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Governor questions
By Pat Omandam
OHA candidate eligibility
requirements
Star-BulletinGov. Ben Cayetano said the state should not wait until someone files a racial discrimination lawsuit questioning the constitutionality of the requirement that Office of Hawaiian Affairs candidates be of native ancestry.
Instead, in the wake of the Rice decision, the governor has asked the state attorney general's office to determine in advance whether it needs a declaratory opinion from the courts on who is eligible to run for OHA.
He said doing so would alleviate problems as the state prepares for its 2000 primary and general elections, which are about six months away. Cayetano said he would take the issue to the Hawaii Supreme Court if he needs to.
"We don't want to wait until someone challenges us at the very last minute," he said yesterday. "Because when you put an election together you need to plan for the ballots, you need to do all kinds of planning, and you need to get the word out to people as to who it is can run."
Attorney John W. Goemans, who represented Harold "Freddy" Rice in his racial discrimination lawsuit against the state, has stated he'll use the opinion that strikes down the Hawaiians-only voting restriction for OHA to mount broader attacks against other Hawaiian benefits. The U.S. Supreme Court issued the opinion on Feb. 23. A formal judgment was filed Feb. 29.
Still, Cayetano said the state can't wait for him to do it.
"I think we need to receive some guidance from the court as to whether we are able to maintain the elections, in terms of who can run, the way it's set forth by law right now or whether we have to make some changes," he said.
State Sen. Colleen Hanabusa (D, Waianae) said yesterday she thought Cayetano should not ask for another opinion, because it is not needed.
"I would say 'Don't do it,' " Hanabusa advised.
Hanabusa completed a series of meetings in Hawaiian communities after the U.S. Supreme Court decision and she said that in all hearings, the state attorney general's office said the law would remain the same -- that only Hawaiians or part-Hawaiians could be Office of Hawaiian Affairs trustees.
The governor said he will support whatever the law says needs to be done.
"So right now the law says Hawaiians should run, and as governor, I'm duty-bound to support that law," he said.
Meanwhile, Cayetano said, he is still waiting for a response from OHA to the draft motion sent to OHA two weeks ago on a joint petition to the Hawaii Supreme Court to ask for clarification of the Rice decision. OHA Chairman Clayton Hee and the rest of the board were holding a meeting on the Big Island today and could not immediately be reached for comment.
U.S. Public Law 103-150
