The Sunshine Blog: Influence Peddling By The Numbers
June 24, 2025 · 7 min read
Bloc heads: The Blog was thrilled to see a new analysis published Monday that takes another deep dive into lobbyists and who is trying to influence public policy during the legislative session.
This report, titled “Bills, Backers and Blocs: A Data-Driven Look at Lobbying in Hawaiʻi,” was pulled together by Trey Gordner and Colin Moore of the University of Hawaiʻi Economic Research Organization. It takes advantage of new data available this year that requires lobbying organizations (the entities that hire lobbyists) to provide much more detail about what specific bills they’re supporting or opposing and what position they’re taking.
The data shows that during the 2025 session, 340 lobbying organizations took 7,188 positions on 1,747 bills. No wonder Gordner and Moore say the new law produced “one of the country’s most detailed state-level lobbying datasets.”
Civil Beat opinion writers are closely following efforts to bring more transparency and accountability to state and local government — at the Legislature, the county level and in the media. Help us by sending ideas and anecdotes to sunshine@civilbeat.org.
Blog Fans won’t be surprised to hear that public sector unions have the highest “influence factor,” meaning they took positions on legislation much more than other organizations.
A small number of organizations are disproportionately active, the report found, with just three organizations — the Hawaiʻi Farm Bureau Federation, the Plumbers and Fitters Local 675 and the Hawaiʻi Laborers’ Union Local 368 — taking a position on or formally commenting significantly more than others.
“Lobbying in Hawaiʻi appears geared more toward advancing proposals than blocking them,” the researchers say.
Hmmm. The Blog isn’t quite sure what to make of that, especially in a state where bills are written by special interests and often introduced “by request,” a mostly murky practice that allows legislators to introduce legislation on behalf of a constituent without having to identify that constituent.
The short report, released as a UHERO blog post, also identifies limitations in doing the analysis, including “coverage gaps” that allow people who lobby on their own and not for an employer, as well as government agencies, to sidestep registering as lobbyists.
Another issue is that the new law requires only two reports, one in mid-session and one just before the end of session, making it more difficult to piece together how things might have changed during the five-month session as bills and positions evolved.
Still, as Moore and Gordner note in their conclusion, “The new … filings render lobbying in Hawaiʻi more transparent than ever before. With thousands of positions, hundreds of organizations, and clear patterns and strategies, the dataset turns anecdote into evidence.”
(Screenshot/2025)
Making allowances part 1: The Hawaiʻi House of Representatives has posted legislative allowance reports for 2025, and it’s mostly for the usual stuff: newsletter postage, cleaning supplies, gift of lei, gift of parking permits, canvas subscriptions, mouse pads and clipboards, etc.
The reports are as of June 2 and show how each member is spending their $16,350 allowance. A couple reports stand out in terms of amount and novelty.
Hawaiʻi state Sen. Lynn DeCoite at the premiere of “Lilo & Stitch” in Los Angeles in May. Rep. Shirley Ann Templo, who was also in attendance, used her legislative allowance to help pay for her trip. (Screenshot/HVCB)
Rep. Shirley Ann Templo spent $991 for travel and lodging in order to attend the world premiere of the live-action “Lilo & Stitch” in Los Angeles in mid-May. Templo, who is vice chair of the House Tourism Committee, was a guest of the Hawai‘i Visitors and Convention Bureau.
Rep. Della Au Belatti was in Washington, D.C., last month for meetings with the Military Affairs Council and the Department of Defense. Airfare, meals, lodging and ground transportation totaled $2,170.
Other expenses that caught The Blog’s roving eye: $15 for bags of little fire ant kits for Rep. Mike Lee‘s District 50 constituents, and $15 for parking for the Aloha Hawaii Prayer Breakfast for Rep. Julie Reyes Oda.
Making allowances part 2: The Senate has also posted its allowances, which are similar to the House’s. But there are a few items worth noting, including a greater predilection toward travel.
