As it turns out, the state Attorney General’s Office did receive two complaints from the state Campaign Spending Commission in November about the 2012 mayoral campaign activities of the Pacific Resource Partnership’s political action committee, despite assertions earlier this week from the Attorney General’s Office that it was never given the cases.
Anne Lopez, spokeswoman for interim Attorney General Russell Suzuki, said Wednesday she incorrectly told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser on Monday that Suzuki’s office had not received the complaints from the Campaign Spending Commission, which voted 3-1 in November to refer them to the attorney general to determine if criminal charges should be filed against PRP’s super PAC, which supported Honolulu’s $5.2 billion rail project.
Correcting the matter, Lopez said Wednesday that on Nov. 25 the Attorney General’s Office received two complaints from the Campaign Spending Commission.
The commission had voted to refer one complaint on behalf of former Gov. Ben Cayetano, who alleged that PRP’s PAC improperly conspired against him in his unsuccessful bid to be elected mayor and make good on his pledge to defeat rail; and one on behalf of Campaign Spending Commission Executive Director Kristin Izumi-Nitao, who alleged that the PAC failed to report an invoice for more than $86,000 spent to help the 2012 campaigns of three of Cayetano’s mayoral opponents.
On Wednesday, Cayetano said, "I’m glad they finally straightened it out. The facts speak strongly for criminal prosecution. They (PRP’s PAC) tried to game the elections system, which is really a slap in the face to the public. In the past, nobody’s done anything about it."
Lopez said office policy prevented her from commenting on the status of the Campaign Spending Commission’s complaints — or whether an investigation is even underway.
PRP Executive Director John White wrote in an email Wednesday that "PRP has fully disclosed its activity from the 2012 cycle. We are confident that the Attorney General will agree, once he has an opportunity to review the matter."
Last week, Cayetano also filed a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission alleging federal campaign law violations by Andrew Winer, now chief of staff to U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz, PRP and PRP’s executive director.
Cayetano said Winer improperly worked simultaneously as senior adviser for U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono in 2012 and for PRP, even though PRP had registered as a noncandidate committee.
"The federal law against coordinated campaigns was intended to close the loophole in which an individual, although limited by law in how much he could contribute to a candidate, could get around it by forming a PAC from which greater sums could be contributed and have the PAC and the candidate’s campaign committee work together," Cayetano told the Star-Advertiser in an email.
"That is the kind of coordinated communications prohibited by federal law."
Winer previously told the Star-Advertiser that Cayetano’s FEC complaint was "frivolous on its face, and I am confident that it will be dismissed."
