Limit the amount
In regard to Friday’s WHT story on Clean Elections, the following is presented for consideration.
As stated in the article, per Nate Hix, director of Living Wage Hawaii, “Right now, winning elections requires a lot of money, and right now, a few amount of donors are providing a significant amount of campaign funds.” He is exactly correct. Elections are basically won because of name recognition, at least that is the case in primary elections. Money buys that name recognition. It is the proverbial Catch 22. A candidate needs more money to get more name recognition and thus, “Big Money” wins.
Apparently, Senate Bill 1543 still allows a candidate the option of not participating in the program and thus allows for unlimited contributions to candidates that choose to not participate. Case in point: In 2008, presidential candidate, Barack Obama, declined matching federal funds because he was able to raise a lot more money by not participating in the program.
An alternative to the proposal in SB 1543 is to limit the amount an individual, corporation, political action committee, political party, union, or other entity, to a given amount, say $1,000. Another part of this proposal would be to limit contributions to only the residents within the district covered by the particular office. Thus, a candidate for governor could receive funding from anyone in the state, a candidate for the U.S. House could receive funding from within their respective district, a candidate for The Hawaii Senate could receive contributions only from within their respective district, and so on to include county-level offices.
Presently, the vast majority of residents do not contribute to a candidate because their contribution would be minuscule and thus of very minimal effect. This proposal will thus provide individuals a meaningful opportunity to participate.
Legislation does not always have to involve the government spending money. This proposal would eliminate the need for more government spending and additional bureaucracy, thus a savings to all taxpayers in Hawaii.
Kawika Fischer
Captain Cook
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