Senator fined $21,250

Kawamoto agrees to the penalty
relating to campaign funds

The state Campaign Spending Commission approved a $21,250 fine against state Sen. Cal Kawamoto yesterday to settle an investigation into his political campaign.

The commission also agreed to give Sen. Melodie Aduja additional time to submit records to justify more than $30,000 in cash withdrawals her ex-husband made from her campaign account last year.

Kawamoto (D, Waipahu) agreed to the fine after commission investigators alleged he failed to report nearly $29,000 in political donations made to his campaign between 1995 and 2003 and spent more than $4,100 in campaign money for personal use. Investigators questioned more than 114 campaign expenditures totaling $26,400 that went for the use and maintenance of his personal car.

Commission Executive Director Bob Watada said the investigators found a pattern of sloppy bookkeeping but did not find intentional violation to warrant a criminal case.

Kawamoto agreed to pay $14,800 of the fine from his own pocket, while his campaign committee will pay the remaining $6,450. Kawamoto also repaid his campaign $30,000 for questionable expenditures.

The commission filed a formal complaint against Aduja (D, Kahuku-Kaneohe) last week alleging she failed to turn over records for its investigation. Aduja has submitted most of the records in question and was hoping to have the rest by yesterday's commission meeting, her attorney, William Harrison, said.

"We've already begun negotiating a conciliation agreement," Harrison said. "Initially, it was about $27,000 that they were questioning. I think that we're down to anywhere between $1,500 to $1,000" in records to be turned over.

Harrison said Aduja's ex-husband, Lee Williams, has provided a good portion of the records that the commission had requested. He said Aduja is waiting for more records from Williams as well as from some mainland vendors.

At the time of the withdrawals, Williams was still married to Aduja and was deputy chairman of her campaign committee. Police arrested him in April in a Chinatown drug raid.