Senator omits
donation detailsA powerful lawmaker
fails to report $20,000
in gifts to his campaign
A state lawmaker who critics say derailed efforts to reform Hawaii's campaign finance laws did not report more than $20,000 that local companies and unions said they gave to his campaign.
A computer-assisted study of state campaign spending records shows that Sen. Cal Kawamoto did not list 27 political contributions that local businesses and unions reported making over seven years.
The amount represents about one out of every $15 in Kawamoto's $294,000 campaign war chest. His campaign reporting has become a focus of a state Campaign Spending Commission investigation into the Waipahu Democrat's fund-raising activities.
The study of Kawamoto's records also show he received more than $50,000 from about 50 state and city contractors. Under the now-defunct campaign finance reform bill, state and city contractors would have been banned from making such political donations.
"This just proves that he has a vested interest in the status quo and is not interested in passing any reforms," said Laure Dillon, executive director of the Hawaii Elections Project, which advocates public funding of elections.
Kawamoto, chairman of the Senate Transportation, Military Affairs and Government Operations Committee, denied wrongdoing, saying his campaign has gone out of its way to report all contributions. He said he supported campaign finance reform this year, and his stance on the subject is not influenced by corporate donations.
Bob Watada, the commission's executive director, declined comment, citing his office's pending investigation. But sources said the commission has searched for unreported contributions and has subpoenaed bank records of the Committee to Elect Cal Kawamoto.
Under state law, failure to report a political donation can result in fines of up to three times the contribution amount. If the commission determines that a political candidate intentionally concealed a donation, it can refer the matter to the city prosecutor or state attorney general for a criminal investigation.
The Star-Bulletin's examination of Kawamoto's finances is based on a review of more than 2,400 political donations since 1996. Those records were compared with more than 400 noncandidate committee reports filed with the Campaign Spending Commission by local and mainland companies, isle labor unions and Hawaii political action committees.
The comparison found that:
>> Koga Engineering & Construction Inc. and KECI Industries Inc. both gave $4,000 to Kawamoto on Dec. 17, 1998, and Dec. 18, 1998.
In a telephone interview, Kawamoto recalled that he listed the two contributions in his reports, but a search of his electronic and paper records shows no such information.
Koga and KECI, which share the same mailing address, were both founded by prominent local engineer Malcolm Koga, and several Koga Engineering directors serve on KECI's board.
Glenn Nohara, Koga's president, said that the two companies are separate and have no common ownership. Nohara recalled that his company made a $4,000 contribution to Kawamoto in 1998, but said that Koga played no role in KECI's $4,000 donation.
Kawamoto's reports show that Nohara and his wife, Wendy, gave the state senator $1,000 in January 1997 while Koga Vice President Dennis Okazaki and his wife, Sandra, contributed $500 that month.
Under state law, a company and its affiliates are barred from giving more than $4,000 to a state Senate candidate during a four-year election cycle.
>> Hawaiian Electric Industries Inc.'s political action committee reported that it made six contributions totaling $1,400 to Kawamoto during the past six years, but those contributions are not reflected in his reports.
Roy Kawamoto, the campaign's assistant treasurer, said the campaign may have attributed the HEI contributions to company employees whose names may have been attached to the contributions.
>> Grace Pacific Corp. reported that it made nearly $1,000 in nonmonetary donations between 1996 and 2002. Those contributions were not disclosed in Kawamoto's campaign filings. Grace said the contributions were for door prizes at Kawamoto's fund-raisers.
>> Kawamoto's campaign spending reports show about 50 state and city contractors donated more than $50,000 to his campaign. Of those government contractors, 14 have been fined by the commission for violating the state's campaign finance laws, including Geolabs Inc. and Thermal Engineering Inc.
Geolabs and its affiliate, CW Associates Inc., which contributed $550 to Kawamoto in the past several years, agreed to pay a record $64,000 fine back in January 2002 for making $124,700 in illegal contributions to Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris, former Gov. Ben Cayetano, ex-Lt. Gov. Mazie Hirono, former Maui Mayor James "Kimo" Apana, ex-Big Island mayoral candidate Fred Holschuh and former Honolulu City Councilman Arnold Morgado.
Thermal Engineering, which gave $50 to Kawamoto in March 1998, paid a $31,000 fine for making $40,000 in illegal contributions to Harris and Cayetano.
>> Four additional contractors that gave money to Kawamoto are under investigation by the commission and city Prosecutor Peter Carlisle: Mitsunaga and Associates Inc., Park Engineering, R.M. Towill Corp. and SSFM International Inc. Since 1996, those firms and their officers contributed nearly $15,000 to Kawamoto's campaign. SSFM Chief Executive Michael Matsumoto, who gave $950 to Kawamoto during the past three years, pleaded no contest in January to charges that he laundered $139,500 to the Harris campaign.
Local consumer advocate George Fox, whose complaint against Kawamoto in January prompted the commission to open an investigation, said Kawamoto's prolific fund raising explains his role in the campaign finance bill this year.
The state Legislature killed the proposal, which would have banned government contractors from making political donations, after Kawamoto inserted language that would have allowed campaigns to contribute unlimited amounts to local charities in exchange for votes, Fox said.
Critics have characterized Kawamoto's proposal as a blatant vote-buying scheme.
Kawamoto said he became involved in the debate over campaign finance reform because he wanted to tighten the language of the existing law. He said the vagueness in what constitutes a campaign expense or donation has led to inconsistent interpretations and gives the commission's executive director too much leeway applying the law.
"People support me not because of what they can get out of me," Kawamoto said. "They support me because of what I stand for."