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State starts new
Aduja campaign
fund probe
One issue is settled
but questions arise over
use of some volunteers
The state Campaign Spending Commission will continue investigating Windward Sen. Melodie Aduja's campaign, although it agreed to a settlement levying a $9,000 fine and reimbursement to clear up a questionable report.
Bob Watada, Campaign Spending Commission executive director, said he is looking into Aduja's campaign use of volunteers who reportedly came from drug rehabilitation houses that her family leased to a nonprofit social agency.
The investigation first started in March when it was learned that more than $30,000 in Aduja campaign checks were written to her ex-husband, Lee Williams, who had been arrested in a Chinatown drug raid. Aduja's campaign was able to account for all but $4,500.
Aduja (D, Kahuku-Kaneohe) offered a conciliation agreement to make up for the unaccounted-for $4,500 and accept the $4,500 fine.
Watada called portions of Aduja's campaign spending report "pure fiction" yesterday.
The conciliation agreement notes that that the 2002 to 2004 campaign spending reports "did not comply with provisions of the Hawaii campaign spending law."
The agreement cites $9,490 in checks made out by Aduja's former treasurer, Elizabeth Gates, who authorized and signed the checks to herself, which is not allowed under state law.
Also, Aduja's campaign gave $3,000 to pay off a loan from Jennifer Loma, but there was no documentation for the loan.
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In discussions with reporters yesterday, Aduja said her family, including former state Rep. Peter Aduja, had helped with a drug rehabilitation house, but declined to give any specifics.
At yesterday's meeting, a former Aduja campaign volunteer, Sharon McCarthy, said she thought that some of Aduja's campaign supporters, including people holding campaign signs and going door to door, were clients of drug treatment houses.
Watada said: "I think we will have to look into the use of the workers. We have very sketchy information where these people came from.
"It is my understanding that if they were from a halfway house, are they truly volunteers?
"It raises significant questions for us, and we have to try to bring some of this to a conclusion," Watada said.
Joe Chaves, technical outreach coordinator for Oxford House, said his agency has leased property from the Aduja family since 1991.
State officials said yesterday that Oxford House gets $68,000 a year in state money to operate drug rehabilitation houses.
Although Sen. Aduja was not listed as owner of the property, Chaves said that Melodie Aduja showed Chaves two different Aduja-owned houses last year in the Kaneohe area.
But Chaves said the lease was not signed by Melodie Aduja, but by her father, Peter.
Chaves also said he did not know of any Oxford House clients who campaigned for Aduja.
Aduja herself said that her campaign workers came from all over.
"If they came from recovery homes or what have you, that is basically because they wanted to participate and believed in what I was doing," Aduja said.
"Those who worked with me while in recovery felt they were giving back to the community," Aduja said.
Aduja added that her campaign has been troubled by "innuendoes" after the arrest of her ex-husband.
"I am a victim in this case because of substance abuse, which ruined my family and has now gone into my political campaign," Aduja said.
Aduja's opponent in the Sept. 18 primary election said the publicity surrounding Aduja's campaign spending trouble will have an effect.
"Any time an incumbent elected official runs afoul of the Campaign Spending Commission, it doesn't bode well for the incumbent," said Clayton Hee, a former state senator and Office of Hawaiian Affairs trustee, running against Aduja.
"I am going to point out the differences between the incumbent and me. Clayton Hee has never misused campaign funds," Hee said.
Hee said he thought that Aduja, a former deputy city prosecutor, should have been aware of the campaign laws.
Aduja said she thinks her constituents will support her.
"My constituents have confidence in what I have done. I want them to look at the record I have as a senator representing the district," she said.
The campaign is being closely watched by Democrats in the Senate, because Aduja has been closely supported by Senate President Robert Bunda, and she is expected to back his re-election as Senate president next year.
Attending yesterday's meeting was Bunda's executive assistant and leaders from the Hawaii State Teachers Association, which also supports Aduja.
www.hawaii.gov/campaign/
