The controversy surrounding more than $100,000 in payments the campaign for the late U.S. Rep. Mark Takai made to a consulting firm run by the campaign’s treasurer intensified Thursday, with the filing of a federal complaint alleging the money was illegally used by Dylan Beesley for personal use.
The family of the late congressman, meanwhile, endorsed Beesley’s actions for the first time Thursday, saying in a statement that he was retained “to help manage the campaign’s affairs” and set up a foundation in Takai’s name. The family thanked Beesley “for his help and support.”
Attorneys for the Washington, D.C.-based Campaign Legal Center, a nonprofit campaign finance watchdog, are asking the Federal Election Commission to investigate consulting payments of nearly $6,000 a month the Mark Takai for Congress campaign has been making to Lanakila Strategies LLC, which is controlled by Beesley, also the campaign’s treasurer.
Beesley is now campaign manager for state Attorney General Douglas Chin, who is running for the late congressman’s U.S. House seat.
“Despite the fact that (FEC) regulations anticipate a six-month winding-down period, almost 18 months after Takai’s passing, there are few disbursements that would suggest the committee is winding down,” the Campaign Legal Center said in its 13-page complaint Opens in a new tab with the FEC. “Taken together, these facts suggest that Beesley is not doing much of anything to justify earning $5,759.16 per month.”
Takai died at the age of 49 on July 20, 2016, from pancreatic cancer.
Monthly payments
The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported last week that Takai’s campaign had issued more than a dozen payments between August 2016 and September 2017 totaling $86,508 Opens in a new tab to Lanakila Strategies. New FEC filings show Beesley continued to receive monthly payments to his consulting firm in the final months of 2017, bringing his total payments received to just under $104,000 in the 18 months since the congressman’s death.
Takai’s campaign collected $1.1 million in contributions for his 2016 re-election bid and reported nearly $309,000 in cash on hand as of Dec. 31.
“This goes to the basic idea behind campaign finance laws and the reason that donors give. The reason that donors give to candidates is to support their campaign or to support their duties as an officeholder,” attorney Brendan Fischer, director of federal and FEC reform at the Campaign Legal Center, told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. “And if their funds are instead used to line the pockets of the candidate or to subsidize the lifestyle of the candidate’s treasurer, the donors’ intent is not being followed.”
Fischer said the FEC can impose fines for violations of the Federal Election Campaign Act and, if actions are found to be “knowing and willful,” can refer cases to the Department of Justice.
“Certainly, the nearly $6,000 in monthly payments from the campaign account to Beesley just seem incredibly excessive, because it’s not clear that Beesley is doing much of anything to actually earn that money,” he said.
Fischer said his organization — which describes itself as nonpartisan — looked over the campaign finance records for the late Ohio congressman Steven LaTourette, who died in August 2016, for comparison. “That committee has been paying its treasurer $500 per quarter, so $2,000 over the entirety of 2017, which is less than the Takai committee has been paying Beesley in just one month,” he said.
Also for comparison, the Campaign Legal Center reviewed the campaign records for Takai’s successor, U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa, and found monthly payments for the same amount Beesley has received — $5,759.16 — being paid to a local consultant for fundraising consultation services.
“Of course the difference there is that Hanabusa for Hawaii is an active campaign committee involving a sitting member of Congress,” Fischer said. “It’s difficult to see how Beesley, who is working for a dormant campaign committee, is doing the same amount of work as somebody who’s working for an active campaign committee.”
The Federal Election Campaign Act does allow for campaign funds to be used for noncampaign purposes, including “winding-down costs of a federal officeholder’s office for a period of six months after leaving office.”
“There might be an argument that you need to wind down the campaign, that there’s responsibilities involved with disposing of the leftover funds, making contributions to charity, making contributions to other candidates — but there’s no indication that that’s happening,” Fischer said.
Gary Kai, father of Takai’s widow, Sami, said Thursday that the congressman’s family authorized the payments to Beesley.
“(Dylan) has worked to help us to focus on the next steps so that we could close the campaign down and create a foundation in Mark’s name and use it for good causes here in Hawaii,” Kai said in an emailed statement. “Payments to him during this period were authorized.”
“We regret that we have been slow to move on this and we appreciate the community’s patience as we work through this process. We hope that people understand that our focus has been on keeping our family strong and helping them to move ahead with their lives,” Kai said. “We have created the Mark Takai Foundation and will be moving forward to support the military and education causes that Mark championed throughout his career.”
Reached for comment Thursday, Beesley said, “I’m going to let the strong support of the Takai family speak for itself.” He declined to comment on the FEC complaint.
Beesley had previously said that after Takai’s death the campaign had a surplus of funds and obligations that have required “some personnel to continue to manage its affairs” before the Takai family decides how to “dispose of the campaign’s assets and conclude its activities.”
