Maui Mayor-elect Charmaine Tavares' campaign committee is suing the head of the state Campaign Spending Commission, claiming the agency falsely accused several contributors of making excess donations.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Maui Circuit Court, focuses on an amendment to campaign spending laws that went into effect Jan. 1. The change requires businesses, unions, political action committees and other entities to register as a "noncandidate committee" if they accept or donate campaign funds totalling more than $1,000 in a two-year election cycle.

The registration requirement does not apply if the $1,000 aggregate threshold is not met, or if an individual contributes money from his own pocket.

The Tavares supporters each gave the candidate $2,000 before the Sept. 23 primary election, $1,000 more than allowed without registering as a noncandidate committee, according to Barbara Wong, executive director of the Campaign Spending Commission. She said the donors could have contributed up to $1,000 to the Tavares campaign committee through Sept. 23, then registered and contributed another $1,000 before the general election.

The contributors in question include Talboy Construction of Boise, Idaho; Quong Enterprises of Orange, Calif.; and Cheeseburger in Paradise of Portola, Calif.

Wong said the Tavares campaign did nothing wrong, but needs to return the excess funds. The contributors, meanwhile, are subject to fines.

The lawsuit filed by the candidate's committee argues the $2,000 donations are legal and should be allowed, and seeks to halt prosecution of the contributors. Attorney William Crockett, who filed the complaint, could not be reached for comment yesterday.

The situation is ironic because Tavares, who unseated Mayor Alan Arakawa in the Nov. 7 election, decided to limit campaign donations to her committee to $2,000, half of what is allowed for the mayor's race.

The definition of a "noncandidate committee" and other nuances of the law seem to be tripping up some folks, Wong said. Although 356 entities complied with the rules and registered as required, at least 15 others have been notified that they donated more than the $1,000 allowed without registering, she said. In most, if not all, cases the violations were unintentional, Wong said. In fact, some of the parties came forward on their own to report that they had erred.

"A lot of people did get it right, but it appears some didn't know about it," she said. "We got tons of phone calls" from groups seeking clarification of the rule change.

The Campaign Spending Commission so far has fined at least six entities a total of $3,600 for violations involving the noncandidate committee registration law. They are Kevin's Electric Inc., Pacific Marine & Supply Co., KRS Development Inc., D.R. Horton/Schuler Homes LLC, Credit Associates of Maui and Kaneohe Ranch Management.

Wong said the amendment regarding registration of noncandidate committees and the donation threshold is intended to provide "transparency so the public can see what special interests are contributing to and where contributions to campaign committees are coming from."

The change makes it easier to track political funds and provides a way to cross-check campaign contribution reports filed by candidates. For example, "the noncandidate report of one contributor could be reviewed, rather than reports from numerous candidates, to determine the amount of contributions that were made," Wong said.

An attempt by the 2006 Legislature to repeal the rule amendment nearly passed, and Wong said she expects another attempt will be made next year. Opponents of the rule change say it makes it more difficult to obtain corporate donations.

Wong said the Campaign Spending Commission next month will conduct an analysis of contributions made during the recent elections to see if that was true.

Reach Christie Wilson at cwilson@honoluluadvertiser.com.