“Gas cap” dispute is all about money, pure and
simple.
How appropriate that your
3/23 Sunday Editorial discussing the latest scrimmages at the
Legislature about the “gas price cap”
was paired with an op-ed by Mesissa Pavlicek, lobbyist for the Western States Petroleum Association. Numbers and statistics are thrown around,
and reasonable people can disagree.
Naturally the oil industry opposes any effort to reduce gasoline profits. But Ms. Pavlicek didn’t mention that the Oil Industry has spent at least $421, 275 lobbying,
and $275,127 in campaign donations, for
a total of $696,402, to influence
government policies in Hawaii over the past 3 years.
In our efforts to better
inform the public about the kind of influences money has on state policies, Voter
Owned Election Hawaii conducts
research on which donors with special agendas gives money to officeholders and
candidates. In 2004 the Oil Industry
gave 129 donations totaling $150,822 to office holders and candidate, according to Hawaii Campaign Spending Commission reports. In 2002 the Oil Industry gave 112 donations
totaling $123,256. Republicans –including the Governor, Lt.
Governor, and candidates – received $233,002 from oil interests, while the
Democrats’ received $42,125.
According to State Ethics Commission reports, in 2005
lobbyists representing the Western State Petroleum Assoc, Aloha Petroleum, and ChevronTexaco were
paid $133,797 to influence
officeholders. In 2002 the Western State
Petroleum Assoc, Aloha Petroleum, Tesoro, and ChevronTexaco paid its lobbyists $287,478 to influence public policy.
|
|
Party |
Office |
Count |
Amount |
|
DEMOCRAT |
GOVERNOR |
4 |
$3,000 |
|
DEMOCRAT |
HOUSE |
54 |
$19,650 |
|
DEMOCRAT |
LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR |
2 |
$750 |
|
DEMOCRAT |
PARTY PAC |
2 |
$6,000 |
|
DEMOCRAT |
SENATE |
36 |
$12,725 |
|
DEMOCRAT TOTAL |
98 |
$42,125 |
|
|
|
|||
|
REPUBLICAN |
GOVERNOR |
23 |
$39,300 |
|
REPUBLICAN |
HOUSE |
95 |
$98,947 |
|
REPUBLICAN |
LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR |
5 |
$17,250 |
|
REPUBLICAN |
PARTY PAC |
17 |
$66,256 |
|
REPUBLICAN |
SENATE |
8 |
$11,250 |
|
REPUBLICAN TOTAL |
148 |
$233,002 |
|
|
|
|||
|
SEARCH TOTALS |
246 |
$275,127 |
|
For
complete tables go to www.VoterOwnedHawaii.org.
We’ll leave it to up to
average citizens to answer the question: “what
has been the impact of all this money spent by the Oil Industry lobby?” We believe that Voter Owned Elections would be a powerful tool to improve Hawaii’s
present Public Funding system to better reduce the influence of special
interest campaign donations on legislation and public policies.
Ira Rohter
President, Hawaii Clean
Elections
732-5497