Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann says he will not accept any funds from a gubernatorial campaign event held this week in Pittsburgh tied to a major rail consultant.
Suggested donations ranged from $500 to $5,000, but the mayor says his only benefit from it will have been as meet-and-greet with friends and NLF players in attendance.
Hannemann took a brief leave from a rail-related Washington visit to appear at a campaign fundraiser held in Pittsburgh, with the RSVP number to transit consultant and former Bombardier official Paul Overby.
The mayor’s city schedule cannot list campaign-related activities, and his local campaign managers say they were not aware of it. The side trip was not taken at city expense; the flight between Washington and Pittsburgh was paid for by the Hannemann campaign committee.
The state-required notice of this event is not yet posted on the Campaign Spending Commission's website, though the mayor says the notice was filed within the past couple of days.
Hannemann spoke with KHON2 today from the Oklahoma: “With respect to event in Pittsburgh, in my view although it was a fundraiser, I saw it more of a meet-and-greet, to be able to touch base with folks who have known me since college, and with the Pittsburgh Steelers, one of my favorite teams. No donations collected that evening, and I’m not coming back to Honolulu with contributions, nor will I accept any contributions from that fundraiser."
According to state law, notices of intent to hold fundraisers must be filed with the Campaign Spending Commission prior to the date of any function in which the suggested contribution exceeds $25 dollars, even if the fundraiser is held out of state.
Mainland fundraising appears to be a big source of campaign cash this election season. The public record shows a litany of mainland fundraising events held by all leading candidates for governor, such as an up-to-$6,000-per-head event for Lt. Gov. Duke Aiona in April in Los Alto, California, or an up-to-$1,000-per-head event for then-Congressman Neil Abercrombie in San Francisco last November.
Link to all candidates’ notices about their fundraisers: http://hawaii.gov/campaign/view-reports/cc/2010-fundraiser-notices
