Resign-to-run rule
should be realisticThe issue: A state judge
has ruled that Mayor Harris must
resign to run for governor.FRANK Fasi's ritual of running for governor in the middle of his mayoral terms prompted the 1978 Constitutional Convention to adopt an amendment requiring him to resign from the mayor's job in order to do so. The convention used broad language to restrain not only Fasi but any elected official seeking election to an office with overlapping terms. A state judge has issued a ruling that takes that language beyond common sense. Her decision should be overturned by the state Supreme Court.
The high court should overturn the ruling and allow Mayor Harris to apply a gubernatorial campaign timetable used by Fasi and other elected officials who resigned shortly before mid-term in quest for higher office. Just in case it doesn't, the Legislature should put the issue before voters as a constitutional amendment.
According to Circuit Judge Sabrina McKenna, the convention delegates meant that an office holder seeking an overlapping office must resign after filing campaign organization papers required by the Campaign Spending Commission in order for campaign money to be raised. The commission did not exist in 1978.
Russell Blair, a former state legislator and district judge, brought the legal challenge against Harris, who has been planning to resign by July 23, the deadline for filing nomination papers. Also affected by McKenna's ruling are City Councilmen Jon Yoshimura and John DeSoto, running for lieutenant governor, and Lt. Gov. Mazie Hirono, running for mayor, because of slight overlaps in the terms of the offices held and those sought.
Blair is troubled that Harris has seemed to be running for governor almost since his re-election as mayor in 2000. The mayor "is so in-your-face with it that it was hard not to call him on it."
That is true. But how it differentiates Harris from politicians seeking election to higher office nearer the end of their current terms is hard to discern. In a passage from the Constitutional Convention debate cited by Blair, a delegate complained, "When an elected official seeks another office, it is almost impossible for him or her to fulfill the responsibilities of the office currently held." Similar arguments were based on what another delegate called "a personal gut feeling." Blair prefers an "in your face" threshold.
Application of McKenna's interpretation of the constitutional provision would be unreasonable, possibly keeping potential candidates for higher office from engaging in exploratory efforts that involve fund raising and from deciding -- as Hirono did -- to run for one office instead of another.
BACK TO TOP
|
UH faculty strikes
a pose for equalityThe issue: The university's faculty
union opens its health plan benefits
to homosexual couples.THE University of Hawaii faculty union's extension of its health plan to include same-sex partners is a bold move toward equal treatment for homosexual couples and should be expanded to cover all public employees. The rights and benefits enjoyed by heterosexual pairs should not be denied to others based on sexual orientation.
The UH Professional Assembly's offer will last only a year because in July 2003, all public employee union health plans will be consolidated. The state Legislature last year, in an effort to reduce costs, approved a measure that scrapped the unions' separate health funds and put public workers into one state-managed system.
Despite this, UHPA has decided to go ahead with offering the domestic-partner eligibility that its board had approved years ago in the belief that it is the right thing to do. "We want to make a statement that it should happen," said J.N. Musto, UHPA executive director.
Hawaii has wrestled with the issue of gay rights since 1996, when a circuit judge ruled that the state's barring of same-sex marriages violated the state Constitution's equal-protection clause. In 1998, voters overwhelming approved an amendment denying homosexuals the right to marry, and legislative attempts to give gay couples legal rights as domestic partners have failed.
The state does allow "reciprocal benefits" for people who cannot legally marry, such as widows and sons or siblings. Because it does not recognize domestic partnerships, it will contribute to an employee's health plan, but not that employee's same-sex partner.
It appears that organizations that have vigorously bucked same-sex marriages in the past are not going to fight UHPA's decision. "That's a social-rights issue that doesn't really affect us," said John Hoag, who led the now-defunct Save Traditional Marriage 1998.
Gay relationships have received increasing acceptance over the years. In this atmosphere, the state may be more willing to adopt UHPA's stance when it creates eligibility rules for its new public workers' health plan. It may have to factor in potential costs, but budgetary constraints should not be used as the pretext. There appears to be no compelling reason for the state to withhold from homosexual couples the rights and benefits it grants to others.
BACK TO TOP
Published by Oahu Publications Inc., a subsidiary of Black Press.Don Kendall, Publisher
Frank Bridgewater, managing editor 529-4791; fbridgewater@starbulletin.com
Michael Rovner, assistant managing editor 529-4768; mrovner@starbulletin.com
Lucy Young-Oda, assistant managing editor 529-4762; lyoungoda@starbulletin.comJohn Flanagan, contributing editor 294-3533; jflanagan@starbulletin.com
The Honolulu Star-Bulletin (USPS 249460) is published daily by
Oahu Publications at 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Suite 7-500, Honolulu, Hawaii 96813.
Periodicals postage paid at Honolulu, Hawaii. Postmaster: Send address changes to
Star-Bulletin, P.O. Box 3080, Honolulu, Hawaii 96802.
