January 9, 2006
By Don Newman

The editorial in The Honolulu Advertiser on Monday Jan. 9, 2006, concerning the Abramoff scandal misses the point. It notes that Hawaii elected officials Sen. Daniel Inouye and Rep. Neil Abercrombie both received campaign contributions from Native American tribes. The Advertiser states “The contributions came before the tribes were affiliated with Abramoff. And they were legal, both in amount and in timing.”

This is misleading because Native American tribes are not limited in the amount and timing of campaign contributions specifically because they are tribes. As Native American tribes they are sovereign governments not subject to the same federal campaign financing laws as the rest of the citizens of the United States of America. That is the nature of the problem.

One has to wonder why Hawaiian politicians would be taking campaign contributions from Native American tribes in the first place. Of course, the reason would be the, questionably, analogous relationship of Native Hawaiians to the Native American status. For decades the effort has been underway to create the same sort of tribal status for Native Hawaiians as Native Americans. That is the whole point of the Akaka bill.

This does raise the question though, should the Akaka bill pass will Native Hawaiian groups be able to provide unlimited contributions to political campaigns and lobbyists as Native Americans currently can? Will the Office of Hawaiians Affairs be able to use the millions of dollars that it gets in state money from ceded lands to influence state and national elections?

The passage of the Akaka bill and the creation of a sovereign Native Hawaiian government will create the same sort of scenario as that which led to the Abramoff debacle. As a sovereign government it will not be subject to the same laws as apply to you and me. It will be in the position to contribute to politicians and campaigns on an unlimited basis. Will this be good for the state of Hawaii as a whole?

The title of the Advertiser editorial read “Abramoff leaves cloud all must work to clear.” This begs the question that if the system is a good one then why is there a cloud at all? In fact the system is grossly unfair and the Abramoff scandal only serves to illuminate that fact. Native American tribes have garnered far more influence in the halls of Congress of late than they rightly deserve. The Abramoff scandal is just the tip of that ice burg.

The Akaka bill will have endless ramifications that advocates and just-plain-citizens cannot contemplate. The consequences of the creation of a separate, sovereign government in the state of Hawaii is something that no one can predict. One thing is for certain, given the past history of Hawaii, the Abramoff scandal will seem like child’s play compared to what is possible here. With millions of dollars available to the new sovereign government it should be quite a show.

Don Newman, senior policy analyst for the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii, Hawaii's first and only free market public policy institute focused on individual freedom and liberty, can be reached at: mailto:newmand001@hawaii.rr.com

This editorial is intended to provoke thought, discussion and an examination of issues. It does not reflect official policy of the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii.