GOP ethics complaint Hawaii Republicans and their chairman, Micah Kane, filed a formal complaint yesterday with the state Ethics Commission, charging Gov. Ben Cayetano with the "gross misuse of government employees, resources and time ... for blatant political campaigning."
takes governor
to task
Hawaii Republicans contend
that Cayetano used state
resources for political purposesBy Richard Borreca
rborreca@starbulletin.comKane said last week he would file the complaint after Cayetano had directed Cabinet officers, including state Tax Director Marie Okamura, to prepare a critique of Linda Lingle's campaign platform, "A New Beginning."
In an analysis released last week, Cayetano said Lingle's plan to cut taxes would jeopardize $400 million in state funds, with no defined source of money to make up the deficit.
Kane complained in his Ethics Commission filing that Cayetano had not analyzed any other candidate's literature and that after the governor drafted a critique, he e-mailed it to the three major Democrats running for governor, Rep. Ed Case (D, Manoa), Lt. Gov. Mazie Hirono and D.G. "Andy" Anderson.
Noting that in the past the Ethics Commission has been sensitive to the "smallest use" of state time or resources for campaigning, Kane said, Cayetano's effort "is many, many times worse than most if not all previous violations.
"It is the worst not just because of the magnitude of the effort, but because the effort was directed and carried out by our highest state officials, with the imprimatur of the entire state government behind him," Kane said.
He is asking that both Cayetano's and Okamura's e-mail communications be subpoenaed by the Ethics Commission "in order to reveal the precise directive and orders of the governor."
According to Cayetano's calculations released yesterday, the state expenses for the research done were salary costs of $140.91 for the state budget office and $259.79 for the tax office.
Cayetano also said he welcomed an Ethics Commission complaint by the GOP, noting that he wanted to have an expedited open hearing and to call Lingle as a witness.
On Friday, Cayetano produced a 4-year-old news release issued by Lingle when she was mayor of Maui that took a sharp political tone in responding to a release from the governor's re-election campaign. Cayetano, who narrowly defeated Lingle to win re-election in 1998, called the protest by the GOP and Lingle's sharp rebuke to be hypocritical in light of her news release.
Dan Mollway, Ethics Commission executive director, said the commission usually takes several months to render a decision or move a complaint to a formal hearing, but the process could be quickened if the involved parties agreed to moving it along.
Hawaii State Ethics Commission