Volcanic Ash: Legislature puts new focus on changing state elections

If top state legislators are good to their word, 2019 could be a year of badly needed election reform in Hawaii.

House Finance Chairwoman Sylvia Luke became the first legislative leader to endorse a top-two primary election for Hawaii — the single best answer to our lightly contested races and nationally low voter turnout.

With local Republicans and third parties seldom fielding competitive candidates, elections are almost always decided in the Democratic primary, excluding many voters.

Top-two primaries used in several states have candidates from all parties and independents run in a single primary, with the top two vote-getters — no matter from which parties — running off in the general election.

Luke argued at a forum sponsored by Civil Beat that this change would make the general election the main event, as it should be, given that it draws nearly twice as many voters as the Democratic primary.

Last year, for instance, Gov. David Ige and U.S. Rep. Ed Case would have faced tough general election campaigns against Colleen Hanabusa and Doug Chin instead of cakewalks against noncompetitive Republicans.

It would force the GOP to right its ship, encourage more Democrats to compete and give voters more races with credible choices.

Charles Djou, a concerned former Republican, has also endorsed top-two primaries, noting they’ve worked well in Democratic California and Republican Louisiana.

Luke took further aim at super PACs, such as the one run locally by the Carpenters Union, calling its spending “out of control” as it put millions behind candidates with little accountability.

The union spent some $3 million in the 2018 election — $1 million of it supporting Lt. Gov. Josh Green, who after winning made the union’s lobbyist his chief of staff.

Luke objected mainly to the union’s attack pieces against City Councilwoman Carol Fukunaga, which Luke described as “just clear-out mudslinging.”

She said legislation to rein in PACs, or political action committees, would have to be “something creative” in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, which gave super PACs free reign.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Karl Rhoads suggested publicly funded election campaigns could push out special-interest money.

Senate President Ron Kouchi said he wants to move to all mail-in voting statewide instead of waiting for a trial run on Kauai only in 2022. The change could simplify voting logistics and improve turnout if coupled with an automatic voter registration system.

Kouchi said there’s also growing support for automatic recounts of close races after the legal chaos caused by challenges to Trevor Ozawa’s 22-vote victory over Tommy Waters for the East Oahu City Council seat.

Election reform is difficult to sell to incumbent legislators, who thrive in the current system, but here’s hoping the fading pulse of Hawaii’s democracy has finally created urgency for change.

Reach David Shapiro at volcanicash@gmail.com.