Campaign Spending Commission

LAUNCH OF ON-LINE TRAINING VIDEOS

On June 27, 2008, in alignment with its Strategic Plan, Goal 4 (a), the Commission launched its on-line videos of Candidate and Candidate Committee, Noncandidate Committee, and Public Financing training classes.

You will now be able to view training classes on our website 24 hours/7 days a week.  For your convenience, the videos are broken down by topic into approximately ten minute modules.

We will continue to hold live classes in February and July of election years to engage in lively discussions and to answer questions.

 BLUE RIBBON RECODIFICATION COMMITTEE

The Blue Ribbon Recodification Committee, spearheaded by Commission General Counsel Grant Tanimoto, along with Barbara Wong and Tony Baldomero, and 17 attorneys from around the State, met for nine months, realigning Hawaii Revised Statutes Subpart B into ten new subparts by topic, removing redundant language, and tweaking wording to make the statutes easier to read and understand.  The Recodification will be introduced in the 2009 Legislature.  A big Mahalo to the following members of the Committee:

Mr. James Case, Esq.
Mr. Calvert G. Chipchase IV, Esq.
Mr. Leroy Colombe, Esq.
Mr. Brian DeLima, Esq.
Mr. J. George Hetherington, Esq.
Ms. Sandra Hoshida, Esq.
Mr. William Kaneko, Esq.
Mr. Brian Kang, Esq.
Mr. Jared Kawashima, Esq.
Mr. Bert Kobayashi, Jr., Esq.
Mr. James Koshiba, Esq.
Judge Randall Lee
Mr. Matt Matsunaga, Esq.
Mr. Owen Matsunaga, Esq.
Ms. Marilyn Niwao, Esq.
Mr. Terry Thomason, Esq.
Ms. Renee Yuen, Esq.

HAWAII #4 IN NATION FOR LAWS AND TRANSPARENCY

Pew Charitable Trust funds an annual national study, called the Campaign Disclosure Project, by the UCLA School of Law, the Center for Governmental Studies, and the California Voter Foundation. The fifty states are graded on campaign finance laws and transparency of contribution and expenditure information.  For the second year in a row, Hawaii has been ranked #4 in the nation. Other states are nipping at our heels, as they lower the contribution limits for reporting name, address, occupation, and employer, and they improve their electronic filing systems.  Read more at  www.campaigndisclosure.org/gradingstate/execsum.html.

IMPORTANT NOTICES

CSC Meetings
July 9, 2008
August 13, 2008
September 10, 2008
October 8, 2008
November 12, 2008
December 17, 2008

CSC Reports
Next report due for:
Candidates running in 2008
1st Preliminary Primary-July 31, 2008

Candidates not running in 2008
Supplemental-July 31, 2008

Noncandidate Committee
Preliminary Primary-September 10, 2008

2008 LEGISLATION

ACT 11 – On April 14, 2008, the Governor signed into law Act 11, adding reciprocal beneficiaries to the definition of “immediate family.”  This allows a candidate’s reciprocal beneficiary, as defined in Hawaii Revised Statutes 572C-3, and reciprocal beneficiaries of other immediate family members, to contribute or loan up to $50,000, in the aggregate with other immediate family members to the candidate.

Act 11 also exempts contributions from a candidate’s reciprocal beneficiary and reciprocal beneficiaries of immediate family members from the 20% cap on non-resident contributions in a reporting period.

ACT 244 – On July 8, 2008, Act 244 was enacted into law without the Governor’s signature, providing:

1. LATE REPORT FINES – There will be an increase in fines for LATE REPORTS by candidate and noncandidate committees as follows:

$50 a day for the first 7 days and $200 per day thereafter, except for the 2nd Preliminary Primary report due on September 10, 2008, and the Preliminary General report due on October 27, 2008, for which the fine is $300 per day.  There is a cap on the fines.

2. DEFICIENT/DEFECTIVE REPORTS – There will be an increase in fines for deficient or defective reports.  If the corrected report is not filed on the Candidate Filing System by the 14^th day after the notice of deficient or defective report is mailed by the Commission, the fine is $50 per day for the first 7 days, and $200 per day thereafter.  There is a cap on the fines.

3. REIMBURSEMENTS – A candidate, employee or volunteer may make expenditures from personal funds up to $1,500 in the aggregate in a 30 day period, and if they are reimbursed within 45 days by the candidate committee, the expenditures do not have to be reported as loans, nor does loan documentation have to be submitted.

4. COMMUNITY DONATIONS (surplus funds only) – Increases permissible community donations from surplus campaign funds to twice the contribution limit of the office.  It does not increase the limit for funds raised before the election (H.R.S. section 11-200).  Surplus funds are funds left over after the election.

5. PUBLIC FUNDING – Creates a pilot comprehensive public funding program for the Hawaii County Council for elections in 2010, 2012, and 2014.  More information will be provided in the January, 2009 CSC Bulletin and on our website.  This law has new  reporting requirements for candidates, noncandidate committees, and persons making independent expenditures in addition to all reports currently required.

REMINDERS

No donations from campaign funds to community service, educational, youth, recreational, charitable, scientific, or literary organizations shall be made from the date the candidate files nomination papers through the date of the general election.

Also, when entering information into Schedule B-Expenditures Made, select the category “Candidate Fundraiser Tickets” only for the purchase of fundraiser tickets of another candidate or committee. Any other organization fundraisers, like Pee Wee football, is a community donation subject to limits and the “Contribution to Community Organization” category should be used.

CONCILIATION AGREEMENTS

Ten Conciliation Agreements were executed in 2007, with a total of $4,650 in fines, for various administrative violations, including excess contributions, payment for an advertisement for other candidates, failure to deposit contributions, and failure to report expenditures. Notably, since December, 2006, the Commission has considered whether the Respondent self-reported, which may result in a reduction in fine.

PURCHASE OF STAMPS/POSTAGE

The purchase of stamps or payment of other postage by a person for a candidate or candidate committee is a non-monetary contribution by that person and must be reported by the candidate committee.

MANDATORY TWO-DAY REGISTRATION PERIOD

Noncandidate committees that receive contributions or make expenditures aggregating more than $1,000 within 30 days prior to the primary election, or within 30 days prior to the general election, have only two days to register with the Commission. Start early by filing your “Electronic Filing Form” to get your username and password to logon to the Noncandidate Committee Filing System. Once you logon, register by electronically filing the Organizational Report.