Kawamoto faces
more questions

Campaign officials will investigate
expenditures for a Segway and art

Weeks after losing his re-election bid, state Sen. Cal Kawamoto is facing new questions about his use of campaign funds.

State Campaign Spending Commission Executive Director Bob Watada said he plans to ask the Waipahu Democrat about his campaign's purchase of a Segway human transporter with $3,145 in campaign funds.

Watada said he also wants to ask Kawamoto about his use of $5,200 in campaign money to purchase artworks from a Lanai company.

Kawamoto, who lost his Senate seat to retired public school vice principal Clarence Nishihara last month, did not return calls seeking comment.

In July, Kawamoto was fined $21,250 by the commission and agreed to repay his campaign $30,000 for questionable expenditures that he billed his campaign between 1995 and 2003. The $21,250 fine was the second highest issued by the commission against a local elected official, behind the $40,000 levied in 2001 against convicted former City Councilwoman Rene Mansho.

The expenditures for the Segway and the artwork were made last January, which was not covered in the commission's previous investigation into Kawamoto's campaign.

Kawamoto's filings with the commission show that he paid $3,145 to purchase a Segway human transporter on Jan. 13, using his campaign's United Mileage Plus Visa credit card. That purchase came after local developer Jeff Stone's Pacific Northwest Ltd. made a $1,500 nonmonetary contribution to Kawamoto's campaign on Jan. 5.

The $1,500 contribution came in the form of a Segway human transporter, which is a two-wheeled, battery-operated vehicle created by famed inventor Dean Kamen.

Watada said Kawamoto's records are unclear whether Kawamoto's campaign owns one Segway transporter or two. It is also unclear whether the Segway was used for campaign purposes, said Watada, who noted that Kawamoto stored a Segway vehicle in his legislative office at the state Capitol.

Stone did not return calls to his office.

Watada also questioned whether the $5,200 in artwork, purchased from a company known as Heart of Lanai, was used for campaign purposes.

Under state law, political candidates can acquire big-ticket items such as cars with campaign money so long they are used for campaign purposes. Any personal use of the vehicle must be reimbursed to the campaign.

Kawamoto, the outgoing chairman of the Senate Committee on Transportation, Military Affairs and Government Operations, has served in the Senate since 1994. During recent years he was criticized for opposing reforms of the state's campaign spending laws.