WAILUKU >> Maui County Mayor James "Kimo" Apana said he had no knowledge that some donors to his election had violated state law governing campaign contributions. Apana returns
$14,400 to contributorsBy Gary T. Kubota
gkubota@starbulletin.com
"A candidate has no way of knowing when a donor has engaged in a practice contrary to the spirit and intent of the rules governing campaign fund raising," Apana said. "A candidate has no way of knowing who is related to whom, or who works for which company."
Apana, who is running for re-election for mayor, made the statement after his campaign committee returned $14,400 to donors Tuesday after the state Campaign Spending Commission found that some donors made excessive contributions.
Apana's campaign committee said the excessive donations involved three firms, including Sato & Associates Inc., which provided $5,400 during the past four years in combined company and individual contributions.
The other companies were Geolabs Inc. and its officers with $15,000 in excessive donations and Thermal Engineering Corp. with $2,000 in excessive donations.
Under state law an individual or organization may not contribute more than $4,000 in an "election period," the four years between elections for office.
The Honolulu-based corporations made the contributions during the period from 1998 to June 30, 2001.
Apana praised the efforts of Campaign Spending Commission Executive Director Robert Watada and said he would "cooperate in whatever reforms might be deemed appropriate."
Watada said there is a probe into more recent contributions to Apana and other candidates.
He said the commission has received a list of campaign contributions to candidates up to Sept. 6, 2002, as required by law and has been putting the information into a computer for analysis.
Watada said the names of the three companies also appear on the list of contributors during the period of June 30, 2001, to Sept. 6, 2002.
Campaign treasurer Gary Yoshimura said the Apana committee advised the commission of the excessive donation by Sato & Associates after the company notified the committee.
Watada said the examination of records has focused on contributors and not candidates.
He said a number of candidates' campaign committees have been asked to return excessive contributions, including Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris, Lt. Gov. Mazie Hirono, Mufi Hannemann, Gov. Ben Cayetano and Republican gubernatorial candidate Linda Lingle.
Watada said in the case of Lingle, the amount was relatively small, $200.
He said information about contributors to Harris' campaign have been turned over to the Honolulu prosecutor's office.
Geolabs declined comment, and officials with Sato & Associates and Thermal Engineering were unavailable for comment.
Campaign Spending Commission
