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New rules and proposed laws could fundamentally change how political campaigns are financed.
New rules and proposed laws could fundamentally change how political campaigns are financed.
Hawaiʻi could soon take significant steps against the kind of political patronage that has come to define local politics for generations.
Twenty years ago, lawmakers promised to curtail campaign donations from government contractors after those transactions had come to be seen as corrupt following a series of scandals in Honolulu. But the Legislature wrote in a loophole that still allowed donations from principals of the companies and their family members.
An investigation by Civil Beat and the New York Times earlier this year found that nearly $1 in every $5 donated to political campaigns since 2006 came from people with ties to government contractors. The Times/Civil Beat story also exposed fundraising parties involving contractors and state employees that revealed just how badly the law was circumvented.
Armed with that information, lawmakers said they plan to revisit the ban on contractor donations when the Legislature convenes in January.
There’s also momentum building in other areas meant to combat public corruption. A bigger budget is proposed for the office that monitors political donations and new ethics rules seek to crack down on the relationship between contractors and state workers.
A coalition of good government advocates has been building support for those reform measures and others aimed at changing the way political campaigns in Hawaiʻi are financed.
This renewed push comes more than two years after a panel of experts, who came to be known as the Foley Commission, proposed a number of corrective measures aimed at increasing transparency in government following the convictions of two former state lawmakers in a bribery scandal.
Many of the panel’s most meaningful proposals failed to pass the Legislature during the last two sessions.
The state Campaign Spending Commission, the agency tasked with overseeing political donations in Hawaiʻi, will again ask lawmakers to ban officers of government contractors and their family members from donating to campaigns.
Under the commission’s proposed bill, those individuals would not be able to donate for the duration of the company contract. They also would not be able to contribute to political action committees.
Rather than a complete ban, Rep. David Tarnas is considering restricting the amount of money that people connected to contractors are allowed to donate. He’d also like to see restrictions placed on company lobbyists and their immediate family members.
Tarnas said he wants to see more robust enforcement measures than what has been proposed in recent years. He is looking at laws in Connecticut that could provide a model for proposals in Hawaiʻi.
Connecticut also extends its ban on contractor donations to companies that are prospective bidders, something Tarnas would like to see adopted in Hawaiʻi.
A similar proposal to ban contractor donations died in 2023 after lawmakers couldn’t reach an agreement.
Tarnas said that he got pushback from unpaid board members of nonprofits who said they did not benefit financially from government grants won by their organizations. He said he would prefer that this session’s bill focus on for-profit companies.
The commission is also proposing a bill that would ban all elected officials from accepting campaign donations while the Legislature is in session.
The commission, which has just five staff members and is responsible for monitoring millions of dollars in donations every year, may also get its first staffing increase in nearly 30 years.
The governor’s proposed budget includes at least $200,000 in permanent funding for two additional positions. Kristin Izumi-Nitao, the commission’s executive director, said those would include an investigator and an elections assistant.
The assistant would field calls from candidate committees and help with administrative tasks while the investigator would actively look for campaign spending violations.
Though required by law to investigate instances of campaign spending misconduct, the commission does not currently have a full-time investigator.
“I can’t think of another enforcement agency with investigative duties that does not have an investigator,” Izumi-Nitao said. “Don’t you think that’s a no brainer?”
The Hawaiʻi Ethics Commission, which oversees the conduct of state employees, is proposing new rules to ban state employees from soliciting campaign donations from state contractors.
The commission spent much of the last year examining ways to deal with that issue after the Times/Civil Beat story detailed political donations made by state transportation contractors at parties hosted by a former state transportation official.
Investigation: Inside the Late-Night Parties Where Hawaii Politicians Raked In Money
The commission examined rules in all 50 states, paying particular attention to those in Kentucky and Ohio. However, none of them appeared to be suitable for Hawaiʻi and some even excluded large swaths of government workers.
During its November meeting, the commission staff recommended new rules to limit political activity by state employees and government vendors. That rule would say that legislators and employees shall not:
“Use or attempt to use their official position to solicit, request, or otherwise extract political contributions or support for any candidate, campaign, or political party from any vendor, contractor, or any other person or business engaged in procurement with their state agency, or over any individual or business that they supervise, regulate, inspect, or otherwise exercise official authority.”
The rules being considered by the Ethics Commission would put an end to those types of functions, Robert Harris, the commission’s executive director, said during a November meeting.
The Legislature would not have to approve the rules. However, they are subject to a lengthy public comment process and would eventually need to be signed by the governor, a process that could extend well into 2025.
Meanwhile, a coalition of good government groups is building support among communities on Oʻahu for those measures along with others meant to fundamentally change how political campaigns are financed.
Ten of Oʻahu’s 36 neighborhood boards, representing communities from Diamond Head to Waiʻanae, have adopted resolutions calling for changes to the House’s internal rules aimed at making the legislative process smoother and more transparent by mandating timely publication of bill testimony and removing the power of committee chairs to unilaterally kill legislation.
Some versions of the resolution also express support for closing the contractor donations loophole and creating a system of comprehensive public funding for political campaigns.
The McCully-Moiliili Neighborhood Board passed its resolution expressing support for those changes in October.
“This is a start,” board member Wookie Kim said during the meeting. “Our board needs to take steps to put pressure on those who have the power to make our process of governing better, more transparent and more accountable.”
Aria Castillo, program adviser with the Hawaiʻi Alliance for Progressive Action, is part of the coalition pitching the resolutions to neighborhood boards.
She said that many communities face similar issues with the legislative process, such as not being able to access testimony in a timely manner and seeing bills die without ever getting a hearing. She hopes that the rule changes would allow some of the more aggressive reform measures to pass, and that support from the neighborhood boards sends a message to politicians.
“It holds lawmakers accountable, telling them your community supports these rule changes,” she said. “And it empowers them – to see that their community supports these too.”
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Blaze Lovell is a reporter for Civil Beat. Born and raised on Oʻahu, Lovell is a graduate of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. You can reach him at blovell@civilbeat.org.
Civil Beat has been named the best overall news site in Hawaii for the 14th year in a row by the Society of Professional Journalists Hawaii Chapter.
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