MIN CHC PH 2000-04-01 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

• that's anti -democratic. In addition, you're enlarging the size of each Council district, making the Council members even more remote from very diverse districts. I think that's a gross disservice to the public. I think, given the current climate of people wanting campaign finance reform, adopting at -large districts for the Council is the complete antithesis of campaign finance reform. It encourages more big money to influence the campaign process, and that's not the way people want to go. So, I really urge you to remove that from your list of things going to the voters. If you remove that, I think you've got a pretty good set of recommendations to the voters. If you don't, you're going to antagonize a large element of the public and you risk having everything voted down. Thank you. HERKES: Mr. Ray, I have a question for Mr. Frankel. Do you know how much, let's pick Chairman Arakaki, spent on his last campaign? FRANKEL: I don't. HERKES: Okay, I would suspect that he spent about as much in a single district asyoucan spend in an island -wide race. I don't have those figures, but I'm certainly going to look them up because I think the money angle is not appropriate. think you can spend just as much money in a single district race as you can in an island -wide race. I want to vote for four people. That's why I'm in favor of this. I want to have a broader representation for Kona than is now, so that's why I'm in favor. But don't have the figures to really compare the island -wide race compared to the single district race, and I think money is not really where I'm at. FRANKEL: I think you raise an important issue, and I think you should look at that information. There are going to be anomalies. For example, we all know that Apana did not spend as much money as Dante Carpenter, but I think we all realize that that was an anomaly if you take a look at it, and look at it statistically. Let's look at the successful Council races. Look at how much the average member spent in the last election, or the last two elections. Compare that to the average amount spent on the winning candidate, or even combine the winning and losing candidates for Mayor. You'll find, in the at -large races, far more money was spent. Far more money. You may find, like I say, one or two anomalies but on average, by having more races require more money, you do reduce the importance of the individual voter. That's something that the League of Women Voters has been working on. HERKES: I don't agree. I'm a member of the League of Women Voters. FRANKEL: Yes, I know. IRVINE: May I? RAY: Sue. 13