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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Thursday, March 14, 2002

Shortened terms get higher cap on donors

By Johnny Brannon
Advertiser Staff Writer

The state Campaign Spending Commission agreed yesterday that contribution limits should apply evenly to all state Senate and Honolulu City Council candidates, whether the term of the office they are seeking this November has been shortened or not.

All Senate and council seats normally have four-year terms, but the next terms for some offices have been cut to two years to ensure that all seats will not be up for election at the same time in the future.

The commission voted to issue an advisory opinion stating that Senate and council candidates can raise up to $4,000 from each contributor between Nov. 8, 2000, and Nov. 5, 2002. The contribution limit is normally $2,000 for two-year offices and $4,000 for four-year non-statewide offices.

"Our interpretation is that everyone gets $4,000, regardless of whether they're running for a two-year office or a four-year office," commission executive director Robert Watada said.

The opinion does not address a controversy in the governor's race: whether contributions to a previous campaign should count toward the limit in a subsequent race if the election periods overlapped.

On Tuesday, a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction that bars the commission from counting contributions to Mayor Jeremy Harris' 2000 re-election campaign toward the $6,000-per-donor limit in the governor's race, which has an election period that stretches back to 1998.

The commission's opinion does state that the full limit of $4,000-per-donor in a mayoral race should apply to candidates who seek to serve as Honolulu mayor for a shortened term of two years if a special election is needed to replace Harris.

Harris plans to step down in July to run for governor and, in an appeal to the Hawai'i Supreme Court, is seeking to reverse a Circuit Court judge's ruling on Monday that he should have resigned in May, when he first declared himself a gubernatorial candidate and filed organizational papers with the commission.

The five City Council seats that represent odd-numbered districts will have two-year initial terms after the November election, then revert to normal. Seats for the four even-numbered districts will continue to have four-year terms. Honolulu voters agreed in 1998 to stagger the terms following an earlier city charter amendment that limited council members to two consecutive four-year terms.

Twelve of the 25 Senate seats will carry two-year initial terms after the election as a result of reapportionment, triggered by population changes and the drawing of new senatorial districts. In 2000, voters approved a constitutional amendment that set up a system to designate half of the districts for four-year terms and the rest for two-year terms.

Reach Johnny Brannon at jbrannon@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8070.