The state Campaign Spending Commission will consider on Wednesday whether to refer Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke to prosecutors for alleged violations of campaign finance laws.
The panel can dismiss the civil complaint, investigate further, or refer the matter to a prosecutor.
Luke’s campaign committee and several staffers are also named in the complaint.
Attorneys for Luke are asking the commission to put the matter on hold because the state attorney general is conducting a separate criminal investigation.
They said the right against self-incrimination requires any civil action be postponed until after a criminal case involving the same conduct is resolved.
Campaign Spending Commission Executive Director Kristin Izumi-Nitao detailed 12 counts of alleged violations in reports from 2021 to 2022.
She alleged that the campaign on multiple occasions failed to report receiving contributions and spending money.
It’s not unusual for campaigns to amend their finance reports, said Alexander Silvert, a retired federal defense attorney and author. But the complaint identifies what appears to be a pattern of errors and inaccurate reports over a long period, he said.
“We'll have to see how the commission decides to handle this … because there is a difference between intentional and knowing misconduct versus negligent,” Silvert said to HPR. “And if this was simply negligent bookkeeping, it doesn't rise to criminal behavior.”
Izumi-Nitao recommended fines of more than $28,000 if the commission doesn’t send the complaint to prosecutors.
If the commission imposes fines, it will also decide whether they would be levied against the campaign, Luke, or any of the staffers individually.
Luke, a Democrat, went on indefinite leave in April after her attorney said she was the target of a bribery investigation by the state attorney general.
Federal and state authorities have been investigating a bribery incident from over four years ago. The incident happened in January 2022, when an "influential state legislator" allegedly accepted $35,000 in a paper bag.
Luke said she did not take any money in a bag but in 2022 she reported returning two campaign donations from two lobbyists that totalled $10,000. She received the funds at a dinner in January 2022, which fit the description and time period of the $35,000 allegation.
