One of the leading candidates in the race for lieutenant governor was a week late filing required campaign finance reports, raising questions about why she missed the deadline.

State Rep. Della Au Belatti finally filed the reports Thursday afternoon, but not before her political rival, Kauaʻi Mayor Derek Kawakami, had issued press releases publicly calling her out for the missing report.

The dustup came less than 48 hours after Belatti accused Kawakami of not coming clean on his campaign donations from a convicted felon and insisted that transparency and accountability should be a priority for elected officials.

Why the Belatti campaign did not meet the July 9 deadline for the filing is unclear. Nathan Hokama, a spokesperson for Belatti, told Civil Beat Thursday that the campaign believes “a glitch” prevented the report’s posting.

“I don’t know the details on the glitch, but two days later, another attempt was made to file those individual contributions documents, and that did go through,” Hokama said just hours before the documents went up. “There was confirmation that that did get through, but for some reason we can’t figure out why it’s not posting. It’s not showing up, and so they are trying to work with the Campaign Spending Commission to figure out why it’s not posting.”

The problem was finally resolved when Belatti’s campaign treasurer, John Salerno, worked with the state Office of Enterprise Technology Services.

Kristie Cruz Chang, the campaign spending commission’s associate director, confirmed that the Belatti campaign worked with her office to fix the problem. As of Thursday, she said the campaign “was still indicating there is a glitch.”

But Chang said she saw no evidence that the technical problem might have occurred on her end. Chang also said that no other campaign reported a filing challenge.

Belatti’s report, which covers Jan. 1 through June 30, shows her receiving $28,615 in contributions. But Belatti did not officially enter the race for lieutenant governor until May 28, when she dropped her bid for Hawaiʻi’s 1st Congressional District.

In her joint appearance with Kawakami on the HNN Spotlight program Tuesday — the only time the two candidates are expected to face each other before the Aug. 8 primary — Belatti faulted Kawakami for not returning a $15,000 contribution from Milton Choy, a Honolulu businessman convicted of bribing state and county officials who died in federal custody in January 2024.

Choy was central to one of the biggest political corruption scandals in recent state history, one that saw two former top legislators sent to prison. Repercussions from the scandal continue, notably a Hawaiʻi Attorney General’s Office investigation into Sylvia Luke, the lieutenant governor who is currently on unpaid leave.

Kawakami wanted to know if Belatti had returned a contribution he said she had accepted from lobbyist Tobi Solidum, also connected to the Choy case and who has received a target letter in the state investigation.

Chang, the campaign spending associate director, said her office would follow state law regarding penalties for the filing of a late report. The fine can’t exceed $50 for the seven days following the missed deadline.

Chang said that the Belatti campaign indicated it may have a screenshot of an error message when the campaign tried to unsuccessfully file the report.

Belatti’s summary disclosure, which did meet the July 9 deadline, showed she had raised a total of $88,517. But $50,000 of that came from Belatti herself in the form of a loan.

Kawakami raised $281,700 in the last six months for a total of $578,690 for the entire election cycle. He reported having $128,350 in cash on hand.

Not counting the $50,000 loan, Belatti reported a surplus of $7,146. A third candidate, Honolulu attorney John Choi, raised $25,860 and had $10,562 remaining in cash.

The other two candidates in the Democratic primary, Sam Puletasi and Ku Lono (Bobby) Cuadro, did not file spending reports.