John Oliver, the host of HBO鈥檚 new comedy news show Last Week Tonight, slammed聽Hawaii lawmakers in highlighting the ethically-challenged-yet-dangerously-powerful nature of state legislatures across the country.
Showing a video clip from a House hearing in 2011 about a bill requiring businesses to charge customers a 10-cent fee for plastic checkout bags, Joe Souki, speaker emeritus at the time, is seen asking then-Rep. Joey Manahan to decide if there is a conflict because Souki is a paid consultant for the American Chemistry Council, which produces plastics.
Manahan, in typical Hawaii Legislature fashion, just thanks Souki for the disclosure and informs him, 鈥淭here is no conflict.鈥
Oliver pauses the clip at that point, exclaiming: 鈥淲hat do you mean there鈥檚 no conflict? He鈥檚 being paid by the plastics industry.
鈥淯nless in Hawaii, conflict of interest means both conflict of interest and not a conflict of interest 鈥 you know, like how aloha means both hello and goodbye 鈥 that鈥檚 the only fucking acceptable explanation,鈥 Oliver says.
Civil Beat has written extensively about the Hawaii Legislature鈥檚 pattern of declaring 鈥渘o conflict鈥 even when conflicts could not be more apparent, including the Souki example that Oliver used as part of a brilliant segment that underscored how important legislatures are in this country even though few people pay them much attention.
The show also pointed out how many of the worst people聽in state office are running unopposed in Tuesday’s general election. Oliver noted Florida state Rep. Ritch Workman’s effort to repeal a law banning dwarf tossing.
It’s similarly true in Hawaii where people in office do some really questionable things but face no repercussions from their bosses 鈥 the voters 鈥 in the next election.
Take Rep. Romy Cachola for example. He ran unopposed in the primary and is聽uncontested in聽the general election too.
Lest we forget, Cachola was fined $2,500 in July for state campaign spending violations and had to reimburse his campaign $32,000 for using campaign money to buy a new truck and allegedly use it for personal reasons. He admits no wrongdoing under the聽terms of the settlement agreement.
Honolulu’s Ethics Commission fined Cachola聽a record $50,000 in September for allegedly accepting聽unlawful gifts and using聽his city vehicle fund to cover thousands of dollars in expenses聽on his 2008 Nissan Pathfinder even though his political campaign fund had already paid for the same expenses. Again, he admits no wrongdoing.
Those two cases came on the heels of allegations聽of voter intimidation when he was running for his House seat in 2012. Of course, he denies that too.
Despite all of these improprieties, no one who lives in his district representing Sand Island, Kapalama and Kalihi聽stepped up to聽run against him this year.
Check out the full clip from Last Week Tonight below:
Read Civil Beat鈥檚 past coverage of the 鈥渘o conflict鈥 issue here.
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About the Author
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Nathan Eagle is a deputy editor for Civil Beat. You can reach him by email at neagle@civilbeat.org or follow him on Twitter at , Facebook and Instagram .