When Gov. Linda Lingle announced in June that she was restricting general-fund spending by the executive branch by 4 percent across-the-board this fiscal year, she said she had sent letters to state lawmakers, the Judiciary and the state Office of Hawaiian Affairs urging fiscal restraint.
Turns out she was specific. In letters to state House and Senate leaders, she asked them to trim their budgets this fiscal year by 4 percent.
From one of the letters:
The seriousness of the current fiscal condition requires that I share these concerns with you and request your assistance in ensuring the fiscal solvency of our State by controlling the general fund expenditures under your jurisdiction.
It is hoped that all branches of State government will do their part in exercising fiscal restraint and curtailing their expenses in consideration of the State’s financial circumstances.
A 4% restriction on your FY09 expenditures would be a prudent start. Our collective actions at this time will preclude the necessity of having to consider more drastic alternatives later.
Staff for House and Senate leaders said they are taking Lingle’s recommendation under consideration and are looking for ways to reduce costs.
Meanwhile, state Sen. Will Espero, D-20th (`Ewa Beach, Waipahu), asked House and Senate leaders this week to consider the idea of a four-day work week pilot project at the state Capitol.
The pilot, he said, would involve four 10-hour work days a week between October and the end of December. Espero said the pilot could provide information on whether a four-day week would save in electricity and gasoline costs. He doubted, however, that a four-day work week would be practical after January as staff and lawmakers prepare for session.
From Espero’s e-mail to leadership:
The concept of a four-day work week has been in the news and is being considered by the Governor. I believe the State Capitol would be a great place to see how a four-day work week would affect state employees, the general public, government services, and some of the issues that may arise from this pilot.
We are a small microcosm of state government, but here is an opportunity for us to take a lead on this issue.
Update: The Lingle administration announced this afternoon that the state Department of Human Resources Development will conduct a four-day work week pilot project between August 4 and the end of October.
The department, during the pilot, will be open from 7:15 a.m. until 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday and closed on Friday.
Some state House staffers on edge over the fate of state House Majority Leader Kirk Caldwell, D-24th (Mänoa), are keeping a sense of humor.
One staffer, knowing that Duke Bainum — Caldwell’s rival for a Honolulu City Council seat — got his nickname from legendary actor John Wayne, has come up with a list of Wayne movie titles, videos and documentaries that may capture the current situation.
Here are the Wayne movie titles. Insert your own punch lines:
“The Drop Kick”
“The Deceiver”
“Two Fisted Law”
“The Big Stampede”
“The Lawless Frontier”
“Conflict”
“Idol of the Crowds”
“Without Reservations”
“3 Godfathers”
“Trouble Along the Way”
“The High and the Mighty”
“The Longest Day”
“The Greatest Story Ever Told”
“True Grit”
“Cancel My Reservation”
Kevin Cronin, the state’s chief elections officer, had not commented extensively about the candidate filing controversies until releasing a three-page statement late yesterday afternoon.
We folded some of his comments into our story this morning about the latest challenge to state House Majority Leader Kirk Caldwell’s Honolulu City Council campaign. But much of Cronin’s statement was left on the cutting room floor last night. Here are some of the highlights:
These cases should not be tried and decided in the newspapers and other media. Isn’t this our democratic system? Shouldn’t it be allowed to work? But because they have chosen to present snippets to the public and reached a decision including casting aspersions on the Office of Elections whose dedicated staff is working extremely hard to prepare for the 2008 elections under very difficult circumstances, the current atmosphere obliges me to comment before it is necessary under the law.
Because she was in the line at 4:30 p.m. with nomination papers in hand when the 4:30 p.m. filing deadline arrived, as were other candidates, she was permitted to file on the advice of staff’s general counsel. But unlike the other candidates whose papers were complete, she gathered additional signatures after 4:30 p.m., and then filed her papers. While the chief election officer has the authority to deny her filing her papers under these circumstances, given the advice provided to staff and Eads’s right to make her case by completing the process, she did and filed.
On the elections office posting Caldwell’s withdrawal at the filing deadline:
The next day, Wednesday, July 23rd, Caldwell filed with the elections office for the first time his written request to withdraw. Although a “w” (withdraw) was posted on the elections office website on Tuesday, July 22nd, its posting resulted from confusion between the city and the state. This “w” should not have been posted because Caldwell did not submit his withdrawal request in writing. To act on an oral withdrawal would enable any person to withdraw a candidate’s name, thereby adversely affecting the election process. Imagine, a McCain supporter calling in an oral request to withdraw the name of Obama from the ballot, or the reverse.
On registering to vote last Friday after an Advertiser inquiry:
Until I registered to vote, I served as what the law calls a “de facto” official. A “de facto” official is one who in good faith may perform the duties of office without jeopardy to any decisions made. No one informed me otherwise. There is no question I was a citizen of the United States, older than 18 and a resident of Hawaii. All of that paperwork had been completed.
What remained to remove the “de facto” status was to complete an application to become a registered voter in Hawaii. Unfortunately, this was one of several personal items which remained on my to-do list and that working 6-7 days a week kept getting moved to the next day as I worried about getting a voting machine system secured for the state and to begin election preparations in what is expected to bring to the polls an unusually large number of voters. When the caller/reporter asked about my status, I left the office immediately to go to Honolulu Hale to register to vote.
To experience the attention and anger among many people over my voter registration status surprised me, especially when our beautiful state has so many more compelling issues like education, health care, and transportation, among others.
On potentially controversial decisions:
I have nothing to hide; my only agenda is to secure fair and honest elections for the state of Hawaii and serving all the people regardless of any political party affiliation. It is correct to say I am new to the political workings in Hawaii, but I know and respect fair elections and the process of developing facts and applying the law to the best of my ability. I have already made some staff changes; if I conclude the public is not well served, I could make other changes.
