Maui Democratic Representative/American Chemistry Council lobbyist/Speaker Emeritus Joe Souki says he has the votes to regain control over the state House. The legislator who held the Speaker’s title from 1993-1998 apparently cut deals with a bunch of Republicans to do it, but he’s not been shying about telling the press that he’s in.
Of course, state Democratic Rep. Marcus Oshiro (a loyalist of current Democratic Speaker Calvin Say whose job as House Finance Committee Chairman would be in serious jeopardy if Souki wins) said in this Nov. 24 Associated Press story that nothing’s certain until January, when the House leadership votes take place.
The folks over at Sierra Club Hawaii aren’t waiting until then. Way back on Nov. 21, the organization sent out a press release that “welcomes” new leadership in the state House.
“Many Sierra Club allies are involved in the newly-formed coalition, so we’re excited about the fresh ideas and new leadership that will hopefully emerge within the State House of Representatives,” said the statement. “We believe the early commitment to bipartisanship is a positive step that will result in greater transparency and more balanced decision making.”
The reason Sierra Club didn’t waste any time jumping on the Souki Train?
“Plainly the Sierra Club has been disappointed over the past few years with the assault on Hawaii’s environment, including passage of the Public Lands Development Corporation and aggressive efforts to suspend Hawaii’s environmental review law,” the press release continued. “New leadership offers the opportunity to start with a clean slate. We challenge the new House leadership move forward with important initatives [sic] like ensuring the Department of Land and Natural Resources receives the necessary funding to protect our watersheds, resolving the controversy about Hawaii’s renewable energy tax credit that is slowing down our solar industry, and repealing the Public Lands Development Corporation.
Given that Say–a master legislator who’s been Speaker since 1999–still has weeks to give presents and twist arms in the House, it’s far from certain that Souki will take charge next year. But given that he told Civil Beat on Nov. 21 that he’d “probably” give up his American Chemistry Council lobbying job if returned to the Speaker’s chair, the stakes couldn’t be higher.
Tags: Calvin Say, Joe Souki, Marcus Oshiro, PLDC, Sierra Club Hawaii, Speaker, State House
1 Comment
December 6, 2012
The shady dealings that got the Public Land Development Corporation (PLDC) passed were the tipping point that enraged a significant portion of the population from Hawaiians to Environmentalists to families wanting their parks and beaches protected from over-development.
Gov Abercrombie’s idea that he could balance the state budget by looting and developing the state public lands was bad enough. But removing any County zoning or planning oversight, public input or EISs from this development was over the top.
This bill was an egregious example of “gut and replace”. The bill started out as a fix to a couple of harbors and that is what most legislators thought they were voting on. No one saw the final wording until a few hours before the vote – far too little time to get adequate comment on the trojan horse that had been slipped into the old bill.
Calvin Say and Pono Chong were the ringleaders in this travesty and the Sierra Club appears to have finally had enough of politicians who were selling out the public. Chong was targeted by the Sierra Club and lost his seat by 13%. See NotPono. org for an example of what the wrath of the Sierra Club means to a politician.
Ironically, Joe Souki and his “Superferry doesn’t have to do an EIS” law were crosswise with the Sierra Club several years ago. Sierra Club had the law ruled unconstitutional.
So it will be very interesting to see whether the group of legislators who overthrew Calvin Say will be able to rein in Souki’s less desirable activities (such as lobbying against the plastic bag ban while receiving money from the Chemical Assoc. that wanted it killed WHILE BEING A LEGISLATOR – and from an island whose voters had, themselves, supported a county ban on plastic bags)
Or his activities in trying to slip things through without EISs
This session is going to be VERY interesting to watch.