Many council members have campaign deficit

By JASON ARMSTRONG

Tribune-Herald staff writer

Winning election multiple times hasn’t been a financial boon for Hawaii County Council members’ campaign war chests, several of which have endured prolonged deficit spending.

Four of the six majority members ended the year with campaign debts, while a fifth showed a 79-cent surplus, according to campaign spending reports filed by Tuesday’s deadline.

“I’ve always had a deficit in my campaign spending,” said Kohala Councilman Pete Hoffmann, a former chairman who is in his eighth straight year in office.

Hawaii County’s term-limits law prohibits a re-election bid this year by Hoffmann, who said he doesn’t regret the financial impact of serving as an elected official.

“I’m never going to be paid back as far as I’m concerned,” added Hoffmann, whose campaign report showed a $4,263 debt as of Dec. 31. That negative balance reflects his outstanding $5,300 loan, which
political candidates often make to themselves.

“I’ve never really tried to ask people to pay back the loan I made to myself on my first campaign to get going,” Hoffmann said, noting that in 2010 he opted to run as a publicly funded candidate, preventing any personal fundraising.

Council Chairman Dominic Yagong of Hamakua was the only majority member whose campaign showed a balance greater than $1; his election surplus stood at $144 at year’s end.

Yagong recently announced his plans to run for Big Island mayor. He likely will need to raise far more money — Yagong collected just $500 during the final six months of 2011 — to wage a successful islandwide campaign against well-funded Mayor Billy Kenoi.

Although he had not filed his latest report as of 8 p.m. Tuesday, Kenoi listed a $59,131 campaign surplus on June 30 of last year.

He and other elected officials had until midnight Tuesday to file the reports covering campaign activity between July 1 and Dec. 31, said Anthony Baldomero Jr., associate director of the state campaign spending commission. Those who skipped the filing deadline could be fined, he said.

The biggest campaign debt among council members belongs to South Kona Councilwoman Brenda Ford, who reported her campaign was $22,929 in arrears as of Dec. 31.

“It’s a personal loan, and I’ll never get it back,” Ford said of the $25,000 she gave her campaign, accounting for much of the reported debt.

“I’m paying the people I work for to work for them,” said Ford, who called her campaign experience a “very bad business decision, but the right thing to do.”

“This doesn’t bode well for me being the Finance Committee chair,” she said of a committee that gets the first crack at the county’s operating budget which currently tops $367 million.

Given Ford’s campaign debt, is she qualified to play a role in managing the county’s much-larger finances?

“It’s apples and oranges,” was her response.

Ford said her household has “zero debt,” while emphasizing that she’s a “very fiscally prudent” lawmaker.

Ford said her own campaign debt doesn’t reflect on her ability to manage taxpayers’ money, but rather shows the need for publicly funded elections of which she will participate in this year for the first time.

“How I spend my personal money is my business,” she said, adding those expenditures have nothing to do with her work on the council.

Hilo Councilman Donald Ikeda, ineligible to run for a fifth two-year term, discontinued his council campaign. But first he donated the entire $831 balance to the Election Campaign Fund, which is used to finance publicly funded elections.

Ironically, some of Ikeda’s money could go to Ford; the two have clashed numerous times during council debates.

During the latest reporting period, a single, $500 contribution was accepted by Puna Councilman Fred Blas, who showed a $2,611 campaign debt halfway through his first term in office.

Blas, who got the money from a Maui donor, listed an outstanding $3,200 loan, which reflected his deficit.

North Kona Councilman Angel Pilago has announced he won’t seek re-election to the seat he won in 2010 after having left it in 2008 to run unsuccessfully for mayor. Pilago’s latest spending report showed his campaign as being $85 in debt as of Dec. 31.

That leaves Hilo Councilmen J Yoshimoto and Dennis Onishi as the only lawmakers with sizable war chests.

Yoshimoto reported a $3,427 cash balance as of mid-2011. He hadn’t filed a report for the remainder of 2011 by presstime Tuesday, according to an updated check of the state’s campaign spending website.

The largest surplus is held by Onishi, who has conducted at least one recent fundraiser to help finance a third election bid.

During the second half of 2011, Onishi’s campaign raised a reported $11,610. Expenses totaling $5,892 left his campaign with a $3,738 cash balance despite a $3,299 outstanding loan, according to his report.

Email Jason Armstrong at jarmstrong@hawaiitribune-
herald.com.