The executive director of the state Campaign Spending Commission laughed when asked about Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris calling the commission’s investigation of the Harris campaign a politically motivated “vendetta.” Robert Watada, addressing the Contractors Association of Kaua’i Thursday night at
The executive director of the state Campaign Spending Commission laughed when asked about Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris calling the commission’s investigation of the Harris campaign a politically motivated “vendetta.”
Robert Watada, addressing the Contractors Association of Kaua’i Thursday night at Hanama’ulu Restaurant, laughed again when he talked about the state Ethics Commission complaint the Harris campaign has filed against him.
Watada said he has nothing to hide, doesn’t have a vendetta against Harris or any candidate, campaign or elected official, and knows he’ll be found clean by the Ethics Commission, especially since the charge is “leaking” to the media what are public documents to begin with.
Watada’s job is enforcing the state’s campaign spending law. If the candidate and campaign committee don’t follow the law, the candidate’s position or political aspirations don’t matter to him, he said.
Watada recalled meeting Harris briefly several years ago, but publicly questioned the character of the one-time Kaua’i resident who longs to be governor. He wondering why Harris would call him “a liar” when Harris likely doesn’t know him.
To counter any suggestion that other politicians are immune from the probing eye of Watada, consider this: He noted he asked Governor Ben Cayetano for $150,000 for the commission’s work, then requested another $175,000 for large investigations, including those involving the campaign contribution records of Cayetano, Lt. Gov. Mazie Hirono, and former Honolulu City Council member Mufi Hanneman.
Cayetano approved both requests for funding.
“The only thing he said to me is, ‘Bob, be fair,'” Watada told about 30 members and guests of the Contractors Association.
“I don’t have a political vendetta against him,” Watada said of Cayetano.
More than trying to put the spotlight on one candidate or one campaign committee, Watada’s idea is to point out there’s a problem, he said. And federal investigators are involved in the Harris investigation and others “because they see a lot of this,” said Watada.
“It saddens me. It troubles me” that such blatant violations of campaign law are occurring in Hawai’i, he said.
The Japanese-American who grew up facing fierce prejudice in Colorado vowed early in his life to make a difference — to right wrongs, to stare down and defeat uneven social treatment of minorities. He said he found a near-perfect vehicle as head of the Campaign Spending Commission.
He said he’s unafraid of the limelight and is guided by his sense of what is right and a campaign spending law that he requested be tightened when he became director in 1995. The Legislature granted his wish for a stricter law on contributions to political campaigns. Some of the commission’s high-profile investigations, mainly of the Harris campaign’s alleged contribution improprieties, are a result of enforcing that toughened law, Watada said.
He said Geolabs, or related companies with the same boards, ownership and leadership, made at least $244,000 in campaign contributions over a five-year period, in violation of the law that says an individual may give only $4,000 to a candidate for a four-year office.
Under state law, an individual with controlling interest in several companies, whether it’s company names or the name of the individual with the controlling interest making the donations, is considered one person and therefore can donate only $4,000 to any candidate running for a non-statewide office with a four-year term, or $6,000 to a candidate for statewide office, like governor.
Of the donations from Geolabs, a pest-control company, at least $78,000 went to the Harris campaign and at least $60,000 went to Cayetano’s, Watada said. Also, the companies allegedly reimbursed employees and spouses who made contributions, also violations of campaign spending law, he said.
False-name contributions, in which a company gives money to a spouse to donate to a campaign under the spouse’s name, are also illegal, he added.
The commission is not investigating any Kaua’i-based candidates, but is investigating the campaign contribution practices of companies which have offices or do business on Kaua’i, Watada said.
He said nearly half the states have laws prohibiting companies that get state contracts from donating to political campaigns of candidates for state office in that state, similar to a prohibition against donations to candidates for federal office from companies which receive federal contracts.
But the common practice is if a local contractor gets a state or county contract, and the governor or mayor asks that contractor to sell fund-raising tickets, the contractor feels obligated and subsequently asks subcontractors to buy or sell tickets, too, Watada said.
Not buying or selling tickets could signal the end of government contracts for a company, he claimed.
“Probably some of that goes on on Kaua’i. I hope not,” said Watada, to which his audience erupted in laughter.
“There are different ways to get around the law, or try to get around the law. For a lot of you, it’s a way of doing business, a way of getting business. But it’s wrong,” said Watada, scolding the contractors for tolerating a system that allows nearly a quarter-million dollars of campaign contributions to be made by one company, in clear violation of campaign law.
The commission continues to investigate the Bishop Estate and its trustees, calling it a “worrisome” time in Hawai’i history when one entity amasses enough power to control judges, millions of dollars, thousands of acres of land, and the political clout that goes along with that.
He applauded Cayetano for initiating the investigation of Bishop Estate trustees.
Staff Writer Paul C. Curtis can be reached at mailto:pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 224).
