CSC Newsletter – July 2025, Vol. 31, No. 2

Posted in Main, Newsletter

WRAP-UP OF THE 2025 LEGISLATIVE SESSION

For the 2025 legislative session, the Hawaii Campaign Spending Commission (“Commission”) submitted 4 bills to the legislature.  Unfortunately, none of these bills passed.  Specifically, they were a bill that (1) increased the partial public funding program and established two full-time positions in the Commission; (2) extended the pay-to-play state and county government contractor ban to grants-in-aid recipients as well as officers and immediate family members of the government contractor/grantee; (3) prohibited elected officials from accepting and soliciting contributions during legislative session; and (4) escheated any excess cash contribution over $100 to the Hawaii Election Campaign Fund.  The Commission will continue its efforts to advocate for these bills in the future.

Two bills that passed this session that were not Commission bills but the Commission supported because they will increase transparency and accountability in campaign finance are:

1 – PERMITTING USE OF CAMPAIGN FUNDS TO PAY FOR CHILDCARE AND VITAL HOUSEHOLD DEPENDENT CARE COSTS (S.B. 1202) – Effective 4/22/25, under Hawaii Revised Statutes (“HRS”) §11-381(a)(1), candidates are permitted to use campaign funds to pay for childcare and vital household dependent care costs that would not have been incurred but for the candidate’s participation in the candidate’s own campaign activity.  (Act 19, SLH 2025)

2 – BAN ON LOBBYIST CONTRIBUTIONS (H.B. 413, H.D. 1, S.D. 1) – Effective 5/16/25, under HRS §11-365 and §97-5, lobbyists are prohibited from making, or promising to make at a later time, any contributions or expenditures to or on behalf of an elected official, candidate, candidate committee, or any other individual required to file an organizational report pursuant to §11-321 five days before, after, and during legislative session which means a period in which both legislative houses are in session.  Violations will be handled by the Commission and the State Ethics Commission.  (Act 64, SLH 2025)

REMINDER TO ALL COMMITTEES TO FILE THE SUPPLEMENTAL REPORT DUE ON JULY 31, 2025

The next report for all committees is the Supplemental Report covering the period of January 1, 2025 to June 30, 2025 which must be electronically filed on your respective filing systems (i.e., candidate filing system (CFS) or noncandidate committee filing system (NCFS)) no later than 11:59 p.m. Hawaiian standard time on Thursday, July 31, 2025.

Failure to file this report by the deadline will result in a fine and, if you are a candidate committee or noncandidate committee, your committee’s name will be posted on the Commission website under “Candidate Committees That Failed to File or Correct a Report” or “Noncandidate Committees That Failed to File or Correct a Report.”  Moreover, if a fine is assessed against your committee and you fail to timely pay it, Commission staff will issue a complaint against your committee and set it for consideration at the next public Commission meeting.  Therefore, we encourage all committees to timely file their reports.

As a reminder, committees do not have to wait until the July 31st deadline to file the report.  The reporting period for the Supplemental Report ended on June 30th so the report can be filed as early as July 1st, but no later than July 31st.

REPORTING SCHEDULES

New reporting schedules have been posted on our website and are provided via the link below for your convenience to track upcoming reporting deadlines.  The reporting schedules are also available in the Commission’s downloadable calendar and can be downloaded to your digital calendar on your computer or mobile device.

The Commission will add the necessary reports to your reporting schedule in your respective electronic filing system (CFS and NCFS).  These reports must be electronically filed no later than 11:59 p.m. Hawaiian standard time on the day of the deadline.  You may also want to consider filing the reports early to avoid penalties because the reporting deadline is always a few days or weeks after the reporting period has closed.

Failure to file any report by the deadline will result in a fine and the name of your committee will be posted on the Commission’s website under “Candidate Committees That Failed to File or Correct a Report” or “Noncandidate Committees That Failed to File or Correct a Report.”  Further, if a fine is assessed against your committee and you fail to timely pay it, Commission staff will issue a complaint against your committee and set it for consideration at the next public Commission meeting.  Therefore, we encourage all committees to timely file their reports and pay any fines.

Lastly, please remember that when you electronically file your reports with the Commission, candidates, treasurers, and chairpersons (for noncandidate committees) are certifying that the information contained in the filed reports are true, complete, and accurate.  Therefore, it is strongly advised that you verify and validate your reports before you file them since the Commission will rely on the electronically filed information which could generate an inquiry/investigation if inaccurate.

For those candidates considering running in the 2026 election, please be aware that a new law that was passed in the 2023 legislative session provides for different reporting schedules for the Preliminary Primary Reports depending on when a candidate files nomination papers.  In other words, there will be reports due to the Commission with different reporting periods depending on when a candidate files nomination papers:

  • On the first day they can file nomination papers through February 23, 2026;
  • On February 24, 2026 through April 25, 2026; or
  • On April 26, 2026 through the nomination paper filing deadline.

