Some of the nonfilers are active in Hawai'i politics, but all of those contacted by The Advertiser said they were unaware of the requirement to file "noncandidate committee" reports.

"It looks like that must have slipped through the cracks," said prominent Honolulu attorney William McCorriston. His firm contributed $17,000 to the Republican and Democratic parties and to a political action committee called Citizens for Responsive Government but failed to file the required disclosures.

McCorriston said in an interview that his firm would immediately submit the required noncandidate committee reports.

"Better late than never," he said.

McCorriston represented the campaign of former Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris, who was among the candidates who received hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal donations and whose contributions have been the subject of a three-year investigation by the Campaign Spending Commission and the city prosecutor.

At one point, McCorriston had called the commission's investigation of campaign finance irregularities a "McCarthy-era" witch-hunt.

Robert Watada, commission executive director, said his office would contact all of the firms on the nonfilers list compiled by The Advertiser and advise them to turn in the necessary reports.

"It's a $50 fine for each failure to file," he said. "That could mean between $50 and $200 in fines for each company on the list that didn't register with us and didn't file updated reports," Watada said.

The law firm of Andrew Winer, another prominent attorney who is active in Democratic Party politics, gave $3,500 in party and PAC donations but also failed to file with Watada's office.

"Thanks for pointing this out," Winer said when contacted by The Advertiser. "I didn't know about this, and I think you're going to find hundreds of others that didn't know, either."

University of Hawai'i regent Catherine "Kitty" Lagareta, a high-profile player in Republican Party politics, gave $12,500 to the party through her company, Communications Pacific, but didn't file a noncandidate committee report, according to state records.

Lagareta said she didn't know about the reporting requirement and said she believed the total amount given by her company was several thousand dollars less than what the Republican Party reported. She said she would check on the discrepancy and on the reporting requirements.

Former state Attorney General Margery Bronster's law firm also failed to file a noncandidate report, although it gave $2,500 last year to the Democratic Party.

"It's the kind of thing we don't want to have happen," Bronster said. "We'll see what we can do to fix it."

Prominent residential real-estate developer Stanford Carr gave corporate donations of more than $30,000 to the two parties and to Build Pac, a political action committee organized by the Building Industry Association of Hawaii, but didn't register as a noncandidate committee, according to state records.

"I didn't know about that law," Carr said.

Watada pointed out that Carr was fined $600 in 2003 for making excess political donations and for failing to file a noncandidate committee organizational report.

Asked about this, Carr insisted neither he nor his in-house attorney was aware of the law requiring filing of noncandidate committee reports.

"We didn't know about the law," he said. "We're going to comply."

Brennon Morioka, executive director of the Hawai'i Republican Party during the past election, said the party normally tells donors who exceed the $1,000 threshold about the extra filing requirement.

"I believe we may not have done that this election with everybody, but it is our policy to notify our donors," Morioka said.

Brickwood Galuteria, chairman of the Hawai'i Democratic Party, said he was unaware of the noncandidate committee filing law.

"It's hard to keep track of all these things when the laws are changing all the time," he said. "As a party, we may have to be more diligent in informing our donors of the law."