Senators using their allowance to help pay for airfare, hotels, ground transportation over the past five months included Mike Gabbard ($2,800 to attend the USDA Policy Summit in Washington), Tim Richards ($2,550 for the same summit — he and Gabbard lead the Senate Agriculture and Environment Committee) and Lorraine Inouye ($1,445 to attend the National Conference of State Legislatures New and Emerging Fiscal Risks meeting in Denver, $1,236 for airfare to Seattle to attend a Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement Convention in Tulalip, Washington; and $1,917 for an NCSL Legislative Summit in Boston).
From left, Rep. Diamond Garcia, Sen. Brenton Awa, Assistant Secretary of Defense Dale Marks, Sen. Samantha DeCorte and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Robert “Bob” Thompson in Washington, D.C., earlier this month. (Screenshot/2025)
Sens. Brenton Awa and Samantha DeCorte spent $2,373 and $1,481, respectively, to go to D.C. to meet with congressional leaders on federal issues. The two also chipped in for a floral wreath for Rep. Gene Ward’s memorial service.
And two senators barely touched their legislative allowances, reporting having spent only a few hundred bucks: Kurt Fevella and Angus McKelvey. Sharon Moriwaki was not far behind in her frugalness with taxpayer kala.
Fallout: A new study commissioned by Greenpeace says the impact of nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands was “far greater” than what the U.S. government has publicly acknowledged.
The U.S. conducted 67 tests from 1946 to 1958, even though many of the islands were inhabited. According to the study, “all atolls, including the southern atolls, received radioactive fallout, but only three of the 24 atolls, all northern and inhabited at the time of fallout, received medical cancer screening.”
The Castle Bravo test of March 1, 1954, was the most powerful nuclear test, a thousand times more powerful than Hiroshima. A new report says the impact of the U.S. testing is much worse than has been reported. (U.S. Department of Energy)
“The Legacy of U.S. Nuclear Testing in the Marshall Islands,” a report by Dr Arjun Makhijani of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, was released late last month.
According to Asia Pacific Report and Radio New Zealand, Makhijani highlights the point that, “despite early documentation in the immediate aftermath of the 1954 Bravo hydrogen bomb test and numerous anecdotal reports from Marshallese women about miscarriages and still births,” medical officials in charge of managing the nuclear test-related medical program in the Marshall Islands “never systematically studied birth anomalies.”
The report seeks to raise greater awareness of the situation in the Marshall Islands, “as well as to campaign for compensation from the U.S. government.”
This just in: Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi, who’s kind of on a roll when it comes to dabbling in the business of public oversight boards (just ask the Honolulu Police Commission), has picked the five people he’d like to see on the newly created Ocean Safety Commission.
The commission was put in place by voters last year after Blangiardi created a new Ocean Safety Department to give lifeguards more autonomy and bring them out from under the shadow of the Emergency Services Department (paramedics and the like). The commission will function like the police commission and fire commission to help oversee the new Ocean Safety Department.
Nominees for the new Ocean Safety Commission appear to have solid experience with the business of lifeguards. (Kevin Fujii/Civil Beat/2023)
The five nominees, who must still win approval from the City Council, are Racquel Achiu, a North Shore resident and member of the neighborhood board; Steven Jenness, a retired fire department captain and Kamehameha Schools coach; Richard Kebo, a business consultant who owns a company that makes stand-up paddleboards; Kanani Oury, a North Shore business owner affiliated with the Haleʻiwa Surf Center; and Billy Pratt, a real estate developer who cofounded the Hawaiʻi Waterman Hall of Fame.
Similar to the police commission, which has the sole power to hire the police chief (although Blangiardi has made no secret that he’s hoping to change that), the Ocean Safety Commission will get to hire the new ocean safety director and make recommendations to the mayor and City Council on the agency’s operations.
Still, The Blog has more confidence that this commission might work out a bit better since it would appear that all of the nominees have some solid background in oceans and/or safety — unlike the police commission where the appointees acknowledge police work is not their area of expertise.