Commission to decide
on staggered Senate terms

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By Pat Omandam
pomandam@starbulletin.com

Along with new congressional and legislative districts, the state Reapportionment Commission by month's end must also determine which of the 25 state Senate seats will be for terms of two years or four years following next year's elections.

All Senate districts are up for re-election every 10 years because of reapportionment. Once the new legislative maps are done, the state Constitution requires the districts be staggered so only half are up for re-election every two years.

Much of that decision will rest on the commission, although it was Hawaii voters who, in 2000 through a constitutional amendment, decided exactly how the districts should be staggered.

In a ballot question during the 2000 general election, about 70 percent of voters favored staggering the Senate seats so that each Senate district has no more than two regular Senate elections within a six-year period, between 2000 and 2006.

The constitutional amendment tasked the commission with assigning four-year terms to Senate seats where a majority of that district's voters, under the new redistricting plans, were represented by a senator who served a two-year term before reapportionment.

Conversely, if a majority of voters in a new district were represented by a senator who served a four-year term before reapportionment, that district would be assigned a two-year term.

As a result, the 2002 elections will have 13 Senate seats with four-year terms, and 12 Senate seats with two-year terms.

"It's pretty much a straight numbers game -- there isn't any shenanigans that can go on ... ," said reapportionment project manager David Rosenbrock.

"The purpose is to not make somebody have to vote three times by the end of a six year period," he said.

State lawmakers put the staggered term question on the ballot during a special session in August 2000, after various election watchdog groups complained the law at the time favored incumbents over challengers.

"Within the 10 year period, each senator will serve one two-year term, and two four-year terms -- only some of them have the two-year term at the front end, where others will have the two-year term at the back end," added Jean Aoki, past president of the League of Women Voters of Hawaii.

Meanwhile, the commission begins another round of public hearings on Nov. 19 on its second legislative map. This new plan does away with most multi-island districts (except natural ones, like Kauai-Niihau and Molokai-Lanai-Kahoolawe-Maui) and also uses a population base that excludes non-resident military dependents.

All meetings start at 7 p.m. and there are concurrent meetings on the Big Island and Oahu. Here are the dates:

>> Nov. 19: Kauai County Building.
>> Nov. 20: Maui Waena Intermediate School, Kahului.
>> Nov. 26: Hilo County Building and at Kona Vistas.
>> Nov. 27: State Capitol and at Waipahu High School.

The commission plans to adopt a final plan on Nov. 30 and file with it the chief elections office on Dec. 14. The original deadline to file a new reapportionment plan was Oct. 26.