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Civil Beat’s Blaze Lovell landed a blockbuster piece of investigative journalism on the front page of The New York Times last Wednesday.

He disclosed the attention-grabbing details about how late-night parties in a Honolulu office building were used by politicians to rake in campaign contributions from companies seeking state contracts. 

Lovell, working with data journalists from , painted a picture of our public officials’ betrayal — this wasnʻt how business was supposed to be done in Hawaii anymore.

“In 2005, in response to a series of scandals, Hawaii passed a law that barred government contractors from giving money to politicians,” Lovell wrote. “It was billed as one of the nation’s most ambitious efforts to end pay-to-play in contracting and designed to fundamentally change the political culture of a state steeped in corruption. But legislators wrote a loophole into the law, effectively gutting it: The ban would apply only to donations from the actual corporate entities that got contracts, but not to their owners, employees or any related businesses.”

This kind of deep reporting can often drive response and create positive change. So, a week later, what’s been the response?

‘It Is Going To Shock People And Open Some Eyes’

Alexander Silvert, a retired federal public defender and author of “The Mailbox Conspiracy: The Inside Story of the Greatest Corruption Case in Hawaiiʻs History,” admired the article because of the details, statistics and the naming of people.

“It was a great expose and I think it is going to shock people and open some eyes,” Silvert said. “But, without continued political pressure from the public and more importantly, without continued exposure of these issues by the press, this Legislature has proven it is unwilling and unable to make any sort of meaningful changes.”

Are the politicians and corporate leaders feeling the pressure to change their ways?

“It’s like speeders, the cops pick off a guy here or there who was speeding, but you continue to speed because how many can they pick off?” Silvert said. 

Things don’t look promising in the short term when it comes to legislative and electoral change. 

Public election financing legislation was effectively killed this session by the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, David Tarnas. There’s a faint chance that could be resurrected by House Speaker Scott Saiki and Senate President Ron Kochi, but the patterns point to continued stifling of change. 

“Is it going to get passed? Probably not, because at the seed of it all is corruption,” said Maki Mourinoue, the chairperson of . The grassroots organization is part of , a coalition advocating for public financing that includes such groups as Common Cause Hawaii, Hawaii Alliance for Progressive Action and Our Hawaii.

‘It’s Going To Take A Grassroots Movement’ 

As demonstrated in Lovell’s story, our legislators are pretty good at using the loopholes in the laws that they’ve passed.

And voting the bad actors out? Unlikely this year due to the domination of the Democratic Party in Hawaii.

“These big-name Democrats are the ones who are refusing to allow change to happen, they just don’t have an opponent,” Silvert said. “And without a Democratic opponent running in a primary, they’re going to get reelected.”

So if the legislators won’t change themselves this year, the first chance to change the legislators will be the next primary cycle in 2026.

“It’s going to take a grassroots movement behind the scenes to try to get candidates and try to create sort of an alternative Democratic Party within the Democratic Party to put up candidates,” Silvert said. “And I think it’s possible if enough people are fed up. I’m not talking about the general public right now, because you need to have enough influential people who are willing to put the effort forward for two years to galvanize the public in order to lead them to try to make change.”

Despite the gloom when it comes to our legislators, Silvert did offer some hope.

“We also have to be a little bit less pessimistic,” he said. “This isn’t the Deep South in the ‘60s.”

Impact Is Never Immediate

His statement made me think about John Lewis, the civil rights icon. Lewis was the first politician my son met, back when we lived in Atlanta. He was lucky to have a superhero as his representative in Congress. Lewis stood up to the demonic and corrupt politicians by advocating for agitation in the form of “good trouble.” 

Can we encourage change here in Hawaii?

The type of work Lovell and his colleagues tackled is incredibly difficult. It took months of digging, reporting and editing. 

The people and companies named in Lovell’s reporting are keeping a low profile.

Iʻve been involved in these types of investigative projects at The Times and the rigor required is consequential. However, the impact is never as immediate as you would hope.

Twenty years ago for The Times, I did an investigative report into the undercovered scourge of sex trafficking. Our efforts didnʻt immediately spur change, but today, if you walk into public restrooms youʻll often see signs offering help to people that might be trafficked. It took awhile to lead to action, but the first step was awareness.

You don’t put this effort in to have the status quo continue. 

As of today, it seems the people and companies named in Lovell’s reporting are keeping a low profile in hopes that this will all go away. After all, it’s unlikely that clean election legislation will pass this session.

Sometimes, A Lack of Leadership Leads To Tragedy

We can’t allow leaders to continue with this unethical behavior. If we need a tragic reminder why, there was another released last week from the Fire Safety Research Institute on the Maui fires.

In my University of Hawaii Manoa journalism class last Thursday, I walked my students through the and transcripts. When we reached Aug. 8, 2023, at 5:58 p.m. I choked up reading aloud this desperate call to Maui 911:

“Caller: In Lahaina, people are now in the ocean. Is there a way we can get rescued by boat?

911: Maʻam weʻre using all our resources to fight the fire.

Caller: Weʻre right across the outlet mall.

911: Iʻll put it in that you guys need help in the ocean. How many are there?

Caller: A lot, I would say about 100 people right now.”

A hundred people in the ocean fleeing the fires. 

Dispatch would say the Navy and Coast Guard helicopters and boats were at least 20 to 25 minutes away. 

The desperation of those poor people. Lahaina was on fire and there was no way out. The FSRI report clearly demonstrates the failures in leadership. 

At the start of this legislative session, our representatives universally said they would do things differently because of the tragedy on Maui. This would be the chance to learn from mistakes and horror and to be better. That hasnʻt happened.

From the current silence on Lovell’s reporting that exposes bad behavior, to the Maui report that shows lack of planning and lack of action, it’s clear that there is much work to be done when it comes to leaders who take responsibility in Hawaii.

Leadership matters because leadership is oftentimes a matter of life or death. Itʻs something we sadly now know all too well here in Hawaii.