View Point

Friday, November 28, 1997

Big campaign givers rob
ordinary voters of influence

To restore even playing field,
ban corporate contributions and curb
political power of public worker unions

By Desmond Byrne

ALTHOUGH the body of the Star-Bulletin's Nov. 8 article, "Bankoh chairman accused of 'bribery'," makes clear that Common Cause Hawaii was not doing the accusing -- and that we were raising our concerns about money, politics and public confidence -- a second reference to "groups" calling for an investigation was wrong in that it was one group only.

However, we would like to thank Bank of Hawaii Chairman and CEO Larry Johnson for raising the issue of campaign donations, which needs a public airing.

Basically, we are against big money contributions from big business, unions and other interests trying to influence politics.

While we are acutely aware of the realities, we do not accept the status quo. Therefore, here is our wish list:

If big campaign donors care about our democracy, they should test their actions against the standard of whether it will increase or decrease public confidence in the democratic system. Public confidence polls are not high on big business, big unions and government.

Read carefully the Hawaii Penal Code section on bribery and avoid even the appearance of a quid pro quo.

Corporate contributions, like at the federal level, should be banned. Also, political action committees or PACs are not democratic organizations but are financed by the involuntary tithing of employees with the allocation decision made by top management.

A former vice president of a major bank told me that, in effect, that there was no real choice to monthly direct debits from executives' checking accounts.

For big contributors to tell politicians, who often give government a bad name, to get off the backs of business and unions and stop the extortion created by an imbalance of power.

As an executive of a public utility told me, "When we are constantly before government agencies for permits and approvals, what choice do we have?"

For public worker unions to stop bringing pressure to bear on politicians to take care of union members or else. The "taking care" is out of the public purse, which is everyone's expense. Fewer but well-motivated and well-paid government employees, in a downsized and streamlined government, should have been a priority of the Economic Revitalization Task Force but that premise was left on the cutting room floor.

A vibrant two-party system.

That all organizations in Hawaii, not just Common Cause and a few others, work toward improving the processes of government -- ethics, campaign- spending reform to stop undue influence and extortion by politicians, openness (records and meetings), the "high three" and decisions made in the public interest.

Hawaii must be a level playing field before government for access, permits, approvals, bid and non-bid contracts. We never see the members of the task force and the organizations that they influence like the Chamber of Commerce lobbying for good government issues. They presumably have learned to live with the status quo.

Do not try to substitute money for the merit of the issue. We would like to see all issues including the task force recommendations openly discussed on their merits, despite its bad start by operating behind closed doors.

We understand the realities in this vaunted American democracy, but in the long term we want to see the private financing of elected officials diminished to contributions not to exceed $100 by actual constituents, coupled with the public financing of elections.

Fewer than half of 1 percent of Hawaii residents gave a contribution in excess of $200. If money is to become the accepted price of political access and influence, then 99.5 percent get left out.

For a long time, Washington, D.C., and Washington Place have been for sale and it may be one of the best investments in this country. Common Cause founder, John Gardener, observed in 1970 that everybody is represented in Washington except the ordinary citizen. That is still true at the national and state levels.

SOME money is required for lobbying, which in its best sense is educating legislators, policy makers and the public, but not direct contributions that can look like quid pro quos.

Any group or citizen can be an advocate for economic and all the other issues that affect Hawaii.

Let judgments on electing officials be made based on their overall records and effectiveness.

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Desmond Byrne is chairman of
Common Cause Hawaii. The opinions in View Point columns are
the authors' and are not necessarily shared by the Star-Bulletin.