LIHU‘E — State Sen. Karl Rhoads announced plans to reimagine public funding for state, county and Office of Hawaiian Affairs campaigns in an effort to avoid corruption by reducing candidates’ reliance on private donors.
Rhoads, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, revealed the proposal at a news conference on Monday, alongside state Sen. Brenton Awa and state Rep. Jeanne Kapela. Rhoads said he plans to introduce the bill once the year’s legislative session begins on Jan. 18.
Under the proposal, candidates would need to receive $5 donations from a certain number of people to qualify for public funds. That number would depend on what position they’re campaigning for — the higher the position, the more donations required, and more funds received.
For example, a candidate for Kaua‘i County Council would require only 75 donations and would receive $30,000 to spend on their campaign. In contrast, a candidate for Hawai‘i governor would need at least 6,250 donations, but would receive $2.5 million in campaign funds.
If the details seem complicated, they’re actually meant to be — Rhoads noted that he made the bill complex on purpose to weed out unfit candidates.
“It’s intentionally fairly difficult so that not everybody can run, not every fringe candidate can run,” he said in the press conference. “If you’re going to run for the Legislature, where we’re dealing with the most complicated issues, you need to be able to figure out how to get through the rules, even if they are somewhat complicated. We would be giving you — if you qualify — a pretty large sum of money. We don’t want incompetent people running for office.”
Currently, the bill would call for $30 million in funding per election cycle, although super PAC Our Hawai‘i estimates a final tab to likely be closer to $25 million.
The proposed bill follows a scandal last year in which former state Sen. J. Kalani English and former state Rep. Ty Cullen pleaded guilty to bribery-related charges.
Both former lawmakers were discovered to have taken tens of thousands of dollars in bribes from a local wastewater contractor. In exchange for funds, the legislators would promote or kill bills on wastewater and cesspools to the benefit of the company.
English was sentenced to 40 months in prison in July 2022. Cullen’s sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 19.
The scandal spurred a litany of calls for funding reform and
government oversight, resulting in a ban on political fundraising while the Legislature is in session, as well as the creation of a House commission aimed at improving legislative conduct.
Still, Evan Weber, co-founder of Our Hawai‘i and supporter of the proposed bill, suggests these actions miss the root of the issue.
“It starts during our election system, when candidates — because off the way the system is — end up spending a lot of their time fundraising,” he said. “And the people who are able to give them money tend to be the people who are taking advantage of the system in order to try to buy our legislators.”
By allowing candidates to gain campaign funds without having to reach out to special interest groups, Weber hopes the proposal, if passed, might provide Hawai‘i with cleaner elections moving forward.
“What we’re really allowing with the full public financing is to unshackle people from that whole system, and really allow them to run a campaign without private money at all,” he said.
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Jackson Healy, reporter, can be reached at 808-245-0427 or jhealy@thegardenisland.com.
