Category Archives: lobbyists

Conference negotiations on “Democracy bills” set for this afternoon

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A series of “democracy” bills identified by the public interest lobby, Common Cause Hawaii, will be considered this afternoon by a House-Senate conference committee in room 325 at the State Capitol.

A legislative alert from CCH provided the following bill digest, including the organization’s positions on each bill.

BILL DIGEST

Below is a digest of “democracy” bills that have been assigned conferees as of April 14, 2014. Note: This list does not include bills that have already been sent to the Governor, and does not include bills we would like to see assigned to conferees. Common Cause Hawaii’s positions are listed below.

HB452 – “Election Fraud; Polling Misinformation; Advertisements”
RELATING TO ELECTION FRAUDS.

Deems any person who provides false information regarding the details of voting to be guilty of election fraud. Makes conforming amendments to clarify that advertisements shall not contain false information about the time, date, place, or means of voting. (SD1)

Introducers: C. LEE, BELATTI, BROWER, MCKELVEY, MIZUNO, MORIKAWA, NAKASHIMA, NISHIMOTO, RHOADS, SAIKI, THIELEN
House Conferees Appointed: Rhoads Chair; Brower, C. Lee, Thielen Members.

Senate Conferees Appointed: Hee Chair; Shimabukuro Co-Chair; Slom Member.

Common Cause Hawaii Position: Support

Status: Bill scheduled for Conference Committee Meeting on Thursday, 04-17-14 1:30PM in conference room 325.

HB1604 – “Campaign Spending Commission Package; Elections”
RELATING TO ELECTIONS

Amends and clarifies the requirements upon which certificates of election are delivered. Provides that certificates of election shall be delivered only after the filing of required candidate committee reports and the payment of any fine assessed by the commission. Effective July 1, 2050. (SD1)

Introducer: SOUKI (Introduced by request of another party)
House Conferees Appointed: Rhoads, Ing Co-Chairs; Belatti, Thielen Members.
Senate Conferees Appointed: Hee Chair; Shimabukuro Co-Chair; Slom Member.
Common Cause Hawaii Position: Support
Status: Bill scheduled for Conference Committee Meeting on Thursday, 04-17-14 1:30PM in conference room 325.

HB2139 – “Sunshine Law and Public Agency Meetings”
RELATING TO PUBLIC AGENCY MEETINGS

Authorizes a limited meeting where any number of county council members may attend a board’s or community group’s meeting to discuss council business, provided that certain requirements are met. Repeals 6/30/2018. (SD1)

Introducer: YAMASHITA
House Conferees Appointed: Rhoads Chair; Belatti, C. Lee, Thielen Members.
Senate Conferees have not yet been appointed
Common Cause Hawaii Position: Strongly oppose

Status: Bill scheduled for Conference Committee Meeting on Thursday, 04-17-14 3:30PM in conference room 325.

HB2590 – “Voting; Late Registration; Absentee Polling Places”
RELATING TO ELECTIONS

Allows voter registration at absentee polling places beginning in 2016 and late voter registration, including on election day, beginning in 2018. Appropriates funds. Effective 7/1/2050. (SD2)

Introducers: ING, BROWER, FUKUMOTO, KOBAYASHI, C. LEE, LOWEN, MCKELVEY, MIZUNO, OHNO, RHOADS, Choy

House Conferees Appointed: Rhoads; Ing Co-Chairs; Creagan, Thielen Members

Senate Conferees Appointed: Hee Chair; Ige Co-Chair,; Shimabukuro Member

Common Cause Hawaii Position: Support

Status: Bill scheduled for Conference Committee Meeting on Thursday, 04-17-14 1:30PM in conference room 325.

SB2629 – “Lobbyists; Statement of Expenditures; Special Session”
RELATING TO LOBBYISTS

Requires lobbyists and specified individuals to report to the Hawaii State Ethics Commission, within 30 days of adjournment sine die of a special session of the Legislature, on contributions and expenditures made to lobby on legislative matters considered during that special session. (SD2629 HD1)

Introducer: IHARA

House Conferees Appointed: Rhoads, Ing Co-Chairs; Brower, Thielen Members.

Senate Conferees Appointed: Hee Chair; Shimabukuro Co-Chair; Galuteria Member.

Common Cause Hawaii Position: Support


Status:Conference committee meeting scheduled for 04-17-14 1:30PM in conference room 325.

