Hawaii fines more than 80 candidates for finance violations

HONOLULU — The Hawaii Campaign Spending Commission fined more than 80 candidates running for elected office in the state for violating campaign finance laws.

Most of the violations are related to a law requiring candidates to disclose advertisement spending within 24 hours of entering a contract, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported Thursday.

About 60 candidates filed late or did not file at all in this year’s primary election, according to the commission. The fine for late filing runs $250 and failing to file costs $500.

The commission approved most of the fines Wednesday. Others were approved last month.

The commission began enforcing the law on electioneering communications in 2016, but held off on fining candidates and political action committees until this year.

Candidates and PACs — after surpassing $2,000 in advertising spending — must file with the commission each time they contract for new ads. The forms for the filings include information on the vendors, the amount spent and the dates the ads ran.

Among the candidates were veteran state officials and lawmakers, including Sen. Lorraine Inouye, House Speaker Scott Saiki and Gov. David Ige.

Some of the candidates had fines reaching thousands of dollars, including Inouye, who was fined $10,000. The amount was later reduced to $3,333.

———

Information from: Honolulu Star-Advertiser, http://www.staradvertiser.com