It’s crazy really.
A Hawaiʻi grand jury has brought criminal charges against 5 individuals believed to have both given and received bribes connected to political favors.
The Hawaiʻi Lieutenant Governor, a former State Representative, a State Deputy Director of Transportation, the former head of the Hawaiʻi Public Utilities Commission (PUC), and a former staff member of the Senate Ways and Means Committee (WAM) are all now headed to trial.
The charges stem from an investigation into a mysterious paper bag that supposedly contained $35,000 and was passed to an “influential legislator” by someone attempting to influence that legislators actions, all while being tape recorded by federal agents.
Of course, there’s no telling where this will lead, when another shoe or two will drop, and upon which politician’s head it will fall.
While all are innocent until proven guilty, the whole thing stinks to high heaven.
Even more nauseous, IMHO, is the stench surrounding $2,469,561.56 spent between July 9 – July 17th by Pacific Resource Partnership (PRP) and related Superpac “For a Better Tomorrow” – for the purpose of influencing our local elections.
It’s easy for many it seems, to just ignore and shrug off this blatant purchasing of political influence and fundamental corruption of our electoral process.
Defenders of the status quo will say it takes money to run a campaign. The SuperPac is just helping candidates they believe will do a good job. It’s all legal, copacetic, fine, ok, and completely satisfactory, is the knee-jerk response when asked.
What?
These same folks will get their knickers in a knot over cash in a paper bag, but prefer to just ignore the millions being spent by a SuperPac.
Whether someone is giving $35,000 in a paper bag directly to an elected official, or $2,469,561.56 indirectly to 20 elected officials and candidates, the money is being given for the same identical purpose – to influence the decisions of government in favor of the person or organization giving the money.
In both cases (the bribery money and the SuperPac money), there are no “upper limits” to the money being transferred, and none of the money is reported publicly by the candidates as a campaign contribution.
Normal campaign contributions have a “maximum donation cap”, and the name, address, occupation of donor, and amount of the contribution, is reported publicly by the candidate via the campaign spending commission reporting guidelines.
There’s no question that the power and influence of big money is corrupting, and has corrupted the outcome of our elections, the outcome of legislative processes, and the funding of government services and capital improvement projects.
Money buys access to government decision makers. Big money buys big access to big government decision makers.
Access is not illegal, but those with access have influence, AND this gives them (and the projects and government policies that benefit them) a HUGE advantage over everyone else.
The single most important political/electoral issue for all of us today must be “getting big money out of politics and elections”.
This must be the “litmus test” that leads every conversation, with every elected official and/or candidate for public office.
Those holding public office or seeking to serve who receive “indirect” financial support from any SuperPac – cannot simply claim to “have no control” over that contribution, while receiving tangible benefits from that money.
We need to hear from our Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Mayor, Councilmember, State Legislators, AND the candidates.
Which side are they on?
Are they just shrugging their shoulders and saying, “This is the way the game is played, and I’m playing it.”
Or are they saying, “This is not a game. SuperPacs should not be allowed to financially support political campaigns in amounts that exceed the legal limits of a regular campaign donor. I support publicly funded elections, increased regulation of SuperPacs, AND banning completely contributions from government contractors and related entities.”
Both the giving and the receiving of big money support cast a shadow over our democracy, and both the donor and the recipient share responsibility and culpability.
As a Hawaiʻi resident and voter, please reach out today and ask your elected representative this question: “Which side are you on?”
GARY HOOSER is a former Hawaiʻi State Senator and Majority Leader.
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