STAND. COM. REP. NO.99

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2003

RE: S.B. No. 297

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Transportation, Military Affairs and Government Operations, to which was referred S.B. No. 297 entitled:

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

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to prohibit candidates for public office from commingling campaign literature with materials created or produced using government funds, for distribution in connection with the candidate's campaign.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Campaign Spending Commission and the League of Women Voters of Hawaii. The Hawaii State Ethics Commission provided comments.

Your Committee finds that candidates for public office seek every possible advantage. Sometimes, when distributing campaign materials produced by the candidate's committee, a candidate may include materials that were produced by a state or county government agency.

To commingle a candidate's campaign materials with government-produced materials adds an air of legitimacy to the candidate's materials, and may imply an endorsement of the candidate by the agency that produced the materials on behalf of the government.

Your Committee agrees that to ensure the cleanliness and legitimacy of the elections process, candidates should be flatly prohibited from distributing, as campaign material, any publication produced in whole or in part using state or county funds.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Transportation, Military Affairs and Government Operations that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 297 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Transportation, Military Affairs and Government Operations,

____________________________

CAL KAWAMOTO, Chair