It’s not like the Hawai’i Senate is a model of sunshine and good government, but the House of Representatives keeps stepping in it.
Frankly, the arrogance of the House is embarrassingly unrestrained.
Case In Point — HB772 — Relating To Campaign Finance
HB772 is intended to stop the sham practice of legislators transferring their campaign funds to other candidates, friends, and colleagues (under the guise of purchasing two tickets to a campaign fundraiser).
Example: Candidate W files a required form announcing a local bar or restaurant fundraiser with a $250 — $1,000 ticket price. Legislators X, Y, and Z each buy two $1,000 tickets (using their campaign funds), and voila … candidate W has just raised $6,000. The four toss back a few beers, perhaps a glass of wine, and pau — the “fundraiser” is over.
According to data on file with the Campaign Spending Commission, all House campaign committees transferred $427,187 from one campaign account to another using the “two ticket purchase scam” during the 2022 and 2024 election cycles.
HB772 was “killed” single-handedly by Finance Chair Kyle Yamashita, who refused to schedule it for a hearing.
The top incumbent Representative utilizing this fundraising device during the 2022 and 2024 election cycles was Finance Chair Kyle Yamashita. His campaign contributed $46,250 in “fundraising tickets,” benefiting 22 of his candidate friends. Remember, 26 is the magic number in the House. With 26 votes, you can be the Finance Chair, Speaker, or whatever you like.
Speaker Nadine Nakamura referred HB772 to House Finance even though it has no impact on the state budget — zero, zip, nada.
Next in line among incumbent Representatives “buying fundraiser tickets” is Vice Speaker Linda Ichiyama, with $44,500 during this period. Next is Majority Leader Sean Quinlan $19,900, Minority Caucus Leader Gene Ward $19,235, House Speaker Nadine Nakamura $19,150, and Majority Caucus Leader Christopher Todd $17,500 – all of whom are members of House Leadership.
The total amount is given in the 2022 and 2024 election periods by the above 6 Representatives, in the form of “two tickets to your fundraiser” = $166,535
So no, they ain’t gonna pass no stinking bill taking away their ability to help their friends.
And they ain’t gonna change the rules either.
But they could.
Stay with me, please.
Existing House rules say, in essence:
1 – The Speaker has “referral” authority over which committees a bill must pass through to become law.
2 – Committee Chair’s control of which bills to schedule.
3 – Bills may be referred to Finance whether or not there’s a budget impact. (HB772 has zero impact)
The three straightforward yet systemic rule changes below would eliminate the inherent corruption of the process now in place, as exemplified by the killing of HB772.
1 – “Bill drafting agency staff” to independently make referral recommendations with final referral approved by a legislative referral committee – (model used in State Senate)
2 – All bills “heard and passed” by a committee shall be scheduled, heard, and voted on by the subsequent committee. (This prevents Chairs from killing these “active” bills behind closed doors, without a public discussion or vote.)
3 – Only bills with budget impacts may be referred to Finance. (“Pure policy” bills may not be referred to and thus possibly “killed” by Finance.)
Boom Kanani. That’s it.
If these three changes had been proposed and approved on January 17, when the House amended and approved its rules, HB772, ending the two-ticket money transfer charade, would still be alive.
Unfortunately, the House Advisory Committee on Rules and Procedures met only in secret, so the public will never know if these critical proposed rule changes were even considered.
This is why 8 Hawaii residents are now suing the House.
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Gary Hooser served eight years in the state Senate, where he was majority leader. He also served for eight years on the Kaua‘i County Council. He presently writes on Hawai‘i Policy and Politics at www.garyhooser.blog.
