I think it’s fair to call the $1,043,454.67 spent by the Pacific Resource Partnership on political advertising and polling so far this year “unprecedented.”
Hawaii has never seen this kind of spending by a local group, as far as I know.
But it’s only part of the spending by these special interests.
PRP is funded through the Hawaii Carpenters Union Market Recovery Fund, which is registered separately with the Campaign Spending Commission.
It’s interesting to note that although Pacific Resource Partnership reports all of its funding came from the Market Recovery Fund, none of those expenditures are reported by the Market Recovery Fund.
Instead, it’s only reported expenditures were contributions of $2,000 each to Hawaii County Council candidates Oliver “Sonny” Shimaoka and Zendo Kern.
The Hawaii Carpenters Political Action Fund, the union PAC, is also registered with the commission and reported spending an additional $83,088.85 in direct contributions to candidates.
The carpenters’ largest contributions during this period (January 1 through July 27, 2012) went to Clarence Nishihara (facing a challenge by Alex Sonson in Senate District 17) and Donald Ikeda (challenging incumbent Gilbert Kahele in Senate District 1), $3,500 each; Joey Manahan (Honolulu City Council candidate); Senators Pohai Ryan and Malama Solomon, $3,000 each; and Big Island Mayor Billy Kenoi ($2,800).
But the Carpenters PAC also contributed $1,800 to both Shimaoka and Kern.
Depending on how the Campaign Spending Commission interprets the complex relationship between Pacific Resource Partnership, the Carpenters Union PAC, and the Hawaii Carpenters Market Recovery Fund, the carpenters aggregate contributions to these candidates could be in excess of the applicable $2,000 limit.
Section 11-361 HRS provides, in part:
All contributions and expenditures of a person whose contributions or expenditures are financed, maintained, or controlled by any corporation, labor organization, association, party, or any other person, including any parent, subsidiary, branch, division, department, or local unit of the corporation, labor organization, association, party, political committees established and maintained by a national political party, or by any group of those persons shall be considered to be made by a single person.
If the union is considered to have “financed, maintained, or controlled” the expenditures by the three affiliated political organizations, then it may have exceeded the limits in these cases.
I’ve tracked down the Hawaii Carpenters most recent LM-2 annual report to the U.S. Labor Department, and the latest available tax return of the Market Recovery Fund.
It appears that almost all of the Market Recovery Fund’s $3+ million income during the year came from employer contributions, at least that’s what the organization’s tax form says. That is, the companies that have contracts with the carpenters put up the money that is going to all of the PRP’s pro-rail advertising as well as its attack ads targeting Ben Cayetano. Those same companies will, we all understand, benefit mightily from the rail project. If not, they wouldn’t be spending all this money.
Pay to play in a different form?
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If I Were A Carpenter I would be furious at how my dues were being spent, regardless of whether it might mean a job for me or not.
SAD SAD SAD! All the $$ wasted attacking Cayetano could have gone to projects that would redevelop Honolulu’s ageing and crumbling urban core. The foolish PRP leaders promoting the destruction of our farmlands are guaranteeing a dim future for its members and the rest of us.
Its pretty obvious all the rail $$ has gone to consultants and PR and the few jobs will go to off island rail specialists, not our local braddahs.
The Carpenters Union appears to be suffering from a closed mind and narrow perspective when it comes t o possible jobs. They would seat eoynthe aina!
IPad,s are a challenge….Carpenters union would destroy the aina
Were I a paying member of PRP, I’d be fairly hostile to those who spent over a million dollars tarnishing my organization’s reputation. That’s a lot of kala to achieve an equivalence between PRP and Dirty Politics.
All right, what does the majority of the paying members of the Pacific Resource Partnership actually think? (Not the shrieking minority, if they have one……)
Is a significant number of members about to jump ship from the Partnership over $1M in political ads?
Good follow-up story here.
Note their mission is: “To study and explore ways of eliminating potential problems that inhibit the economic development of the carpentry industry in Hawaii.” It doesn’t state “. . . try to eliminate potential problems. . . “
You wrote ” employer contributions…the companies that have contracts with the carpenters put up the money that is going to all of the PRP’s pro-rail advertising as well as its attack ads targeting Ben Cayetano. Those same companies will, we all understand, benefit mightily from the rail project. If not, they wouldn’t be spending all this money”
I think you misunderstand how this works. The companies contributions are not voluntary. To do way sort of commercial work or government work you must use, for all intents and purposes, unions carpenters. To use union carpenters, you must sign the unions agreement. The union agreement is not negotiable, and includes mandatory contributions by the employers to this fund. The employer don’t decide how much to contribute to it, and or how the money is spent. So while some companies who higher union carpenters may agree with how the funds are spent, it is not a cause and effect relationship.
The Hawaii Carpenters Recovery Market Fund is supposedly funded by DEVELOPERS and CONSTRUCTION COMPANIES who employ union carpenters.
It is part of the union contract that employers are required to pay into this fund.
It is controlled half by the carpenters union and half by the DEVELOPERS and CONSTRUCTION COMPANIES.
It hides the source of its contributions by claiming its contributions come from itself. A clear violation of the law.
John White who heads up PRP also heads up Hawaii Carpenters Recovery Market Fund.
Hawaii Carpenters Recovery Market Fund is the sole contributor to Forward Progress SuperPAC which John White also heads up.