Commission to investigate
anti-same-sex lobby groups

A gay activist has accused
two pro-traditional marriage groups
of campaign abuse

By Richard Borreca
Star-Bulletin

The state Campaign Spending Commission will investigate charges by gay activist Bill Woods alleging campaign abuse by two pro-traditional marriage groups.

The complaint is the first major action for the new commission, charged with enforcing and administering state campaign laws.

This is the first commission whose members were chosen independently and not by the major political parties.

Woods claimed at yesterday's commission meeting that a major criminal investigation is needed. The alleged violations happened when Hawaii's Future Today and Save Traditional Marriage sponsored a speech by motivational speaker Stephen Covey.

The five-member commission, according to its rules, didn't find probable cause that a violation happened, but only that if Woods' allegations are all true, that there could be cause for a violation.

Opponents yesterday, however, complained that Woods was using the commission to make a political statement.

"The complaint is an attempt to politicize the campaign spending reporting process to advance his own agenda," said Debi Hartmann, representing Hawaii's Future Today.

"The commission should not tolerate such flagrant misuse and abuse of its own disclosure laws," she said.

Diane Ho Kurtz, representing Save Traditional Marriage, called Woods' charges "totally bogus" and said the commission was giving Woods "a pulpit to make a politically charged mountain out of a molehill."

Woods, who represented himself, while the traditional marriage groups were represented by attorneys from two of Honolulu's major law firms and the public relations and lobbying firm of Rosehill and Associates.

Brian Nakamura, Campaign Spending Commission general counsel, compared the match-up to "sending a kitten into a small cage with four big dogs" but recommended that the commission continue its investigation.

A month ago the commission found that the same two groups had failed to follow campaign spending rules by soliciting a donation from a foreign national.

Violations can be punished by an administrative fine levied by the commission, or by referring the matter to the state attorney general of the city prosecutor for criminal misdemeanor charges.