Posted on: Thursday, September 2, 2004

GOP alleges illegal activities

Advertiser Staff

The Hawai'i Republican Party yesterday filed a Federal Election Commission complaint against Hawai'i Democrats, alleging they violated federal election laws.

The complaint, filed by Hawai'i Republican Party treasurer Doug Fairhurst, said Democrats violated the law by filing quarterly finance reports instead of monthly reports, improperly itemizing disbursements and subsidizing federal election activity such as fund-raisers using its non-federal account.

Fairhurst said Democrats held a presidential preference poll, a fund-raiser, and a fund-raising dinner honoring U.S. Sens. Dan Inouye and Daniel Akaka but did not include the activities in FEC reports.

Donalyn Dela Cruz, spokeswoman for the Democratic Party, said the accusations are "completely not true" and that the FEC never notified the party that it should file monthly reports. She said the presidential preference poll was paid for by the six presidential candidates who were running. Dela Cruz also said the fund-raiser honoring Inouye and Akaka raised money for the state party, which will be reported to the state Campaign Spending Commission.