Watada knocks
campaign donor bill
Robert Watada, state Campaign Spending Commission executive director, is criticizing a new bill designed to reform how politicians raise and spend money.
The compromise proposed by House Democrats would forbid contributions from people who get nonbid contracts but would allow contractors who go through a competitive bid process to donate to politicians. It would also increase the amount of charitable and community donations that politicians are allowed to make.
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Although the proposal bans contributions from nonbid contractors, Watada said that many contractors who do business with the state bid on jobs and then get more money with change orders that increase the cost of a project.
Watada said the latest version of Senate Bill 459 fails to plug the major holes in the campaign spending law.
The original proposal had banned campaign donations from corporations, and Watada said that provision is lacking in the House proposal.
"Corporations are major funnels for persons wishing to launder all sorts of contributions," Watada said.
Asked if he thought the measure still should be approved, Watada said "we would be getting less than half a loaf with this."
Sen. Colleen Hanabusa, Judiciary Committee chairwoman, said the campaign spending bill is controversial for politicians.
"I think this is going to be a bill that will take us all the way to the deadline -- I don't think we are that close," said Hanabusa (D, Nanakuli-Makua).
The campaign spending proposal would forbid campaign fund raising on state or county property.
It would also ban contributions from corporations that do not do business in Hawaii.
A bill that would have banned government contractors from making donations had been adopted by the Legislature in 2001, but it was vetoed by former Gov. Ben Cayetano, who said it was not strict enough.