*NEW – SCHEDULE OF FINES and ELIGIBILITY/APPLICATION OF CONCILIATION AGREEMENTS

The Commission has reviewed its Schedule of Fines which were adopted pursuant to Hawaii Administrative Rules (HAR) §3-160-73(a).  After the conclusion of the 2024 election, the Commission considered revisions to the schedule at its public meetings on February 5, 2025, March 12, 2025, April 23, 2025, May 14, 2025, and June 18, 2025.  At the Commission’s meeting on June 18, 2025, the Commission updated its fine schedule and made a change to the eligibility and application of Conciliation Agreements which will go into effect on February 2, 2026 which is the due date of the Supplemental Report with a closing reporting period of December 31, 2025 for all candidate committees and noncandidate committees.

ELIGIBILITY:  Effective February 2, 2026, only new candidates and noncandidate committees will be eligible for a Conciliation Agreement which must be approved by the Commission at a public HRS Chapter 92 Sunshine meeting pursuant to HAR §3-160-74 and will reduce the administrative fine in five (5) areas of violations as set forth in the Schedule of Fines.  See, 2A.1 (Disclosure Reports – but does not include the reports due 10 days before an election set forth in 2A.2), 3H (Excess Contributions), 3I (Nonresident Contributions), 5D & 5E (Advertisements), and 7A (Electioneering Communications).  New candidates are defined as candidates who appear on the ballot for the first time or who have not appeared on a ballot for the previous four years, regardless of whether they terminated their committee registrations with the Commission or are running for another office.  New noncandidate committees are defined as committees who are registering with the Commission for the first time or who may have terminated their registration, but who have not reregistered with the Commission for the previous 4 years.  Conciliation Agreements and reduced fines will no longer be available after December 31st of an election year.  (*Note:  The Supplemental Report covering the period ending on December 31 of an election year will be considered part of the first year’s reports and available for a Conciliation Agreement, although it is not due until January 31 of the following year.)  Committees who do not terminate their registrations with the Commission are responsible for filing all required reports after December 31 and will be fined as continuing registered committees for failing to do so.

APPLICATION:  New candidates and noncandidate committees may receive up to two reductions in each of the five (5) designated violations.  For the first violation in each of the designated violations, new committees are eligible to pay 1/3 of the fine, and for the second violation in that designation, they are eligible to pay 2/3 of the fine.  There will be no reduction for the third violation in that designation.  Lastly, reductions will not apply to fines of $25 or less and will not count towards the two violations eligible for reduction in each of the designations.

View the updated Schedule of Fines.

*NEW – HRS CHAPTER 92H – RESTRICTIONS ON PUBLICATION OF CERTAIN PUBLIC SERVANTS’ PERSONAL INFORMATION

Pursuant to HRS Chapter 92H, effective 10/1/2024, upon receiving written notification from the Hawaii State Judiciary’s representative Ironwall360, the Commission is mandated to remove protected personal information such as the home address of Hawaii Judiciary personnel who have been included in reports filed by candidate and noncandidate committees.  This law serves to protect personal information from being publicly accessed for the protection of judicial employees.

As such, the Commission will be informing affected candidate or noncandidate committees of this action in writing.  For more information, please see Act 187, Session Laws of Hawaii 2024.

UPDATING ORGANIZATIONAL REPORTS

As of January 1, 2025, candidate committees that login to the candidate filing system (CFS) and noncandidate committees that login to the noncandidate committee filing system (NCFS) will be presented with their Organizational Report. Please take the time to review your Organizational Report and make any needed changes.

HRS §§11-322(b) and 11-323(b) provides that any change in information previously reported in the organizational report shall be electronically filed with the commission within 10 days of the change being brought to the attention of the committee chairperson or treasurer.  Failure to do so may result in a fine as well as prevent the Commission from communicating with you as well as a new statutory mandate requiring the Commission to post the candidate, candidate committee, and noncandidate committee’s name on its website if the report is not corrected within 2 weeks after the Commission provides you with a notice to correct.  Further, if you are a noncandidate committee, you may be subject to a $1,000 fine.

Also, if you are a candidate who intends to run for office in the next election and would like to carry over surplus campaign funds, you must file an amended Organizational Report on the CFS.  This applies to candidates who failed to be elected to office who will be running again and candidates who are elected to office who will be running again for a different office to which they were elected and includes term-limited candidates.

