STAND. COM. REP. NO. 851

                                   Honolulu, Hawaii
                                                     , 1999

                                   RE:  S.B. No. 628
                                        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.
628 entitled: 

     "A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO ELECTIONS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this bill is to amend various election laws
to:

     (1)  Add a new category of "ballot issue committee;"

     (2)  Redefine "committee" to exempt organizations that raise
          or expend funds solely to produce and disseminate
          informational or educational advertising;

     (3)  Require candidates to register with the Campaign
          Spending Commission within ten days of the first
          expenditure;

     (4)  Remove the requirement that continuing candidates re-
          register for each election;

     (5)  Remove a provision apparently limiting a candidate's
          contributions to the candidate's own campaign;

     (6)  Extend to committees the opportunity to voluntarily
          turn over excess contributions;


 
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     (7)  Repeal a prohibition against corporate contributions to
          committees that were formed less than a year before a
          primary election;

     (8)  Move the first reporting date for candidate committees
          to July 30 of an election year;

     (9)  Extend potential criminal prosecution to "persons"
          rather than "individuals;" and

    (10)  Make technical, non-substantive changes.

     Your Committee finds that constitutional constraints raise
questions regarding the degree to which the State can exercise
regulatory authority over informational or educational
advertising.  Similarly, the Attorney General has opined that
committees that receive and expend funds only to impact ballot
issues cannot be subject to contribution limits.  

     Your Committee finds that amending the candidate
registration threshold to require candidates to register after
making a first expenditure of any amount will improve the
Campaign Spending Commission's awareness of candidates in smaller
races, who may not be required to even register under current law
until late in the campaign.  Your Committee further finds that
the current requirement of registration for each new election has
been unnecessarily burdensome upon continuing candidates and
administration.

     Your Committee finds that a limitation on a candidate's
contributions to the candidate's own campaign may not be legal,
and that it should be made clear that campaign contribution
limitations are not intended to apply to candidates.  Your
Committee further finds that committees should have the same
opportunity and obligation that candidates currently have to
voluntarily turn over excess or wrongful contributions.  Also on
the subject of contributions, your Committee finds that the
existing prohibition against corporate contributions to
committees formed within the last year is virtually unenforceable
and subject to court challenge.

     Your Committee finds that the Campaign Spending Commission
should have the option to publish either in the newspaper, or on
the internet, or by both methods, the names of candidates,
committees, and parties who have failed to file a report.  The
obligation to publish the names by one or more of those methods,
however, should be mandatory.


 
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     Testimony in support of this measure was received from the
Campaign Spending Commission, the League of Women Voters, Common
Cause Hawaii, Hawaii Clean Elections, and one individual.

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

     (1)  Giving the Campaign Spending Commission the option of
          publishing on the internet (rather than just in the
          newspaper) the names of those who have failed to file a
          report;

     (2)  Clarifying that a candidate is not subject to
          contribution limitations as to the candidate's own
          campaign;

     (3   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.
628, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second
Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 628, 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

 
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