As chief election officer, I apply and follow the state’s election laws and interpret them where appropriate. This may result in outcomes that may ruffle the feathers of candidates, party officials, pundits and other interested observers. I understand this and I accept such possible outcomes as a natural part of overseeing elections in this great state.
With competition for fundraising dollars so intense, U.S. Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois and other candidates this year have been auctioning off their time to donors who kick in even small campaign contributions.
The Obama campaign had to revamp one promotion after a warning that it violated Minnesota lottery laws, but the campaign continues to offer sweeteners to donors.
From a recent Obama e-mail about the upcoming Democratic National Convention in Denver in August:
Barack is opening up the convention and his acceptance speech to as many people as possible. Supporters like you are responsible for building this movement and for bringing this campaign so far — and Barack wants you to be part of this important moment.
Free tickets will be available soon, but if you make a donation in any amount this month, you could be one of 10 supporters selected to meet Barack backstage before he delivers his speech.
If you make a donation by midnight this Thursday, July 31st, you and a guest could be flown to Denver, spend a couple of nights in a hotel, participate in the convention, and then go backstage with Barack before the big event.
U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, who is trying to retire her campaign debt, is offering a possible dinner for a $5 donation:
Summer is a time for simple pleasures: family vacations, baseball games, and dinner out under the stars. At least it is if you aren’t running for president!
It sure is nice having a little more time on my hands, and I’d love to spend some of it with you. Would you like to join me for dinner?
During the campaign, I had the chance a few times to grab meals with supporters, but they were always rushed thanks to the frenetic pace of the campaign. This is my first chance to sit down and spend some real one-on-one time with you. If you enter today, we could be having dinner together soon!
Join me for dinner. Make a $5 contribution today.
My staff has been calling this my “retirement dinner” — not because I’m retiring, of course, but because we’re working on retiring the debt we owe to small vendors all over the country. Everyone who acts today will have the chance to join me — along with a guest — for a dinner to talk about whatever you’d like.
Even consumer advocate and independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader has a pitch. Here is an e-mail from his national coordinator:
Dear supporter,
We’ve just finished another hectic day here in the D.C. office and I wanted to dash off a quick e-mail about the “Dinner with Ralph” e-mail contest. The whole team (including Ralph, who came up with the idea!) is blown away to see so many people sign-up as contestants, and even more as participants and supporters.
Over the last five days, over 200 of our supporters have reached out to more than 10,000 of their friends — clearly there’s nothing like a little of the good ol’ competitive spirit!
So — quickly — I want to remind you that it’s not to late to participate in the contest. The contest doesn’t end until August 7th, so there’s lots of time left to win dinner with Ralph, or Matt, or to win one of the many other prizes that are available.
And, we’ve just added two new prizes:
For anyone who enters and recruits at least five friends: take part in an invitation-only conference call with Ralph and Matt. That’s right — just recruit five friends to join our movement and you’re in on the conference call, and a chance to ask your questions to Matt or Ralph.
And, if you recruit 20 friends to join our “people fighting back” campaign: your choice of a t-shirt from our Web store (and we have lots of new designs on the way). People who reach 25 friends will get a t-shirt and a copy of the Declaration of Independence.
Gov. Linda Lingle, back from her trip to the Bahamas and Colorado on energy related matters, held a QnA with reporters yesterday afternoon and was asked about the candidate challenges since the filing deadline.
The Republican governor seemed almost amused by the accounts but she took issue with Democrats who she said tried to influence elections officials.
Although she did not mention any names, and didn’t get the account exactly right, the governor was referring to Democratic Party of Hawai’i chairman Brian Schatz’s urging elections officials to err on the side of allowing a last-minute candidate to file her paperwork because she was at the office before the filing deadline. The candidate was later told her paperwork was incomplete.
From the transcript:
It created this impression of a place where the U.N — you know, all around the world the U.N. sends people to make sure things like that don’t happen in third world countries — that some political party hack can’t go in and tell an election official how to run an election. And that’s exactly what happened here.
I tell you, to be out of the state, it was embarrassing. It was shocking that something like that had occurred.
Lingle was also asked about how Kevin Cronin, the chief elections officer, had not registered to vote until last Friday. She chuckled.
When I got an e-mail from someone telling me about the election official, the subject line said: You couldn’t make this stuff up. And I think that sort of said it all.
Lingle said state lawmakers may want to rethink whether the elections office should be governed by a citizens commission or whether the lieutenant governor’s office should go back to taking a larger oversight role. She also noted that other states have an elected secretary of state to oversee elections. She said the issue might be good to discuss at a constitutional convention.
A reader noted that while the Republicans have been outraged over the candidate filing controversy, some Democrats were critical of Republicans for how they handled the 2006 withdrawal of Vietnam prisoner-of-war Jerry Coffee from a U.S. Senate primary.
Coffee suspended his campaign in August after heart surgery but, since he remained on the ballot, Lingle and other Republicans urged Republicans to vote for Coffee over lesser-known challengers in the primary so the party could pick a replacement if he won. Coffee indeed won and the party chose state Rep. Cynthia Thielen, D-50th (Kailua, Käne’ohe Bay), who would go on to lose against U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawai’i, in the general.
Some Democrats said Republicans should have made it clear who they would appoint to replace Coffee so Republican voters could have made a more informed choice.
Update: Another reader reminds us of the case of James Hardway, who was deputy finance director for Lingle’s 2002 campaign and took himself out of a state House race that year after Democrats complained about his paperwork.
Hardway is now a special assistant at the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations.
