Hawaii lawmakers pan suggested ban on campaign contributions during legislative sessions

Hawaii lawmakers don’t seem inclined to pass legislation this year that would fulfill a special commission’s recommendation to outlaw campaign fundraising during the legislative session.

The recommendation was issued by the Commission to Increase Standards of Conduct on March 31, about two months after a pair of former Hawaii lawmakers were charged by federal prosecutors with taking bribes while in office.

Members of the state Senate and House of Representatives have been urged by good-government advocates, organized labor groups and others to pass legislation carrying out the recommendation, but key lawmakers have balked at such a move.

Instead, Senate and House members have advanced a bill that would prohibit fundraising events during the session but still allow campaign fundraising by phone, email, social media and any means other than holding events where a suggested or required cost for attendance exists.

Some lawmakers have chafed at the broader recommended restriction, while others have expressed support for it but claim they are hemmed in by constitutional limits on how much the bill can be expanded.

Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee took up Senate Bill 555 for its first hearing Feb. 17, the same day the commission was formed by the House and a week after the indictments of former Sen. J. Kalani English and former Rep. Ty J.K. Cullen, who both pleaded guilty.

The bill was introduced last year with a different purpose, and received no hearing but automatically carried over to this year’s legislative session, in the second year of the Legislature’s biennium.

As originally drafted, the purpose of SB 555 was to require that all candidates for legislative office notify the state Campaign Spending Commission of an intent to hold a campaign fundraiser during regular or special sessions of the Legislature regardless of a suggested or set admission cost.

Existing law requires such notice for events at any time if the cost is more than $25 per person.

The Judiciary Committee repurposed SB 555 in an effort to restore some public trust in government in the wake of the English and Cullen scandals. The committee’s proposed new draft aimed to prohibit fundraisers by legislators during sessions, with the definition of a fundraiser being any function that is held for the benefit of a candidate, candidate committee or noncandidate committee and has a suggested or actual attendance price of more than $25 per person.

The Campaign Spending Commission expressed support for the bill and suggested expanding it to all Hawaii elected office holders.

“This amendment will prevent corruption or the appearance of corruption,” Kristin Izumi-Nitao, the regulatory commission’s executive director, said in written testimony.

Other bill supporters — including a former state senator, the good-government group Common Cause Hawaii and about two dozen individuals — encouraged the committee to expand the proposed ban to cover any solicitation or receipt of campaign donations during the session.

Gary Hooser, a former state senator for Kauai who heads the Pono Hawai‘i Initiative, said some other states have the broad ban on campaign donations during legislative sessions for good reason.

“Simply banning an event will not make the fundraising stop,” he said at the Feb. 17 hearing.

“That is a huge loophole,” added Kim Coco Iwamoto, a former candidate for the House, Senate and lieutenant governor representing the Chamber of Sustainable Commerce.

Sen. Karl Rhoads, Judiciary Committee chair, expressed concern that prohibiting all campaign donations during the session would hamstring candidates in election years because there would be only a couple of months or so to raise money before a primary election.

“Is that a realistic expectation of running a good campaign?” Rhoads (D, Downtown-Nuuanu-Liliha) said during the hearing.

Sen. Kurt Fevella, a committee member, raised a broader concern about not being able to hold fundraising events after work hours.

“Money and campaigning doesn’t cause corruption,” Fevella (R, Ewa Beach-­Iroquois Point) said at the hearing. “The individual themselves cause corruption. … Corruption can come at any time.”

Another committee member, Sen. Laura Acasio (D, Hilo), expressed support for a broader prohibition on campaign contributions during the regular legislative session.

Ultimately, all seven members of the committee voted to pass the bill with a restriction only on campaign fundraising events during the regular or special session, and the full Senate did the same in a 25-0 vote March 8.

“I’m for the bill — don’t get me wrong,” Fevella said at the committee hearing. “This is not going to prevent corruption.”

Said Rhoads: “This is not a silver bullet. It is an important step I believe in de-linking our fundraising activities from our legislative activities. But to my liberal friends who want to go further, I understand your impulse but there are complications when you go further because of the way the election cycle and the legislative calendar overlap.”

THE JUDICIARY Committee hearing and full Senate vote took place before the conduct improvement commission issued preliminary recommendations March 31.

Among those recommendations is broadening the prohibition in SB 555 so that it also bans solicitation and acceptance of campaign contributions, while also applying to all candidates for legislative seats during a regular or special session.

“We recommend that the practice of raising campaign donations during session end,” the commission said in a report delivered to lawmakers.

On the same day of the report’s release, the House Committee on Government Reform and House Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs held a public hearing on the bill.

Sandy Ma, a commission member and executive director of Common Cause, told members of the two committees that any receipt or use of a campaign contribution during the session should be prohibited as part of the bill and that it should apply to candidates for all statewide elected offices.

Anthony Makana Paris, a representative of the Iron Workers Stabilization Fund, also asked the joint committee to consider banning any contribution or solicitation of campaign contributions during sessions.

“We believe that this bill in the current form does not go far enough,” he said.

On April 6, joint committee members voted unanimously to keep the prohibition limited to only fundraising events with a price of admission over $25, but expanded application to include candidates for state and county elected positions — including governor, lieutenant governor, Office of Hawaiian Affairs trustees, mayors, county council members and prosecuting attorneys — during any regular or special session of the Legislature.

The 12 participating members of the two committees also amended the bill so that the prohibition on fundraising events would not apply to any employees or people acting on behalf of a legislator.

Rep. Angus McKelvey, chair of the Committee on Government Reform, said the title of the bill — “Relating to Campaign Fundraising” — limits the scope of permissible amendments, such as a prohibition on accepting campaign donations.

“We would like to do more, but we are restricted by the title of the bill, and my hope is that we can come back and do more in a subsequent session,” said McKelvey (D, Lahaina-Kaanapali-Honokahau). “But for right now, I think this is a good start.”

Rep. Matthew LoPresti, a Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs committee member, begrudgingly offered his support for the amended House draft of the bill.

“I’ll be supporting it because we do have to do something, but I just don’t want to pretend this bill is something that it is not,” said LoPresti (D, Ewa Villages-­Ocean Pointe-Ewa Beach). “Literally the only thing we’re going to be banning with this bill is us being able to donate to each other during session. There’s still obviously a lot more to do.”

All 51 members of the House voted to pass the draft on April 12.

The Senate on Wednesday voted 23-1 to agree to the last House draft of SB 555, and the bill has been sent to Gov. David Ige for consideration.