Establishes limits for campaign contributions to candidates, noncandidate committees, and political parties during specified election periods; Specifies that excess contributions be returned to the original donor within thirty days of receipt of the donation; Requires any excess contributions not returned to the original donor within thirty days to escheat to the Hawaii election campaign fund.

A BILL FOR AN ACT

SECTION 1. Section 11-204, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

"§11-204 Campaign contributions; limits as to persons. [(a)

(b)] (a) No person or any other entity shall make contributions to any candidate greater than $500 during an election period. This limit shall not apply to a loan made to a candidate by a financial institution in the ordinary course of business.

(c) No person or any other entity shall make contributions to a noncandidate committee, in an aggregate amount greater than [$1,000] $500 in an election[; except that in the case of a corporation or company using funds from its own treasury, there shall be no limit on contributions or expenditures to the corporation or company noncandidate committee].

[(c)] (e) A candidate's immediate family, in making contributions to the candidate's campaign, shall be exempt from the above limitation, but shall be limited in the aggregate to $50,000 in any election period. The aggregate amount of $50,000 shall include any loans made for campaign purposes to the candidate from the candidate's immediate family.

[(d)] (f) A contribution by a dependent minor shall be reported in the name of the minor but shall be counted against the contribution of the minor's parent or guardian.

[(e)] (g) Any candidate, candidate's committee, or committee that receives in the aggregate more than the applicable limits set forth in this section in any primary, initial special, special, or general election from a person, shall be required to [do one of the following:

A candidate, candidate's committee, or committee who complies with this subsection prior to the initiation of prosecution shall not be subject to any penalty under section 11-228.

[(f)] (h) All payments made by a person or political party whose contributions or expenditure activity is financed, maintained, or controlled by any corporation, labor organization, association, political party, or any other person or committee, including any parent, subsidiary, branch, division, department, or local unit of the corporation, labor organization, association, political party, political committees established and maintained by a national political party, or any other person, or by any group of those persons shall be considered to be made by a single person or political party.

[(g)] (i) A contribution made by two or more corporations shall be treated as one person when such corporations:

(2) Share two or more corporate officers;

(4) Are in a parent-subsidiary relationship.

[(h)] (j) An individual and any general partnership in which the individual is a partner, or an individual and any corporation in which the individual owns a controlling interest, shall be treated as one person.

[(i)] (k) No committee [which] that supports or opposes a candidate for public office shall have as officers individuals who serve as officers on any other committee which supports or opposes the same candidate. No such committee shall act in concert with, or solicit or make contributions on behalf of, any other committee.

[(j)] (l) No contributions or expenditures shall be made to or on behalf of a candidate or committee by a foreign national or foreign corporation, including a domestic subsidiary of a foreign corporation, a domestic corporation that is owned by a foreign national, or a local subsidiary where administrative control is retained by the foreign corporation, and in the same manner prohibited under 2 United States Code section 441e and 11 Code of Federal Regulations [110.4(a) and 110.9(a),] 110.20, as amended. No foreign-owned domestic corporation shall make contributions where:

(2) The contribution funds are not domestically-derived.

[(k)] (m) No person or any other entity [other than political committees established and maintained by a national political party] shall make contributions to a political party in an aggregate amount greater than [$25,000] $10,000 in any two-year election period. [No political committee established and maintained by a national political party, shall make contributions to a political party in an aggregate amount greater than $50,000 in any two-year election period.

(l)] (n) [Except for subsection (j), this] This section shall not apply to ballot issue committees."

SECTION 2. If any provision of this Act, or the application thereof to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the invalidity shall not affect other provisions or applications of the Act, which can be given effect without the invalid provision or application, and to this end the provisions of this Act are severable.

SECTION 3. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect upon its approval and shall apply to contributions received for the election period beginning in 2002 for a four-year office and to contributions received for the election period beginning in 2004 for a two-year office. Contributions received that are greater than $500 shall within ninety days of

the passage of this Act be returned to contributors or escheat to the Hawaii election campaign fund.