The state Campaign Spending Commission on Wednesday referred two complaints related to the 2012 mayoral campaign activities of the Pacific Resource Partnership Political Action Committee to city prosecutors to determine if criminal charges should be filed.

Commissioners voted 3-1 to refer both complaints for further consideration.

The complaints were filed earlier this year by former Gov. Ben Cayetano and commission Executive Director Kristin Izumi-Nitao.

Cayetano’s complaint alleges that the PRP PAC schemed to defeat his mayoral candidacy months before it filed formally as a PAC, failed to state clearly that expenditures were made to oppose his candidacy and failed to report several hundred thousand dollars of expenditures to hire several consultants and public relations people.

Izumi-Nitao’s complaint charges the super PAC with failing to report an invoice for more than $86,000 for money spent to help the 2012 campaigns of Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell and two others.

Leroy Colombe, an attorney for PRP, acknowledged that mistakes were made in reporting, but argued that referring the complaints for prosecution was an extraordinary step. 

There was no intent on PRP’s part to knowingly hide the expenditures, Colombe added, and noted that PRP had been cooperative in addressing the matter by amending reports and agreeing to fines as set forth by the commission.

PRP, also known as the Hawaii Carpenters Market Recovery Program, is a consortium of union carpenters and independent contractors who set up the PRP PAC as an independent noncandidate committee, meaning it could spend an unlimited amount to advance a person’s candidacy so long as there was no coordination with the candidate.

The PRP PAC was dissolved in January 2013, but the Hawaii Carpenters Market Recovery Program has since set up the group Forward Progress as a separate super PAC tht was active in the 2014 elections.