SB2634 – “Lobbyists; Expenditure Reporting”
RELATING TO LOBBYISTS

Requires individuals who spend more than $750 on lobbying during a statement period to itemize each expenditure in certain categories. (SB2634 HD2)

Introducers: IHARA, Ige

House Conferees Appointed: Rhoads, Ing Co-Chairs; Brower, Thielen Members.

Senate Conferees Appointed: Hee Chair; Shimabukuro Co-Chair; Slom Member.

Common Cause Hawaii Position: Support

Status: Conference committee meeting scheduled for 04-17-14 1:30PM in conference room 325.

SB2682 – “Financial Disclosures; Public Records”
RELATING TO FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE STATEMENTS

Requires the financial disclosure statements of members of certain boards, commissions, and agencies to be made available for public inspection and duplication. Limits information on the source of income of the spouse and dependent children of those whose financial disclosures are public to the name of the income source. (SB2682 HD2)

Introducer: SHIMABUKURO

House Conferees Appointed: McKelvey, Rhoads Co-Chairs; Kawakami, C. Lee, McDermott

Senate Conferees Appointed: Hee Chair; Shimabukuro Co-Chair; Gabbard, Ihara, Slom

Common Cause Hawaii Position: Support

Status: Conference committee meeting scheduled for 04-17-14 1:30PM in conference room 325.

State Ethics Commission beefs up online access to lobbyist info, financial disclosures, & other data

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The State Ethics Commission has significantly expanded online public access to various disclosure reports filed with the commission by lobbyists, organizations that hire lobbyists, as well as elected and appointed public officials. The much improved access arrived without fanfare as part of the commission’s redesigned website. I’m just exploring the extent of the improvements!

The commission’s redesigned website now utilizes the state’s date portal, data.hawaii.gov, to host its databases. The result is more robust access to data that has previously been available, as well as public access to copies of reports that have not been available online.

For example, while the commission previously scanned and posted copies of expenditure reports filed by organizations that are represented by lobbyists, checking out the expenses reported by lobbyists themselves required a visit to the commission office and a time-consuming search through binders of paper copies.

That’s totally changed. For example, start at the commission’s home page, www.hawaii.gov/ethics, click on “Lobbying” in the categories listed across the top of the page, and select “Lobbyists’ expenditure statements.” This opens a frame that links directly to a database at data.hawaii.gov containing lobbyist expenditure reports filed from 2011 to the present. Each entry includes the name of the lobbyist, the dates included in the reporting period, the total amount spent, and a link to a scanned copy of the lobbyist’s report for the period.

Select the small image of a magnifying glass at the top left of the data window, and you can easily do basic searches.

As with other collections of data available at data.hawaii.gov, the entire database or any subsets can be downloaded to your own computer for further analysis.

I’m still digesting the kinds of new questions that can be asked and answered using this new data resource, but clearly this is a huge step forward.

Here’s another example. In the commission’s former online system, you could view the registration statements filed by lobbyists authorizing them to lobby on behalf of specific clients. But it required digging through layers of prompts. Although I may not recall the specific series of steps correctly, it went something like this. First, you would first select the type of form, in this case lobbyist registration statements. Then, select the year or reporting period, if I recall correctly. After that, you would choose the first letter of the lobbyist’s name, which got you to an alphabetical list of all lobbyists starting with that letter, and finally you would select the person you were interested in.

Jumping around between related lobbyists, or between reporting periods, was incredibly clumsy. Although you could find a specific form, it was almost impossible to get an overview, or see relations. That has all changed for the better.

For reporters who like to use public records, this is a wonderful new world.

Congratulations to the commission, and director Les Kondo, for what must have been a massive job of scanning and uploading years of diverse paper records.

Restrictions on lobbyist contributions and disclosure of bundled contributions

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Here are a few additional items relevant to the issue of campaign fundraising by lobbyists.

First, there are several states, including California, which prohibit campaign contributions by lobbyists. There are additional states that prohibit lobbyist contributions while the legislature is in session.

Hawaii law does not restrict contributions by lobbyists.

