STAND. COM. REP. NO. 871

                                   Honolulu, Hawaii
                                                     , 1999

                                   RE:  S.B. No. 1502
                                        S.D. 1




Honorable Norman Mizuguchi
President of the Senate
Twentieth State Legislature
Regular Session of 1999
State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Judiciary, to which was referred S.B. No.
1502 entitled: 

     "A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CAMPAIGN SPENDING,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this bill is to require a candidate or a
committee to file a report with the campaign spending commission
disclosing disbursements for electioneering communications over a
$5,000 annual threshold, and to treat the expenses incidental to
a fundraiser as expenditures.

     Your Committee finds that informational and educational
advertising has become an unregulated and virtually unlimited
aspect of political campaigns.  A Federal law that was proposed
but not enacted, the McCain-Feingold campaign spending reform
bill, contained language designed to address this very issue.
The bill before your Committee is modeled on the McCain-Feingold
bill in its treatment of electioneering communications.

     Your Committee further finds that the current exemption of
fundraising expenditures from voluntary spending limits has
created another loophole in campaign spending laws.  This
provision is ripe for abuse, as it is almost impossible to
enforce or to administer, and serves no clear purpose within the
framework of our expenditure limit and public financing programs.

     Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by the
Campaign Spending Commission, the Hawaii State Coordinating

 
a                                                     
                                   STAND. COM. REP. NO. 871
                                   Page 2


Council on Deafness, the League of Women Voters of Hawaii, Common
Cause Hawaii, and Hawaii Clean Elections.

     Upon further consideration, your Committee has amended this
measure by:

     (1)  Adding paid advertising via bulk mail to the definition
          of electioneering communication; and

     (2)  Making technical, non-substantive changes for the
          purposes of clarity and style.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your
Committee on Judiciary that is attached to this report, your
Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No.
1502, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second
Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1502, S.D. 1, and
be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

                                   Respectfully submitted on
                                   behalf of the members of the
                                   Committee on Judiciary,



                                   ______________________________
                                   AVERY B. CHUMBLEY, Co-Chair



                                   ______________________________
                                   MATTHEW M. MATSUNAGA, Co-Chair

 
a