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Now We Know The Scale Of Pay-To-Play Politics In Hawaii. It's Long Past Time To Act

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Now We Know The Scale Of Pay-To-Play Politics In Hawaii. It's Long Past Time To Act


Companies that get government contracts can’t give directly to campaigns but their owners, officers and family members can. That’s long been an enormous loophole that legislators just failed to address — again.

A Civil Beat/New York Times report published last week unveiled just how deeply the pay-to-play culture is ingrained in Hawaii politics.

By examining hundreds of thousands of campaign contributions and more than 70,000 government contracts, reporters discovered that nearly $1 out of every $5 donated to politicians came from people tied to companies doing business with state and local governments.

And when some companies were on the verge of winning big government contracts, people connected to them donated larger amounts of money to the relevant officials.

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Even though those contributors generally didn’t acknowledge their connections to the companies, they were not violating Hawaii law, which only prohibits donations directly from the firms.

“Everyone gets very upset with pay-to-play, but it’s legal,” said Kristin Izumi-Nitao, executive director of the Hawaii Campaign Spending Commission.

What’s especially galling is that the commission proposed measures to close the gaping loophole this session and they were ignored by the Judiciary chairs in the House and the Senate, never even receiving a public hearing.

Now that the gargantuan scale of the problem has been defined, that has to change when the Legislature reconvenes in 2025.

Stopped Dead in the Judiciary Committees

The commission was clearly aware of the issue when it proposed Senate Bill 2214 and House Bill 1849, but after reading the Civil Beat/New York Times report, even Izumi-Nitao found that “the numbers were a bit surprising. And if the bill had been in effect, I believe those numbers would not be as high.”

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The identical measures introduced in the House and Senate would have expanded a 2006 ban on campaign contributions from government contractors to include the officers and immediate family members of the company owners. It also would have applied the same prohibitions to recipients of government grants.

They were modified versions of a measure that unanimously passed the House and Senate in 2023 but died during the secretive conference committee period when disagreements between the two chambers must be resolved if a bill is to become law.

Far less love was shown to the proposal this session by the Judiciary chairs, Rep. David Tarnas and Sen. Karl Rhoads.

Tarnas had said during a pre-session interview that when it came to government reform measures, he would prioritize consideration of bills that had made it to conference committee the previous year.

The House of Representatives David Tarnas answers a question about legalizing recreational cannabis after opening day the legislative session Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2024, in Honolulu. (Kevin Fujii/Civil Beat/2024)
Rep. David Tarnas didn’t give the measure a hearing this session before his House Judiciary Committee. (Kevin Fujii/Civil Beat/2024)

That didn’t happen with HB 1849, and Tarnas didn’t respond to a Civil Beat request to explain why.

For his part, Rhoads said he didn’t give SB 2214 a hearing in his committee because he thought his measure to offer full public financing of political campaigns “was more important.”

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Full public campaign financing would go a long way toward reforming the pay-to-play landscape, but accepting the public money instead of continuing to solicit private funds would be voluntary. And even though it passed the Senate unanimously, Tarnas led the effort to kill that measure when it got to his committee.

Credit Rhoads for his efforts on behalf of public campaign financing, but this shouldn’t have been a one-or-the-other matter — he didn’t have to derail the effort to turn off the tap on political contributions tied to government contracts.

Chair Judiciary Karl Rhoads during mail in ballot hearing held in room 016 at the Capitol.Chair Judiciary Karl Rhoads during mail in ballot hearing held in room 016 at the Capitol.
Sen. Karl Rhoads said his priority this session was a measure for full public financing of campaigns. (Cory Lum/Civil Beat/2019)

‘I Will Look At The Issue With More Urgency’

Rhoads also expressed concern that if SB 2214 had passed, candidates would have no way of knowing they were accepting illegal contributions. He’s apparently developed those concerns since last year’s session, when his committee unanimously approved a similar measure.

Still, the senator acknowledged that the number of pay-to-play contributions documented in the recent report is “surprisingly high,” and added, “with this new information, I will look at the issue with more urgency next session.”

Urgency. Government reform efforts seemingly achieved that two years ago after a series of public scandals — including the bribery convictions of two former legislators — led to the creation of a special state commission that proposed numerous good government measures.

Some were adopted by the Legislature, but the major ones — including closing the loophole on contractor contributions — were not.

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Campaign Spending Commission Director Kristin Izumi-Nitao said the proposal to expand restrictions on contributions by people connected to government contractors and grantees will be back next session. (Blaze Lovell/Civil Beat/2019)

So here we sit with a well-documented culture of political pay-to-play and a Campaign Spending Commission that is so understaffed that it would have a hard time enforcing new restrictions on campaign contributions even if the Legislature had the courage to approve them.

