Having passed out of the Hawaii Senate and House, a bill to create a pilot program of full public financing for county council elections on the Big Island now awaits approval by Governor Linda Lingle. The people at Voter-Owned Hawaii have been pursuing public financing for Hawaii's elections for many years -- I hope they'll soon be able to celebrate this victory!

The proposal to publicly fund county council elections in Hawai'i on a pilot basis may be in danger thanks to a state Senate amendment that would tie the program to another proposal to ease the limits on campaign contributions from corporations.  Read more here.  Come on state Senate, that's a low blow.

The Honolulu Star-Bulletin likes the idea of a pilot Clean Elections public financing program for Hawaii County Council elections, seeing such a program as a worthwhile experiment in public financing that could go on to benefit other elections in the state.

Members of Voter-Owned Hawai'i joined representatives of the Hawai'i County Council, the Democratic Party of Hawai'i and the League of Women Voters at the state Capitol yesterday to express support for a bill introduced last year that would offer a full public financing option for county council candidates on the Big Island, an update to the current partial public financing program.

Kory Payne of Voter-Owned Hawai'i uses a single example of a secretive government granting process to illustrate the larger need for Hawai'i to upgrade it's partial public financing system to a full public financing system and do away with the need for candidates for public office to run their campaigns with special interest money.

The Honolulu Star-Bulletin takes the occasion of the recent fundraising disclosures from presidential candidates to lament the inordinate importance of money to a candidates' viability. They also take a swing at Hawaii legislators for stonewalling efforts to bring publicly financed elections to the state. Fortunately, there's a group working to change that: Voter Owned Hawaii. If you're in Hawaii and want to get involved, get in touch with them!