The state agency charged with enforcing Hawaii’s campaign finance laws is reviewing several years’ worth of records from past races by state Rep. Kaniela Ing, who is running for Congress this year.

Gary Kam, general counsel to the state Campaign Spending Commission, said the agency’s staff has been looking into Ing’s campaign reporting, but could not provide any details of the probe. The review began around 2015.

Ing, 29, was first elected to the state House representing South Maui in 2012 and was re-elected twice. He announced in November that he would run for the U.S. House seat representing urban Honolulu.

Ing said in an interview that he has not been informed of any investigation and does not know the focus of the commission’s review.

He did acknowledge that some reporting errors may have happened during his earlier campaigns. Hawaii News Now first reported Ing’s campaign finance reporting issue, including examples where donations were reported by contributors but not reported as received by Ing’s campaign.

A Honolulu Star-Advertiser review of campaign data found an example where the Realtors Political Action Committee of Hawaii reported seven campaign contributions to Friends of Kaniela Ing between 2013 and 2017 totaling $2,900. The campaign, meanwhile, reported receiving three donations totaling $500 from the Hawaii Association of Realtors over the same time period.

“I apologize and take full responsibility if any mistakes were made on my previous grass-roots state House campaigns,” Ing said. “I am cooperating with the Campaign Spending Commission any way I can with full transparency, and I’m confident that they will find no ill intent.”

He said the campaign has been reviewing all of its past financial reports and has filed some amended reports with the commission.

The commission enforces Hawaii’s broad campaign finance laws, which deal with everything from contribution limits to what campaign funds can be spent on and when disclosures must be filed. The agency, which has subpoena powers, has a stated goal of increasing transparency and integrity around campaign donations and expenditures.

In general, alleged violations that rise to the level of a formal complaint are presented to the commission, which typically meets once a month. Commissioners can decide to dismiss a complaint, investigate further, make a preliminary determination regarding probable cause, impose administrative fines or refer a case for criminal prosecution.

The commission has no jurisdiction over federal campaigns.

Ing said he has since stepped up his campaign reporting, bringing on people for his congressional race who have accounting experience.

“This year we are running a much more sophisticated congressional campaign with accounting support from professionals to make sure this won’t happen again,” he said.

Ing said he has pledged not to accept contributions from corporate political action committees for his U.S. House race.

“So we’re dealing with thousands of donations. We’ve had 5,000 individual small-dollar donations because we’re fighting for the working class. That also means there’s a lot more reporting to do,” he said.

Ing is one of several candidates vying for the U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa’s seat. Also running are state Sen. Donna Mercado Kim, Lt. Gov. Doug Chin, Honolulu City Councilman Ernie Martin and state Rep. Beth Fukumoto.