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Wednesday, June 25, 2025

Feds Rule on Campaign Spending Complaint Four Days after Hawaii Republican Convention tosses out Crazies

By Andrew Walden @ 12:12 AM :: 3312 Views 		 

Feds Rule on Campaign Spending Complaint Four Days after Hawaii Republican Convention tosses out Crazies

by Andrew Walden

Timing is everything.

Just four days after Hawaii Republican delegates ousted Chair Tamara McKay and her supporters from Party leadership, the Federal Election Commission, April 29, 2025, ruled on the months-old complaint, filed by yours truly, regarding the Party’s use and reporting of the $546,381.14 received from selling the Hawaii GOP Headquarters.

At the time of the complaint, money had been drawn out and transferred to cover federal-related campaign expenses.  FEC Commissioners explaining their decision to dismiss, explain that this proved:

“…The (Hawaii Republican Party) did, in fact, deposit the proceeds of the sale  into its non-federal account….”

In dismissing a parallel state-level complaint, Hawaii Campaign Spending Commission Vice Chair David Chee had, October 16, 2024, explained:

“…involving this complaint, there has been no state campaign spending that has occurred yet. We do not have jurisdiction to do anything with respect to this complaint except dismiss it because it doesn't seem to involve any campaign spending.”

Chee’s key word is, “yet.”

The akamai reader may wonder what type of campaign spending account is neither state nor federal. 

That’s a head-scratcher, but fortunately, the Hawaii Republican Party retained ‘Aristotle’, a DC-based campaign spending consultancy made up of former FEC personnel.  In an August 20, 2024, memo forwarded to both state and federal campaign spending authorities, Aristotle explains:

“Because we could not determine that the Hawaii GOP office was purchased solely with federal funds, we recommend that the sale proceeds be deposited into a non-federal account….

“While the lack of assurance that the state party office was purchased solely with federal funds prevents the deposit of building fund proceeds directly into the federal account, the allocation process will allow those funds to be moved in piecemeal fashion to the federal account over time.  In effect, the proceeds from the office sale will function as an endowment to help fund party operations for some time into the future.

“Whether the building fund account and disbursements therefore should be included in reports to the Hawaii Campaign Spending Commission (CSC) is beyond the scope of this memo and our expertise.  We recommend consulting with the CSC about state reporting requirements, if any.”

Now it is up to team sanity, headed by the newly elected Hawaii Republican Chair Art Hannemann and Treasurer Dennis Mataia, to use this ‘endowment’ wisely for both state and federal campaign expenses.

Timing is everything.

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PDF:  FEC Closes Investigation of HI GOP June 5, 2025.

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