Harris campaign says Once flush with cash, Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris' campaign now says it is unable to pay back $59,000 in alleged illegal political contributions.
it’s nearly broke
The organization now claims
it cannot return $59,000 in
allegedly excessive donations
By Rick Daysog
rdaysog@starbulletin.comIn a letter to the state Campaign Spending Commission on Monday, attorney Chris Parsons said the Harris campaign cannot make the payments that were ordered by the state agency last month.
"We're out of money, so that's why we were unable to remit the money that they had asked for," Parsons said.
The commission notified the Harris campaign Jan. 23 that it received $59,100 in over-the-limit contributions from five city contractors. The contractors -- Control Point Surveying Inc., CDS International Inc., ECM Inc., Fewell Geotechnical Inc. and T. Iida Contracting Ltd.-- admitted they gave the Harris campaign more than the $4,000 legal limit.
Under state law, the campaign must return over-the-limit political contributions to the Hawaii Election Campaign Fund.
As of Dec. 31, 2002, the Harris campaign said it had about $81,000. The campaign had more than $1 million on hand in January 2002.
Parsons said the campaign will use its remaining money to cover outstanding obligations, such as rent at its Ward Warehouse office.
Harris had been the leading Democratic candidate for last November's governor's race, but pulled out in May after the commission and the city Prosecutor's Office began investigating his campaign's fund-raising practices.
Bob Watada, the commission's executive director, said he had questions about the campaign's expenses.
He noted that the campaign paid about $500,000 in attorney fees last year. Much of the costs came after Harris dropped out of the governor's race, he said.
Parsons defended the legal fees, saying they were used to represent campaign officials before the commission and other legal venues.
He also noted that the campaign returned about $100,000 in excessive contributions last year.
Parsons said the campaign shouldn't have to return the money once it runs out of funds. He noted that the commission did not require former Gov. Ben Cayetano to return tens of thousands of dollars in alleged excessive campaign contributions from government contractors after he left office.
According to Watada, the commission chose not to pursue the Cayetano campaign based on advice by the state Attorney General's office.
The alleged excessive contributions were discovered two years after Cayetano ran for office. At the time, the former governor's campaign was no longer active and its funds were already depleted, Watada said.