okubo and Carol Phillips, as well as Republican Senate candidate Elaine Slavinsky were listed as officers of district committees where they are running.

Watada said he would like the money raised by those district committees to merge into the respective treasuries of the candidates.

A non-candidate committee's officers or others with decision-making over it must be separate from the candidate or a candidate's committee.

Otherwise, Watada said, they would be considered one campaign with the same purpose and therefore would need to abide by the spending and contribution limits of a single campaign.

State Rep. Scott Saiki, D-22nd (McCully, Pawa'a), said he's bothered by the dual role of the candidates and believes Watada is making the right call in dissolving those committees.

Saiki said he believes campaign spending laws are being violated simply because the candidates' names appear on their own and the district committees.

"If there's coordination, there's a violation," he said.

Watada said another concern he has is that a donor who may have contributed the $2,000 limit to a House candidate may also have given separately to the district committee, or that the donor gave a combined total exceeding $2,000.

Those situations would constitute violations of campaign spending laws, he said. Any excesses would either have to be returned to the donor within 30 days or handed over to the commission.

Morioka said that with the next candidate committee reports not due until July 30 and non-candidate reports not due until Sept. 8, he is not aware of any violations, although the party is going through its records.

Morioka said none of the five candidates is still with any district committee, nor had anyone intended to be a candidate and a member of a district committees at the same time.

"That was more of a bookkeeping and clerical error on our part," Morioka said. "Once our candidates became candidates, the districts were supposed to submit papers to change their organizational structures with the Campaign Spending Commission."

He said he has contacted those involved "to make sure the paperwork is completed immediately."

Watada said he did not believe the candidates willfully violated any campaign spending laws and is inclined to give them until July 30 to clear up their "potential problems" before deciding whether to take action.

Reach Gordon Y.K. Pang at gpang@honoluluadvertiser.com or at 525-8070.