My Civil Beat column this week took a different look at the upcoming election for delegates to a Native Hawaiian political convention who will then “decide whether or not to create a document or constitution for a nation and its governance.”

I’m registered to vote in this election, so started looking at the process, which led to the column, “Native Hawaiian Election Throws Out All the Rules.”

What I realized is that none of the laws that apply to state and local elections will apply to this privately conducted election. There will be no campaign contribution limits, no pre-election disclosures of contributors, no restrictions on corporate money, no financial disclosure by candidates, no ethics rules, no limits on conflict of interest, no restrictions on or disclosure of lobbying activity once delegates are election, and so on.

This free for all won’t necessarily lead to corruption and unethical behavior, but it seems to me that’s the likely outcome once special interest groups figure out that there’s a lot at stake in the convention process, and that there are at this point no rules to protect the public interest.

So if you have access to Civil Beat, do check it out.

And speaking of Civil Beat, they announced some changes this week including a new managing editor, Bob Ortega, who has an extensive and varied background, including years as an investigative reporter.

In other news, you may have seen that we are now providing space on our site for public service announcements by nonprofit organizations that need some help getting the word out about events or activities. Currently, the American Lung Association in Hawaii and Family Promises of Hawaii are getting an assist for their fundraising efforts. If you represent a nonprofit that wants to inform the public about an event, drop us a note at news@civilbeat.com. Some restrictions apply.

Another new thing you might notice in coming weeks: advertising on some stories. We’re joining a network of national news organizations that is designed for media outlets from all over the country to share content and, yes, generate revenue. That comes from ads running on content that is widely published by all the organizations in the network. So if we decide to pick up a story from the network, it will come with an ad on it.