TERM LIMITED CANDIDATES

If you are a candidate who is term limited for the office for which you presently occupy, contributions may be sought only if the committee has no surplus and has debt, unpaid expenses, or unpaid loans.  See, Hawaii Administrative Rules (HAR) §3-160-31(b)(2).  If this does not apply and you intend to seek contributions to run for elective office in the next subsequent election, then you must amend your Organizational Report to notify the Commission and the public of the office you intend to run for within 10 days of receiving contributions or making or incurring expenditures of more than $100 for that office.  The contribution limits of the 2026 or 2028 election period will apply to these contributors.

TERMINATION OF COMMITTEE REGISTRATION WITH THE COMMISSION

If you are a candidate who does not anticipate running in a future State or county election, or you are a noncandidate committee that does not intend to participate in future State or county elections, and your committee has no surplus or deficit in campaign funds, you may want to consider terminating your registration with the Commission.  If so, you will need to complete and submit the following documents:  (1) A “Request for Termination of Registration” form for candidate committees or “Request for Termination of Registration” form for noncandidate committees; and (2) A closing bank statement verifying that your committee’s bank account has been closed.  Further, you must not have any outstanding fines or unresolved matters with the Commission.  Assuming everything is in order, the Commission will approve your termination request and you will no longer be required to electronically file reports with the Commission.

COMMISSION’S 2025 BUDGET REQUEST FOR ADDITIONAL FUNDING FOR FY 2026-2028

The Commission is grateful for the support of the Executive and Legislative branches in approving our request to add two full-time permanent positions (specifically, an investigator and an elections assistant) and appropriate $2.2 million in general funds to permit us to replace the Commission’s electronic filing systems for the committees and the public to be ready by the 2028 elections.

It is our hope that with additional funding and personnel, we can better service the 700+ committees registered with the Commission to provide better transparency in the campaign finance process.  We thank you for your support and understanding.

VIOLATIONS OF THE CAMPAIGN FINANCE LAWS

The following candidate committees violated the Hawaii campaign finance laws and have failed to comply with the Commission’s orders by refusing to register with the Commission, file required disclosure reports, and/or pay assessed fines.  Pursuant to HRS §11-410(d), the Commission has been pursuing enforcement actions with the assistance from the Attorney General’s Office – Civil Recoveries Division.  Furthermore, pursuant to HRS §11-156, a candidate who has unfiled disclosure reports or unpaid fines will not receive a certificate of election should that candidate win in a subsequent election.

  • Henry Cho
  • Thora-Jean Cuaresma, TJ CUARESMA – CANDIDATE SD22
  • Shaena Hoohuli, Hoohuli Headquarters
  • Kukana Kama-Toth, Friends of Kukana Kama-Toth
  • Robin Knox, Robin 4 Maui
  • Candace Linton
  • Lono Mack, MACK
  • Ryan Malish, 808Ryan4Senate
  • Devin McMackin, Friends of Big Mac
  • Chris Toafili, Chris Toafili
  • Mitch McPeek, Mitch McPeek
  • Feki Pouha, Friends of Feki Pouha
  • Brendan Schultz, Schultz for District 5
  • Christian Ulufanua, Christian Ulufanua
  • Jonah Lion, Campaign ALOHA
  • Theresa Texeira, Friends of Kinsey Texeira

The following noncandidate committees violated the Hawaii campaign finance laws and have failed to register, file required disclosure reports, and/or pay assessed fines.

  • Pono Life Sciences, LLC
  • United Group of Home Operators, Inc.
  • Universal Equipment Rental Hawaii, LLC
  • KH Makaha, LLC

REMINDER TO CHECK OFF THE $3 BOX ON YOUR 2025 TAX RETURN

The Commission continues to urge you to check off the $3 “yes” box on your 2025 tax return which permits $3 from state funds (or $6 if married and filing a joint return) to be allocated to the Hawaii Election Campaign Fund.  The health and sustainability of public funding depends on greater participation of Hawaii taxpayers in checking off the $3 box.  Checking off this box does not increase your tax or reduce your refund.

MAHALO TO GARY KAM AND WELCOME NEW GENERAL COUNSEL KRISTIE CRUZ CHANG

 The Commission would like to extend our warmest gratitude to the work and services of Gary Kam who served as our General Counsel from February 2011 to February 2025.  Under his legal guidance and stewardship for the past 14 years, the Commission was able to further its mission of transparency and accountability of the campaign finance process.  We wish him well and thank him for his dedication and commitment.

We also would like to welcome our new General Counsel Kristie Cruz Chang who started with the Commission on June 17, 2025.  Kristie Chang is a graduate of Kamehameha Schools. In 1994, she earned a B.S. in Psychology and minor in Biology from Lewis & Clark College, and in 1997, a J.D. from Loyola Law School. She was in private practice for six years specializing in estate planning, tax planning, and business planning and has spent the last 21 years as a Deputy Attorney General in the Tax & Charities Division representing the Department of Taxation and the Attorney General in the capacity as paren patriae.  In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her husband and three children.