[ OUR OPINION ]

Senator’s abuses
should cost him position

THE ISSUE Campaign spending records show that Sen. Cal Kawamoto neglected to report $50,000 in donations from city and state contractors.

CAMPAIGN spending reform died in this year's session of the Legislature, and Sen. Cal Kawamoto is considered to have been a key stumbling block. In return for his effort to protect a corrupt system, city and state contractors have rewarded him with $50,000 in campaign donations over the past seven years, according to the Waipahu Democrat's own records. He neglected to report more than $20,000 in contributions from local companies and unions. Kawamoto should be stripped of his leadership role in the Legislature.

The 2002 Legislature approved a campaign finance reform measure that would have banned county and state political contributions from county and state contractors. Gov. Ben Cayetano vetoed the bill because legislators had exempted their own campaigns from the ban.

Legislators had good reason to exempt themselves, because they have nothing to do with state contracts. However, Kawamoto seems to have found a way to attract contributions from contractors by being their legislative enabler -- working to protect the system of companies essentially bribing state and county elected officials with campaign contributions. As chairman of the Senate Transportation, Military Affairs and Government Operations Committee, Kawamoto has substantial power in the area of campaign law.

Kawamoto's spending reports over the past seven years show he received contributions from 50 state and city contractors, including 14 that have been fined by the state Campaign Spending Commission for giving too much and four others that are under investigation by the commission and the city prosecutor. Star-Bulletin reporter Rick Daysog's examination of non-candidate committee reports filed with the commission revealed an additional $20,000 in contributions to Kawamoto by 27 local businesses and unions.

While being involved in campaign-reform legislation in this year's session, Kawamoto was being investigated by the Campaign Spending Commission for allegedly exceeding the $4,000 limit on charitable contributions from Senate candidates, what some regard as a method of buying votes. He injected into the bill a provision that would characterize such donations as expenditures, thus eliminating those limits.

When the bill came to House-Senate conference, House members complained that Kawamoto had weakened it, making the bill worse than present law. House Speaker Calvin Say asked that Kawamoto be removed from the conference committee, but Senate President Robert Bunda came to Kawamoto's defense, saying he had been "duly elected." The bill died.

Kawamoto's election in his Senate district does not oblige his Senate colleagues to put him in a position to sabotage campaign-reform legislation at the behest of city and state contractors. His own abuse of current campaign spending rules should clarify that absurdity.