Voter Owned Hawai'i: The Reform That Makes All Other Reforms Possible

 


 
 

Make Clean Elections Part of Your Platform

The sad fact about the current state of our system is that it is not pono and Hawaii's residents are losing faith in the legislature's willingness and ability to pass laws that consistently place the interest of people over the interest of profit for campaign contributors.

An AARP survey of Hawaii residents of all age groups proves that people recognize a major link between campaign contributors and the actions of legislators. The survey also showed that people overwhelmingly support a change in the way things are done.

By making Clean Elections part of your platform and fighting for updating our partial public funding system, you will join a new group of legislators across the country who recognize the power behind a system of Comprehensive Public Funding. In Maine, for example, 78% of the state legislature is made up of Clean Elections candidates. After implementing Clean Elections in Maine, voter turnout there increased and is now the highest in the country. In fact, a lot has changed. Legislators don't feel pressured by campaign donors and are free to spend more time with their constituents and connect with them in a more profound way. One legislator there, who has family ties in Hawaii, mentioned that Clean Elections "changed his life."

Please help Hawaii's politics become pono. By fighting for public funding, you will earn the trust of your constituents and help implement one of the most important programs in the state.

Overview on making CE part of your platform (DOC 40k)

Fact Sheet - What is VOE? (PDF 305k)

Fact Sheet - Qualifying (PDF 242k)

Fact Sheet - Will it Work? (PDF 638k)

Frequently Asked Questions about Clean Elections (DOC 32k)
  "For many positions, to have to go to the very same interests that you're going to be regulating ... for your money to run for office is a disaster. It's a fundamental mistake in the system as it exists. And to be able to be free of that, to be able to have public funding, which makes you independent from any specific interest, is, I think, a liberating factor. It's one that would allow me to do a much better job." --Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard

”Public financing is the difference between being able to go out and spend your time talking with voters, meeting with groups, . . . traveling to communities that have been under-represented in the past, as opposed to being on the phone selling tickets to a $250 a plate fundraiser.” -- Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano, elected under Arizona's Voter Owned Elections program

“We Clean Elections [Voter Owned Elections] pioneers are a more independent bunch, especially because we’re not worrying about how we’re going to raise the big bucks to win our next race. Lobbyists for special interests tend to spend less time with us, which makes it easier to get through the Capitol halls in time for a vote.” -- Glenn Cummings, & Ed Youngblood, Maine State legislators, elected using Voter Owned Elections