EDITORIAL
Campaign commission should be left alone

Because overuse robs an adjective of its bite, "outrageous" is a word that we reserve for special occasions.

State Sen. Cal Kawamoto's brazen attempt to emasculate the state Campaign Spending Commission, a totally obvious misuse of the imposing power his position affords, is such an occasion.

Kawamoto, a Democrat who represents Waipahu, Crestview and Pearl City and who chairs the Senate Committee on Transportation, Military Affairs and Government Operations, has introduced bills that would effectively allow the Senate to fire the commission executive director without cause and to appoint members of the commission.

This activity is outrageous for two reasons:

• The Campaign Spending Commission, almost unique among initiatives launched in recent years by the Hawai'i Legislature, is working, and working very well indeed.

Under the aggressive leadership of executive director Robert Watada, the commission is on the verge of eliminating the campaign contribution as the price of admission for winning contracts with government.

For those familiar with this pervasive, enduring and corrupt political tradition in these Islands, the commission's accomplishment to date is little short of miraculous.

• That the commission is currently investigating Kawamoto's own political campaign finances offers the specter of conflict of interest rarely so sharply defined.

Kawamoto acknowledges, reports The Advertiser's Jim Dooley, that the Legislature established the commission to shelter it from political influence. But, he complains, they're "dealing with our lives and all of that kind of stuff. We want the proper people in there."

From where we stand, it's clear the proper people are already in place. The only reason to replace them would be to weaken the commission.

If Kawamoto were concerned that the commission has been ruining political careers unfairly, he might have spoken up many months ago, as Mayor Jeremy Harris' gubernatorial ambitions were being crushed under the weight of mounting exposures of illegal campaign contributions.

And indeed, if Kawamoto feels the commission has overstepped its bounds, he is obligated to speak out. Instead, Kawamoto has saved his "reforms" for when the Campaign Spending Commission began to shine its investigative light into the dark areas of his own campaign finances.

The commission clearly isn't broken, and it doesn't require fixing. Kawamoto's proposals, both from a personal conflict-of-interest standpoint and from a good governance standpoint, are truly outrageous.