Elle Cochran files complaint against Forward Progress, PRP & Buenconsejo

PRP and its successor organization, Forward Progress (both bankrolled by the Carpenters Union slush fund, Hawaii Carpenters Recovery Market Fund, are yet again the subject of allegations for dirty dealings and illegal actions.

Maui County Councilmember Elle Cochran filed a complaint today with the Campaign Spending Commission against Pacific Resource Partnership (“PRP”), Forward Progress, and former Maui County Council candidate Butch Ka’ala Buenconsejo.  The complaint alleges that Forward Progress and Buenconsejo engaged in illegal campaign coordination during the 2014 election year.  It further alleges that Forward Progress made unauthorized expenditures and contributions to Buenconsejo’s campaign.  The complaint seeks to have fines imposed upon PRP/Forward Progress and its responsible individual directors in an amount three times the illegal expenditures made to Buenconsejo.  It further seeks to ban PRP from organizing or operating as a Super PAC under any name in the State of Hawai‘i.

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County of Maui Contributed to Buenconsejo Campaign?

UPDATE:  County of Maui clarified that this was a refund.

Unsuccessful Maui County Council candidate Ka’ala Buenconsejo reports a campaign donation from the County of Maui in the amount of $325 on 06/09/2014 .  Say what?!  County of Maui has become pretty corrupt under its current Mayor and 2014 Council Chair Gladys Baisa made no bones about her support of Buenconsejo, but donating taxpayer funds to a political campaign seems rather outré even for this administration.

One hopes this is simply an error on the part of this first-time candidate.

 

kaalaCountyMaui

Campaign Spending Commission doubles down on letting Forward Progress donor hide source of funds

Previously we talked about Karen Chun’s complaint against the Hawaii Carpenters Market Recovery Fund (HCMRF) noncandidate committee which is the sole donor to the superPAC, Forward Progress.  Forward Progress has been spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to defeat neighbor island council candidates who are in favor of good planning and who want to regulate GMOs and pesticides.

HCMRF has hidden its donors by filing contribution disclosures indicating that it has donated the money to itself.

A second complaint against Forward Progress which concerned lack of candidate names will be dismissed as the names were listed but apparently a system problem produced the blank column.

The complaint against HCMRF (Forward Progress’s sole donor) will be heard on Wednesday, Oct 22 at 10am, Conference room 204, 235 S. Beretania St, Honolulu.  The agenda also includes two complaints by Gov. Ben Cayatano against Pacific Resources Partnership (PRP), the precursor PAC to Forward Progress and also one of HCMRF’s superPACs.

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Complaints filed against Forward Progress and its donor PAC

In our last article on the superPAC Forward Progress we were attempting to trace the ultimate source of their money. Forward Progress has pumped hundreds of thousands of dollars into local council races on the Big Island and Maui.

According to the Campaign Spending Committee, Forward Progress’ donor, Hawaii Carpenters Recovery Market Fund told them their funding comes from developers and construction companies.  Despite the name “Carpenters”, the money does not come from union membership dues but rather the companies which employ carpenters.

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Hawai'i Campaign Commission goes along with cover-up

In a typically cozy Hawai’i fashion, the Hawai’i Campaign Commission has given the Hawaii Carpenters Market Recovery Program Fund a pass on disclosing where its contributions come from.  According to state law noncandidate committees are required to disclose the source of their contributions and are not allowed any anonymous contributions

But the Hawaii Carpenters Market Recovery Program Fund is apparently exempt from state law.  If you look at their disclosure of contributions, all the contributions come from…themselves.  How does a noncandidate committee fund itself?  Are they printing money?  Does it materialize out of thin air?

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