Lobbying expected to target legislators in House

Now that Gov. Neil Abercrombie has set a date of Oct. 28 for lawmakers to take up the issue of gay marriage, the timing gives advocates and opponents ample time to lobby the Legislature over the issue.

While critics say the five-day special session will stifle debate that would ordinarily take place over the course of a four-month-long regular session, others argue that a special session gives the issue the singular attention it deserves.

“Doing this in a special session actually places more emphasis on the issue and allows more focus on the community because it’s the only issue on the table,” Rep. Chris Lee (D, Kailua-Lanikai-Waimanalo), one of the most outspoken supporters of the proposal, said Tuesday. “It’s not going get lost in the shuffle of other issues during the regular session.

“So if ever there was a time to vet an issue, this is it.”

House Speaker Joe Souki (D, Waihee-Waiehu-Wailuku) said he also expects to hear from the public.

“Now that the decision has been made, it gives the public time to comment on the proposed legislation before the special session convenes on Oct. 28,” Souki said in a statement Monday, after Abercrombie’s announcement that he was calling the lawmakers into special session to take up the marriage equity proposal.

Lobbying efforts are expected to shift to the state House of Representatives, where lawmakers have said the vote is close and some members still could be persuaded to change their minds.

Some lawmakers have said privately that the count in favor of passing a bill is 28, two more than the 26 needed to get a measure passed in the 51-member House.

“We’ll see, is probably the best answer over how this plays out over the next few months,” said House Minority Leader Rep. Aaron Ling Johanson (R, Fort Shafter-Moanalua Gardens-Aliamanu).

“That weighs on a lot of people — the practical political ramifications,” he added. “That’s one of the reasons we’re probably having a special session now as opposed to in the general session, because 2013 is not an election year but 2014 is.”

Johanson’s counterpart, House Majority Leader Scott Saiki (D, Downtown-Kakaako-McCully) said he expects the vote count to solidify in the coming weeks, and he expects to have at least 26 by the time the special session rolls around.

Still, he acknowledged that seven weeks is a long time for opposition to mount.

“It gives us ample opportunity to work with the members and with the public to address any questions or concerns and to make sure that we’re able to fine-tune the legislation that we’re going to end up voting on,” Saiki said.

The HawaiiRepublican Party, which opposes the special session, urged members to continue contacting lawmakers to voice their opinions on the issue.

Eva Andrade, executive director of the Hawaii Family Forum, said her group would urge the public to make direct contact with lawmakers to oppose the bill in special session and take it up as a constitutional amendment in the regular session.

“We believe that rather than the Legislature making this decision that it should be put to the people, so that the people can raise their voice,” Andrade said Wednesday.

The Hawaii Catholic Conference, one of the faith-based groups that opposes the special session, said it would pursue a lobbying effort of emails and phone calls to try to persuade lawmakers to vote down the measure and pursue efforts such as a constitutional amendment during the regular session.

“Right now, now what we have to do is try to convince the legislators that at least some of the faith-based community is opposed to same-sex marriage to begin with,” Deacon Walter Yoshi­mitsu, executive director of the Hawaii Catholic Conference, said Tuesday. “Then the lobbying is to tell them to wait until the regular session.

“I’ve heard that the vote in the House is close, so if it’s close then both sides are going to try to convince those people who are sitting on the fence. We’re hoping to convince them to go our way and I suppose the others are going to try to convince them to go their way.”

Lee, who has said all along that he believes the votes are there to pass the bill, said Tuesday he has not heard anything to change his mind.

“People have been hearing about this issue for several months now and if they’re on the fence I expect for them it’ll be a game-day decision right up to the very end,”Lee said. “I think a lot of the folks who have been in support have done so for very strong reasons and I have no reason to expect that they will change.”

Lee added he is hopeful that mainland lobbying groups on both sides of the issue will stay out of Hawaii.

“The closer we get, the more we’re going to start hearing from mainland interests,” he said. “I think we want to be very careful because we’re trying as hard as we can to avoid having mainland campaigns come in from either side and tell us here in Hawaii how we should do this.

“It should be a local decision made by us here in Hawaii.”