Bill on political donations tabled

The bill sought to bar lobbyists' gifts during the legislative session

The state House Judiciary Committee has killed a bill that would bar lobbyists from giving politicians money while the Legislature is in session -- despite a last-minute push from public-interest groups.

Lobbying for passage of Senate Bill 1061 were a coalition of groups, ranging from Clean Elections and Hawaii Election Project to the League of Women Voters, and activists such as Bill Woods-Bateman and Larry Geller, Kokua Council president.

Judiciary Chairwoman Sylvia Luke said the bill was deferred pending guidance from the House Democratic leadership.

Late yesterday, Luke (D, Pacific Heights-Punchbowl) said the measure would be deferred permanently.

"I thought it needed more discussion, so I asked leadership to take a look at it," Luke said. "Leadership wanted to take a look at it because they felt it was an issue."

Rep. Marcus Oshiro, Democratic leader, called the bill poorly drafted and speculated that if it had passed, Gov. Linda Lingle would have vetoed it.

"It was a sham," Oshiro said.

"It didn't do what supporters thought it would do and it mixed the definitions of campaign contributors and lobbyists," Oshiro said.

For instance, Oshiro said, state law does not require newspaper publishers to register as lobbyists, so they would have been exempt from the campaign-donation prohibition.

Also, Oshiro (D, Wahiawa-Poamoho) said the bill stopped contributions only during the legislative session.

"I saw it as basically changing the fundraising season to before the session or after the session," he said. "The only way to address it would be to prohibit donations all year."

The bill had been drafted by Sen. Les Ihara (D, Kapahulu-Palolo), who called it a "first step."

"I believe they could fix it. It was a narrow bill that could have been expanded later," Ihara said.

The prohibition against lobbyist contributions during the legislative session was needed, Ihara said, because of the "undue influence of lobbyists, which is unsettling for the public."

Kory Payne, field director for the Hawaii Elections Project, said the bill would had addressed the "core problem of special-interest money influencing the lawmaking process."

Activist Woods-Bateman complained that the bill never had a hearing before Luke's committee.

He said Luke proposed an overhaul of the bill to set up a study group regarding Hawaii's open-meeting laws.

The committee did not act on the proposal and never publicly debated the merits of the original lobbyist bill.

"The process didn't work because the political process overrode the public interest," Woods-Bateman said. "Money is becoming an issue."