Posted on: Tuesday, June 29, 2004

EDITORIAL
Sorry mess of election financing needs reform

By any objective standard, the story is remarkable: Over the past year or so, investigations into campaign financing irregularities have resulted in two no-contest felony pleas, 16 no-contest misdemeanor pleas, 13 other arrests, plus multiple others fined or sanctioned for various infringements of the campaign spending laws.

By any objective standard, this suggests a political financing system run amok.

As reported by staff writer Johnny Brannon on Sunday, much of the attention has focused on the campaign finances of Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris, soon to finish his final term. But the pattern is far broader than that, touching on numerous politicians including former Gov. Ben Cayetano and former Maui Mayor Kimo Apana.

No one has formally suggested that the politicians who benefited from excessive largess from the engineers, consultants and contractors who make up the bulk of those in trouble, had any direct knowledge of what was going on.

Still, the underlying pattern is clear: Hawai'i was a place where far too many people thought it was, if not appropriate, then at least acceptable to funnel as much money as possible into anointed campaigns, the law be damned.

The end result is a contamination of the political process, a system that leads to cynicism by voters as well as for those who are players in the process.

No one likes this system. At a minimum, the sorry tale of the past year or so suggests it is time for a law that, once and for all, breaks the connection between those who get government work and those who contribute to those who are in charge.

The reform is long overdue.