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Capitol View
WE are soon to find out exactly what sort of people run Hawaii. Bishop trustees
controlled legislatorsIn normal times, this week's revelations about how the former trustees of Bishop Estate had the Legislature dancing like puppets would provoke immediate reaction.
Star-Bulletin reporter Rick Daysog detailed how the lobbyists from the state's biggest private landowner had run the legislators like a school of tilapia.
The state Attorney General's Office, which has been investigating the estate, said "the organization has attempted to orchestrate the democratic process from beginning to end, to its favor."
The estate ran a government relations division, now dismantled by the new interim board of trustees, that mimicked the functions of the Legislature.
The Bishop Estate, according an attorney general's report, drafted bills and even wrote the committee reports for legislators.
Legislators who needed a speech only had to turn to the estate, which was functioning as a Hawaii version of Cliff's Notes, except in this case copying was encouraged.
When you saw all those loyal supporters frantically waving to you during elections, did you suspect they were Bishop Estate employees ordered to turn out to help specific legislators?
If you went to a coffee hour to meet a Bishop Estate-favored politician, did you know the estate was picking up the tab for all of it?
Did you suspect that the estate was running the door-to-door canvassing during campaign season?
This wasn't a grass-roots campaign -- this was playing the state's voters for dummies.
The estate, however, was not stupid. It concocted a way to raise money for favored candidates.
Estate lobbyists would take the politicians' fund-raiser tickets, sometimes thousands of them, according to the AG, and give them to estate trustees and contractors, who would then pay for them.
All the politician knew was that the Bishop Estate was responsible for taking care of all the fund-raising.
This is illegal. It is cheating and makes suspect every single lawmaker who served in the Legislature when the discredited Bishop Estate board was running the game.
Speaker of the House Calvin Say is one person mentioned in the report who was lobbied at 38 separate meals paid for by the estate. And Sen. Bobby Bunda enjoyed 16 lunch and dinner meetings with Bishop Estate staff. The former House speaker, Rep. Joe Souki, was also on the estate lunch tab.
FORMER Bishop Estate trustee Richard S.H. Wong testified that he and Big Island rancher Larry Mehau met with four freshman senators to discuss the confirmation of former Attorney General Margery Bronster for Cayetano's second term before the Senate voted to dump her.
Bob Watada, Campaign Spending Commission executive director, was given the AG's report, because most of the alleged crimes and misdeeds are already past the statute of limitations, but he might be able to pursue civil penalties.
In the past, when the Legislature was attacked it hauled itself into a special session, subpoenaed witnesses, put them under oath and investigated what happened.
The Campaign Spending Commission shouldn't have to investigate the Bishop Estate scandal. If the charges were leveled against Congress by the U.S. attorney general, Janet Reno would be on the witness stand within a week.
Speeches in chamber won't remove the stain of this report. Public respect for the Legislature hinges on members of the House and Senate showing they can investigate themselves.
Bishop Estate Archive
Legislature Directory
Hawaii Revised Statutes
Legislature BillsRichard Borreca reports on Hawaii's politics every Wednesday.
He can be reached by e-mail at rborreca@pixi.com