This information is from a listing prepared by the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Contributions by Lobbyists
State
Restriction

Alaska
A lobbyist cannot contribute to a candidate for legislature while lobbyist is subject to registration requirements and for one year after, except to candidate in the district where the lobbyist will be eligible to vote on the day of the election (AS §15.13.074(g))

California
Lobbyists may not contribute to state candidates or officeholders if registered to lobby the candidate’s or officeholder’s agency (Govt. Code §85702)

Kentucky
Lobbyists may not contribute to legislative candidates, nor may legislative candidates accept contributions from lobbyists (KRS §6.767 and §6.811(6))

Massachusetts
Contributions by executive and legislative agents are limited to $200 per calendar year to an individual candidate or committee

South Carolina
A lobbyist shall not offer, solicit, facilitate, or provide contributions on behalf of any member of the General Assembly, the Governor, the Lieutenant Governor, any other statewide constitutional officer, any public official of any state agency (SC Code §2-17-80)

Tennessee
Lobbyists are prohibited from making any campaign contributions to any candidate for governor or the general assembly (Tenn. Code §3-6-304(j))

Lobbyists are prohibited from making contributions during the legislative session in:
Arizona (A.R.S. §41-1234.01)

Colorado (C.R.S.A. § 1-45-105.5)

Connecticut (Conn. Gen. Stat. § 9-610(e))

Iowa (Iowa Code §56.15)

Kansas (K.S.A. § 25-4153a)

Louisiana (La.R.S. 24:56)

Maine (1 Me. Rev. Stat. Ann. §1015(3))

Minnesota (Minn. Stat. §10A.273)

North Carolina (N.C. Gen. Stat. §163-278.13B(c))

Oklahoma (21 O.S. 187.1)

Vermont (2 V.S.A. §266(3))

Wisconsin (Wis. Stats. § 13.625)

Federal election law also requires additional disclosure of bundling of contributions by lobbyists or lobbyists’ PACs that exceed certain limits.

Bundling refers to the practice of lobbyists soliciting campaign contributions for a candidate from others, perhaps clients the lobbyist represents, then forwarding those contributions to the candidate’s campaign in a manner which recognizes the lobbyists role in raising the bundled amount.

Reports on bundled contributions are filed by the recipient candidates’ campaigns.

The federal regulations are laid out by the Federal Election Commission.

Public Citizen explains why disclosure of binding is important. It’s all about the importance of money in the political system.

Bundlers play an enormous role in determining the success of political campaigns and are apt to receive preferential treatment if their candidate wins. Bundlers who direct money to presidential candidates tend to be first in line for plum ambassador positions and other political appointments. Industry titans and lobbyists are more likely to receive preferential treatment from elected officials if they raised large amounts of money for them.

From an article describing how bundling is used by developers in New York:

Dozens of executives of companies that do business with city government are finding their way around strict limits on campaign contributions, raising nearly $1 million so far on behalf of prospective 2013 candidates for mayor even though they personally would be prohibited from contributing more than a token sum.

A lobbyist for the Related Companies steered more than $27,000 to the mayoral campaign of City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who provided crucial support for its Hudson Yards development.

They are bundlers, intermediaries who deliver donations from multiple donors to a candidate running for office, and most come from the real estate industry. While the city’s campaign finance rules limit city contractors and lobbyists seeking government business to just $400 in contributions to any one candidate, no such restrictions apply to those who bundle other donors’ contributions.

While preparing my Civil Beat column this week on the issue of fundraisers organized by lobbyists, I was told by several people that it is not uncommon for lobbyists to engage in this type of fundraising at the state and local level.

As far as I can tell, Hawaii law does not currently restrict nor require disclosure of bundling by lobbyists or any other donors.

Lobbyists take on fundraising duties

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My column over at Civil Beat this week looks at the practice of lobbyists stepping up to take charge of fundraising events for legislators (“Hawaii Monitor: Lobbyists Test Another Path to Influence“).

Here’s my lede:

The Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii pulled off a little-noticed coup by the time this year’s legislative session was barely a week old.

During the seven-week period from the beginning of December through first week of the 2014 session, two top chamber officials — who also serve as the organization’s registered lobbyists — were reported to be in charge of fundraising events for eight key House leaders, including Speaker Joe Souki, majority leader Scott Saiki, and the chair and vice-chair of the powerful House Finance Committee, Reps. Sylvia Luke and Scott Nishimoto.

Tickets for the Chamber-organized fundraisers ranged from $100 to $300 per person, according to notices filed with the Hawaii Campaign Spending Commission.

We’re accustomed to lobbyists making campaign contributions, and working the corridors and the railing at the State Capitol, while trying to steer legislation in their clients’ favor. Cozying up to legislative leaders by taking charge of their campaign fundraising events appears to be something different, requiring a closer and more direct tie between lobbyist and campaign than what has been traditional.

Click through to Civil Beat to read the whole column.

But if you don’t subscribe, and have used up your free views, you can read the column here.