Dissidents reign as session opens

For the cadre of state House Demo­crats whose opposition to Speaker Calvin Say long left them on the political margins, their exile ends today.

When the new session of the Legislature opens, veteran Rep. Joseph Souki will take the gavel from Say on the strength of a dissident faction that has sought to remove Say for the past eight years.

The internal feud unfolded mostly away from public view and was stoked by personalities as much as principle. Several of the dissidents have cloaked the struggle as a victory for progressive change, but their partnership with Souki — who as speaker in the 1990s ran the House just as rigidly as Say — and their alliance with minority Republicans suggest more of a pragmatic compromise.

"The House is the training ground for future political leaders of our state, and I felt like it was important for the House to reflect generational changes," said Rep. Scott Saiki (D, Downtown-Kakaako-McCully), a leading dissident who will be Souki’s majority leader. "And we weren’t giving all of the members the opportunity to advance in that way."

The leadership dispute is an example of how alliances within a chamber dominated by one political party can form and change over time. Saiki and Rep. Sylvia Luke (D, Punchbowl-Pauoa-Nuuanu), a leading dissident who will become chairwoman of the powerful House Finance Committee, were among the Demo­crats who had turned to Say to help oust Souki as speaker after the 1998 elections.

Luke was a vice speaker under Say, and Saiki was Say’s majority leader, until their relationships disintegrated in part about how long Say planned to remain in charge of the House. According to lawmakers familiar with what happened, Saiki and Luke thought Say would lead the House for six years, but when it became obvious that Say did not plan to step aside, challenges to his rule surfaced when Demo­crats would organize to choose their leadership and committee assignments after every election cycle.

Dissidents complained that the more conservative Say did not involve enough lawmakers in public policy decisions or provide adequate opportunities for younger lawmakers to develop.

But many credit Say’s tactical discipline and institutional knowledge — he has been in the House since 1976 — for often giving the House the edge over the Senate in private negotiations on legislation. Others also believe Say, a small businessman, held firm against broad-based tax increases when the state was scrambling for new revenue during the recession.

When the leadership dispute did go public, it was often unpleasant.

After the 2006 elections, Say’s allies stripped Rep. Dwight Taka­mine of his chairmanship of the Finance Committee after he was slow to commit to Say. Dissidents said that Taka­mine was asked to mediate by U.S. Sen. Daniel Ino­uye and was never part of their faction, but some of Say’s allies insisted that "there needed to be heads on stakes" as a warning. Ino­uye wrote Taka­mine a letter of apology, explaining that his request had made the situation worse, "with more, not less blood, on the floor."

Takamine, out of power in the House, ran for and was elected to the state Senate and was eventually chosen by Gov. Neil Abercrombie as director of the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations.

On opening day of the 2007 session, Saiki, Luke and newly elected Rep. Della Au Belatti (D, Moiliili-Makiki-Tantalus) spoke against the resolution electing Say as speaker. While colleagues were not surprised that Saiki and Luke would publicly object, Belatti’s comments were seen as particularly intemperate, the equivalent of insulting the boss on the first day of work.

"It has been whispered about me that I should learn to act like a freshman, that I should know my place," Belatti said that day in the House chamber after apologizing to the guests attending what is traditionally a day of ceremony and celebration. "Mister Chair, my place is on this floor, and I refuse to be intimidated from using my voice and exercising my right to vote."

Say was re-elected speaker that year by a 48-3 vote, with only Saiki, Luke and Belatti in dissent.

Several other lawmakers — like Belatti — have spent their entire time in the House in exile, frozen out of key policy decisions. Rep. Chris Lee (D, Kailua-Lani­kai-Wai­ma­nalo) sided with the dissidents after he was elected in 2008.

"When I came in, I felt there were a group of folks who were pushing, to me, the same goals that I had, which was generally a better government to address some of our hardest issues, even it means difficult political consequences. To have those discussions," he said. "With them I saw eye to eye, and support that kind of change."

Lee, who will become the chairman of the Energy and Environmental Protection Committee under Souki, said he does not regret his choice.

"I wasn’t going to let any sort of political wrangling or anything like that get in the way of my broader goal in the long term, which is pretty significant change for the state. And I think this is an important step in that direction," he said.

Two years ago, when dissidents took the leadership fight to opening day, several criticized Say for his willingness to use Republican votes to hold power if necessary. House Republicans supported Say, citing his opposition to a general excise tax increase, and were quietly promised greater staff equity and an extra seat on the Finance Committee by Say’s allies.

Saiki predicted at the time that some Demo­crats would break from Say if he had to organize with Republicans to keep control. "It will be difficult to govern with a bipartisan organization," he cautioned.

This year the Republicans backed Souki and dissidents in return for three committee vice chairmanships, including the Finance Committee, giving Souki the leverage he needed to remove Say after his record 14 years in control. Souki, however, now has a majority with Demo­crats alone after Abercrombie appointed Justin Woodson on Tuesday to fill a vacant Maui House seat.

Saiki said Republicans have newer, younger members in their caucus who share some common ground with Demo­crats. "I think that there’s common ground between the Demo­crats and Republicans on some issues, such as environmental issues," he said. "I think that we can work together to advance some good policy."

On Tuesday, Souki and Say finally swapped offices, with Souki moving into the spacious speaker’s corner suite on the fourth floor of the state Capitol and Say slipping into Souki’s old office two doors down the hall.

Say (D, Palolo-St. Louis Heights-Kaimuki) plans to offer an amendment today to the resolution electing Souki as speaker, giving his loyalists the chance to vote on the record for his chosen successor, Rep. Marcus Oshiro, as speaker.

The resolution on committee assignments, which includes the three Republican vice chairmanships, could also show the divisions that remain among Demo­crats.

"I’m at peace with myself," Say said Tuesday, adding that he had no hard feelings against the dissidents. "It’s been a great 14 years. Who would have thought I would be here for 14 years?"