A panel will discuss “Clean Elections and Transparency” during a forum at 6:30 p.m. Thursday in UCB 100 on the University of Hawaii at Hilo campus.
The featured speaker will be Carmille Lim, director of Hawaii Common Cause. Also speaking will be Susan Dursin from The League of Women Voters and Chris Yuen, attorney and a former board member of The Hawaii Elections Project.
In 2008, UH-Hilo students played a leading role in the Legislature to pass the Big Island Clean Elections Pilot Program, which allowed County Council candidates who qualified to campaign with public funding instead of depending on campaign contributions from special interest donors. The pilot operated successfully in the 2010 and 2012 council races, but since ended. (The public program was funded by the $3 voluntary check-off on tax forms, which does not reduce an individual’s filed personal income tax.)
Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United ruling, big, special-interest money has been flooding into political campaigns. According to the Hawaii Campaign Spending Commission, in 2012 more than $4 million was spent on Hawaii campaigns by independent groups.
In the 2014 election, a single “independent” group, funded almost entirely by Monsanto and Dow Chemical, spent $8 million on a ballot initiative campaign.
Nationwide, many Americans think the influx of special interest money in elections threatens the integrity of our democracy. As an antidote to big money funding their bid for office, with Clean Elections, candidates have the option of running on public funding so they will be more likely to be answerable to their constituents rather than to their rich campaign donors.
The 2014 Legislature failed to continue the funding of the Big Island Clean Elections Pilot Program and ultimately killed a bill that promoted a statewide Clean Elections program. However, in 2013 the Legislature passed a bill that would require stronger disclosures for independent groups seeking to influence elections.
The forum Thursday will discuss how the 2015 Legislature can continue to combat the corrosive effects of outside money in Hawaii’s elections.
The event is sponsored by Common Cause Hawaii, Global HOPE and nationwide student group Democracy Matters.
The panel discussion is free and the public is encouraged to attend. Parking on the UH-Hilo campus is free in the evening.
For more information, call Noelie Rodriguez at 934-2635 or 963-6966.
