Abercrombie accused of
accepting illegal gifts

Republican state Sen. Sam Slom filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission yesterday accusing Democratic congressional candidate Neil Abercrombie of soliciting and accepting illegal campaign contributions.

The complaint lists contributions made to Abercrombie's campaign from individuals and companies who have either been convicted of violating campaign contribution laws in state court or fined by the state Campaign Spending Commission in connection with the ongoing probe into Mayor Jeremy Harris' campaign.

Abercrombie said there is no basis for the complaint because federal campaign spending laws require contributors to sign a written declaration listing their employment and source of the money. If Slom believes he solicited illegal contributions, then the matter should be turned over to federal prosecutors, Abercrombie said.

"Obviously this is some kind of pathetic attempt to try and regain some of the lost ground that Dalton (Tanonaka) has lost because he's now facing criminal charges in the state and is being investigated by the FEC for other violations," he said.

Tanonaka is Abercrombie's Republican challenger. Tanonaka said he had no hand in the filing of the complaint.

Slom said he started looking into the campaign contributions made to all the congressional candidates after complaints were filed against Tanonaka with the state Campaign Spending Commission and FEC.