Posted on: Saturday, March 17, 2001

Campaign reform plan deserves a full test

It's a shame that a bill to create a pilot project for public financing of political campaigns is in the deep freeze in the Senate.

This bill would have allowed Honolulu to experiment with the publicly financed "clean election" system in the next City Council elections, in which seven of the nine seats will be open due to term limits.

This legislation resulted from fresh thinking by the Campaign Spending Commission and others on a subject that has been a plague on local and national campaigning. The influence of money on elections (and on the candidates who seek the money) distorts the democratic process.

There are many who question whether the clean elections formula will work, or even whether it makes legal and moral sense to use public dollars to support elections.

But clearly the present system is not working. Incumbents and challengers alike show distaste for the money chase they must endure.

The upcoming Honolulu Council elections provide a good opportunity to test the system in the real world. Now is the time.

Unfortunately, the Senate doesn't seem to think so. Both last year and this year, the House has passed this important legislation, but the Senate has bottled it up.

That's a shame. It's not too late to resurrect this bill. If it cannot be revived, the public deserves a straightforward explanation why not.