David Shapiro: Don’t blame Hawaii voters for our meager ballot choices

When the Legislature takes unsavory actions such as its $150 million public workers pay raise in a collapsed economy, I get many emails to the effect of: “Stupid voters have nobody to blame but themselves when they keep electing the same Democrats.”

But voters get an unfair rap. Because of stacked campaign finance laws that protect incumbents and incompetence by the local GOP, voters often find few realistic ballot options for change.

Republicans, beset by vicious ideological infighting that makes it difficult to take them seriously, this year are contesting only five of 13 State Senate seats up for election. Four Democratic senators are unopposed, and the rest face mostly little-known and underfunded third-party and nonpartisan challengers.

The only Republican senator, Kurt Fevella, often votes with Democrats on measures such as public worker pay raises.

In the House, the GOP is contesting barely half the 51 seats, and 10 Democratic representatives are unopposed. Republicans will be lucky to hold the five seats they have with the retirement of Rep. Cynthia Thielen.

There are few competitive Democratic primary contests except for a handful of seats with no incumbent. The upstart Aloha Aina Party, with 14 candidates in legislative races, is the freshest item on the menu.

So voters angry about public worker pay raises, which passed the Senate 21-3 and on a party-line 45-4 in the House, have little way to protest other than take chances on challengers they know little about with “anybody but incumbents” votes.

Three who led the push for the pay raises, Senate President Ronald Kouchi and Reps. Aaron Johanson and Sylvia Luke, are unopposed. The only leader seriously challenged is House Speaker Scott Saiki, who faces former school board member Kim Coco Iwamoto.

It’s because election laws allow special interests to lard compliant incumbents with six-figure campaign funds, prized endorsements and armies of sign wavers, scaring off potential challengers — especially in the Democratic primary, where union support carries outsize weight.

Legislators who approved unaffordable pay raises simply view the Hawaii Government Employees Association as a more important constituency than the actual electorate. They spinelessly paid the tribute necessary to keep the campaign support coming and avoid union-backed primary opponents.

Change would require legislative term limits and campaign finance reform to level the playing field — changes our self-interested Legislature has rejected.

We need an open primary election like California’s, where the two top vote-getters — no matter their party — run off in the general election.

Moving the main event from the Democratic primary, where most races are now settled, to the general election with its bigger and more diverse electorate, would likely attract more and better candidates.

Without these reforms, most voters’ only options are accepting the status quo or voting “anybody but incumbents.”

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Reach David Shapiro at volcanicash@gmail.com.