Oct 23, 2006 By Alison Hawkes For The 5 min read

HARRISBURG – Bucks County Republican state lawmakers are at a loss to explain why a Japanese business executive based in New York is a top contributor to their 2006 campaigns. Hatsuhiko Kageyama, the vice president of Sojitz Corporation of America, the U.S. subsidiary of a major Japanese business conglomerate, donated $5,000 each to four Bucks County Republicans and $1,000 to a fifth in May and early June.

The checks came in two months after a Sojitz consortium managed by Kageyama won a $244 million contract with SEPTA to build regional rail cars.

The Bucks County lawmakers receiving checks include Rep. Chuck McIlhinney, who is running for the 10th Senate seat, Rep. Kathy Watson, Rep. Bernie O’Neill and Sen. Tommy Tomlinson. The $1,000 donation went to Rep. Scott Petri.

None of the candidates said they had heard of Kageyama or Sojitz Corp. and couldn’t explain why the donor was interested in Bucks County. Several candidates said the check came through Bucks County Republican chairman Harry Fawkes.

“It’s the biggest donation I ever received,” said O’Neill. “What his connection is to Bucks County, I don’t know. I asked Harry (Fawkes) who he was and he told me he’s a friend of the party.”

O’Neill said he was told the money was going towards candidates with contested races, although none of those who received the contributions, with the exception of McIlhinney, are considered vulnerable.

Watson said this donation stood out because she normally gets $25 and $50 donations. Low-key House races often run on less than $100,000, making a $5,000 check a sizable offering.

“I Googled him and he looked perfectly fine,” she said. “And he wasn’t a developer.”

According to county property records, Kageyama does not own a home in Bucks. He has never contributed to any other Pennsylvania candidates, according to campaign finance records. Attempts to reach Kageyama by email were unsuccessful; a secretary said he is on an overseas business trip.

Fawkes offered little explanation of the mystery donor, saying he got a phone call from Kageyama that he wanted to donate to legislators. Fawkes said he didn’t know who Kageyama is, but he was sure it was “clean money.

“He said he wanted to donate to them and I said that’s fine,” Fawkes said. “There’s nothing behind it. No secrets. Sometimes we get checks from other places that donated to the party and I don’t know who they are.”

But Larry Ceisler, a Democratic consultant and public relations specialist, questioned the link to SEPTA.

“You have to wonder why someone whose only apparent interest in Pennsylvania is SEPTA would want to contribute to candidates in Bucks County,” Ceisler said.

Kageyama and Sojitz’s only known connection to the Philadelphia area is a $244 million contract with SEPTA it received in March to build 104 new Silverliner V regional rail cars, the largest investment the transit agency has made in regional rail vehicles in 40 years.

The contract went to United Transit Systems LLC, a consortium of Tokyo-based Sojitz and a South Korean manufacturer, Rotem Company. Kageyama was the United Transit project manager.

United Transit won the bid but only after a competing firm, Kawasaki Rail Car Inc., blocked the initial deal. In 2004, Kawasaki sued SEPTA charging that the bidding process was rigged because the agency changed the original technical specifications in the middle of the bidding process in a way that favored United Transit.

In a legal settlement, SEPTA agreed to redo the bid and the second time around, United Transit won as the lowest bidder against Kawasaki.

Kawasaki’s lawyer Tom Sprague said there are no outstanding legal issues. But he recalled the way United Transit assembled a politically connected team, including the former Pennsylvania Republican chairman-turned lobbyist Alan Novak.

“United Transit had certainly lined up a whole lot of political support on its behalf,” Sprague said.

Pasquale Deon, a well-known Bucks County businessman who has been one of the largest fund-raisers for Bucks Republicans, is chairman of the 15-member SEPTA board. Deon gave more than $37,000 in 2005 to mostly Republican candidates.

But Deon said he has pulled the plug on fund-raising since becoming an investor in the Sands Bethworks casino project in Bethlehem in 2005, which is competing for a gambling license. As a gambling applicant, state law prohibits him from contributing directly to candidates from this year forward, although the law does not explicitly preclude him from fundraising. However, Deon said his lawyers told him he couldn’t fundraise.

“I don’t do any fund-raising in Bucks. I’m not allowed,” Deon said. “I’m taking the safe, honest legal approach.”

As for the contribution, Deon said he’s clueless about why it’s coming to Bucks.

“Your guess is as good as mine,” Deon said. “I don’t know if what you’re telling me is true. I have no interest in it. I don’t care. You’re telling me something I have no knowledge of.”

Novak did not return calls for comment.

Ceisler called the situation “bizarre.”

“It really smells of trying to curry favor or repay a past favor, or influence peddling,” Ceisler said. “It certainly is bizarre and if I was running a campaign and I saw that on my report before I filed it, I would want to know what it was. Those campaigns should have an explanation because that sticks out like a sore thumb.”

Alison Hawkes can be reached at 717-705-6330 or ahawkes@calkins-media.com.