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Former House
majority leader Case
now an outsider
on reform

He predicts few advances on
key budget issues such as
civil service reform

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By Pat Omandam
Star-Bulletin

Ed Case placed a chart on the wall of the House majority caucus room to show his colleagues the seats gained by Republicans during the past decade.

There were four Republicans elected to the 51-member House in 1992, the graphic showed, and there are 19 today. While the Manoa representative sees this as a public mandate for meaningful change in government, he believes the message may be lost among fellow Democrats who want to keep the status quo.

"The fact is that we've got too many people in this caucus that are holding on to the past," Case said. "They've got their heels in the ground, and you know, at some point you cannot pull them along anymore. You're on your own."

The former House majority leader finds himself on the outside looking in. He said he would not return to his leadership role because he could not go along with some positions expected to be taken by the House leadership in the 2001 state Legislature.

At a caucus meeting yesterday, Case pressed House Speaker Calvin Say (D, Palolo) for changes in the chairmanship of the Finance and Labor committees, but could only get Say -- who favors keeping last year's leadership team intact -- to agree to review suggestions from caucus members.

Case said this "lip service" to real change will mean little advancement next session on key issues related to the state budget, such as civil service reform, privatization, union pay raises, the rising cost of the state pension's health fund and the requirements imposed by the Felix consent decree.

Say, however, said he is pleased with the work of Judiciary Chairman Eric Hamakawa (D, Hilo) and Finance Chairman Dwight Takamine (D, Hamakua) and wants to keep them there because they bring stability and continuity to the House.

"Chair Takamine never did impede civil service reform because in the final weeks of conference (committee), we did come up with a draft that I'm very proud to say, and the general public at large is very happy," Say said.

He lamented Case's likely departure from the majority leadership; both men took over leadership roles two years ago and were able to get majority support for several issues.

Unfortunately, Say said, there was not much agreement on civil service reform, which Case has taken very personally. Case fell out of favor with public worker unions while pushing civil service reform last year. The unions unsuccessfully tried to oust him from office during this election year.

Say said he would try to include Case if he becomes part of a slate of lawmakers working from outside the majority leadership. Say added he is not too concerned with the House Republican's 19 members, who will be able to pull bills out of committees.

"Cool heads will prevail and common sense will prevail in the state House of Representatives," Say said.

Case himself sees his new role as a dissident House Democrat who will use floor speeches, floor amendments and issue-specific bipartisan coalitions to support the changes he believes are needed.

So far, Case is the only vocal critic within the Democratic majority, but he believes others will join him on specific issues.

The House majority meets again at 10 a.m. Tuesday to vote on leadership posts and committee assignments. Say said some of the lower-tier committees may be consolidated because there are fewer majority members.

House Republicans meet at 1 p.m. Friday to vote on leadership positions, said House Minority Leader Barbara Marumoto (R, Waialae Iki).

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