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GOP Hawai'i Guns for Control of Legislature, Block Veto Overrides
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| Contributor | Gerald Farinas |
| Last Edited | Gerald Farinas May 10, 2004 10:41am |
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| Category | News |
| News Date | Monday, May 10, 2004 06:00:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | GOP Hawai'i Guns for Control of Legislature, Block Veto Overrides
The Honolulu Star-Bulletin
This year may be a good one for the status quo. That's the opinion of several public opinion experts, who say the flurry of vetoes and veto overrides and battles between Gov. Linda Lingle's administration and the Democratic legislative leaders may not register with voters. The prize is control of next year's legislature. Today Democrats control both the House and Senate. Because they have two-thirds majorities in both chambers, Democrats have been able to block any Lingle vetoes.
If Republicans increase the number of House members from 15 to 18, they would have enough to both block overrides and also call bills locked in committee out on to the House floor for a vote. In the Senate, Republicans need to increase their numbers from five to nine to accomplish the same. Lingle and the GOP have set their sights on the state House, figuring that gaining three more GOP representatives is a more realistic goal, but public opinion experts say it won't be easy.
Don Clegg, a veteran Democratic pollster who has helped on several statewide campaigns, said Republicans had the public primed for change in government, following Lingle's gubernatorial victory. "But the Republicans didn't come out with a real story to tell. They didn't come up with bold actions," Clegg said. The public is going to feel frustrated after having voted for a change in government and then not feeling that much has happened, Clegg says. "When there is such a feeling, the voter usually goes with the status quo. They go with the incumbents because it gets confusing as to who is to blame for the frustration," Clegg said. He said he would have advised the Republicans to come out with a broad program for reform, "a bigger set of issues that they could tell with an aggressive story." |
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