Advocates for campaign finance reform were pleased today when the Senate Ways and Means Committee passed House Bill 1481. The bill would create a law that would modernize Hawaii’s outdated partial public funding program for elections.
The original public funding program was implemented during the 1978 Constitutional Convention, but has become ineffective over time. In the 2012 election cycle, only one house candidate used the program. Advocates in favor of house bill 1481 say it is now time to upgrade the old program.
“Delegates in 1978 fought hard to implement this important program, and we owe it to them to modernize it to make it useful once again”, said Kory Payne, executive director for Voter Owned Hawaii, a non-partisan non profit organization working to pass the bill.
This proposed policy has been gaining national attention also. Public Campaign is a non-partisan, non-profit that works on federal legislation for publicly funded elections and has been supporting organizations locally. According to Nick Nyhart, president and CEO of Public Campaign, “States are the true laboratories of democracy and Hawaii has the chance to be a national leader in addressing the growing influence of special interests in our political system.”
“We’re delighted with this bill’s passage, and excited about the prospect of leveling the playing field for House candidates,” said Janet Mason, Vice President of League of Women Voters, Hawaii.
In 2008, Voter Owned Hawaii led and effort to implement a similar program for Big Island County elections. That program ran in the 2010 and 2012 elections and was deemed successful. Currently, five out of nine councilors on the Big Island were elected without accepting money from special interests.
Payne says the program is intended to serve taxpayers. “Special interests donate to politicians to get a return on their investment, and right now they’ve cornered the market on elections and the public is not invited to the party. Publicly funded elections will save taxpayer money by allowing politicians to make decisions based upon what’s best for the people instead of campaign donors,” he said.
Filed under: Announcements, Hawaii, Legislature, National Affairs, Politics, State Affairs | Tagged: Clean Election, HB 1481, League of Women Voters, Publicly Funded Elections, Voter Owned Hawaii | Leave a Comment »
Citizens Rally to Save Clean Elections Program
Students Gather to Push Legislation Protecting Public Funding Pilot for County Council Elections
In the wake of an elections season dominated by private money and the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v FEC, over thirty students and citizens walked from UH Hilo and gathered at the state building, holding signs and calling on state legislators to keep up funding for the Big Island public funding pilot program.
Even though the pilot program has been successful, allowing five out of nine current councilors to get elected without accepting any private money, funding to continue the program has been called into question.
The Campaign Spending Commission, which administers the Hawaii Election Campaign Fund, has been running at a deficit for several years. Unless the Campaign Fund has more than $3.5 million by next September, the Commission may halt the pilot program.
Noelie Rodrigues still Rallying for the Public
“It’s imperative the state find more funding for the Election Fund,” said Dr. Noelie Rodriguez, one of the event’s organizers. “When candidates don’t have to spend time dialing for dollars, they can spend more time figuring out how to make the county better for everyone,” she said.
The crowd at the Capitol included many younger people, including Jennifer Ruggles, a Voter Owned Hawaii intern, who said “This pay-to-play system of elections just isn’t sustainable for the long term. We need to address the issue of money in politics and publicly funded elections is the best place to start, and it needs to get adequate funding.”
To provide an alternative model to the outdated statewide partial funding program for elections, citizen advocates convinced legislators to implement a pilot program for Big Island County Council elections starting in 2010.
“Special interest money really undermines our system and we are very glad to have five councilors elected without accepting any,” said Rodriguez.
Advocates will also propose legislation this coming session to overhaul the statewide partial funding program. Implemented in 1978, the program was meant to limit the influence of special interest money on elections and laws passed by politicians. Over time, citizens say, the program became obsolete and now does not provide candidates with competitive sums of money.
“It’s a shame the 1978 program was never kept up to date and has become obsolete,” said Kory Payne, executive director for Voter Owned Hawaii. “After the Citizens United court decision, people are finally ready to see the public funding program work once again,” he added.
In Hawaii there appears to be overwhelming support for a public funding program for elections that grants competitive amounts of money to candidates. In a 2005 poll conducted by AARP, 86% of voting age Hawaii residents thought campaign contributions moderately or greatly influenced policies supported by elected officials.
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Filed under: Announcements, Big Island, Community, County Council, Education, Guest Commentator, Hawaii, Legal, Legislature, Politics, State Affairs, UH Hilo | Tagged: Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, Clean Elections, Hawaii County Clean Elections, Kory Payne, Noellie Rodriguez, Pilot experiment, Voter Owned Hawaii | Leave a Comment »