Izumi-Nitao said the commission will “absolutely” propose restrictions on pay-to-play donations again next session. Presumably it will also again seek an appropriation to enlarge its staff of 5, which hasn’t grown since it was established in 1973 even as it struggles to regulate more and more candidates and campaign committees.

Before that will come an election in which voters can deliver their own message about the need for reform in state and local government.

The Civil Beat/New York Times report broke new ground in connecting campaign contributions to the people who benefit from government contracts. Over the last 2 years, our “Let the Sunshine In” project has lit up many other dark corners of political dysfunction.

Our collective eyes are open wider now. It shouldn’t take another round of scandals to re-energize momentum for reform.





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Hawaii County Surf Forecast for March 04, 2026 | Big Island Now

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Hawaii County Surf Forecast for March 04, 2026 | Big Island Now


Forecast for Big Island Windward and Southeast


Shores Tonight Wednesday
Surf Surf
PM AM AM PM
North Facing 2-4 2-4 2-4 2-4
East Facing 3-5 4-6 4-6 5-7
South Facing 1-3 1-3 1-3 1-3
TONIGHT
Weather Mostly cloudy. Numerous showers.
Low Temperature In the upper 60s.
Winds East winds 5 to 10 mph.
Tides
Hilo Bay High 1.9 feet 03:26 PM HST.
Low -0.1 feet 09:20 PM HST.
High 2.4 feet 03:40 AM HST.
WEDNESDAY
Weather Partly sunny. Numerous showers.
High Temperature In the upper 70s.
Winds East winds 10 to 15 mph.
Tides
Hilo Bay Low -0.1 feet 10:00 AM HST.
High 2.0 feet 04:04 PM HST.
Sunrise 6:37 AM HST.
Sunset 6:27 PM HST.

Forecast for Big Island Leeward


Shores Tonight Wednesday
Surf Surf
PM AM AM PM
West Facing 2-4 2-4 2-4 1-3
South Facing 1-3 1-3 1-3 1-3
TONIGHT
Weather Mostly sunny until 6 PM, then mostly
cloudy. Hazy.
Low Temperature In the upper 60s.
Winds West winds around 5 mph early in the
afternoon, becoming light and variable.
Tides
Kona High 1.5 feet 04:04 PM HST.
Low -0.1 feet 09:57 PM HST.
High 1.9 feet 04:18 AM HST.
Kawaihae High 1.4 feet 04:36 PM HST.
Low -0.1 feet 10:20 PM HST.
High 1.9 feet 04:38 AM HST.
WEDNESDAY
Weather Partly sunny. Hazy.
High Temperature In the mid 80s.
Winds Light and variable winds, becoming west
around 5 mph in the afternoon.
Tides
Kona Low -0.1 feet 10:37 AM HST.
High 1.6 feet 04:42 PM HST.
Kawaihae Low -0.2 feet 11:01 AM HST.
High 1.6 feet 05:13 PM HST.
Sunrise 6:41 AM HST.
Sunset 6:31 PM HST.

The current moderate northwest swell will continue a gradual decline through Thursday. A small west-northwest swell will arrive on Friday and hold through the weekend, followed by a small north-northwest swell early next week. Choppy east shore surf will build to near seasonal average by Wednesday as trade winds strengthen over and east of the islands. Little change is expected along east facing shores through the weekend, followed by a possible decline early next week if winds veer southerly. Surf along south facing shores will remain small to tiny through the weekend, and some islands may an increase in choppy surf if southerly winds develop early next week.

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NORTH EAST

am        pm  

ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW AD
ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW AD

Surf: Minimal (ankle high or less) surf.

Conditions: Semi choppy with ESE winds 5-10mph in the morning increasing to 10-15mph in the afternoon.

NORTH WEST

am        pm  

Surf: Minimal (ankle high or less) surf.

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ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW AD

Conditions: Clean in the early morning with ESE winds less than 5mph. Bumpy/semi bumpy conditions move in during the morning hours with the winds shifting W 5-10mph.

WEST

am        pm  

Surf: Minimal (ankle high or less) surf.

Conditions: Semi glassy in the morning with N winds less than 5mph. Bumpy/semi bumpy conditions for the afternoon with the winds shifting WNW 5-10mph.

ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW AD

SOUTH EAST

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am        pm  

Surf: Minimal (ankle high or less) surf.

Conditions: Light sideshore texture in the morning with NE winds 10-15mph. This becomes Sideshore texture/chop for the afternoon.

Data Courtesy of NOAA.gov and SwellInfo.com



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Hawaii delegation continues to blast U.S. attack on Iran | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

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Hawaii delegation continues to blast U.S. attack on Iran | Honolulu Star-Advertiser




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Blood moon to dazzle Hawaii skies tonight

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Blood moon to dazzle Hawaii skies tonight

























Blood moon to dazzle Hawaii skies tonight | Local | kitv.com

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