Mainstream Democrats are campaigning to persuade voters they'll lose rights if they call a Constitutional Convention in the November election.

Delegates at the party's state convention wouldn't endorse a ConCon and instead adopted a Hawai'i Government Employees Association proposal to "educate" voters on how a ConCon would imperil their rights.

They couch the rights in terms of equality, privacy, and culture, but clearly the HGEA is most worried about losing its political choke hold on Democratic legislators, which assures that public workers are taken care of ahead of the public at large.

Lawmakers, in turn, worry about keeping their rights to act without transparency, operate without meaningful ethical guidelines and perpetuate themselves in office with special-interest campaign money.

The Kaua'i Democrats' Web site screams, "Hawai'i Constitutional Convention aka How to Lose Our Rights," pointing to an anonymous Maui site painting a ConCon as a Republican "sneak attack" on rights to water, shoreline access, good union jobs and privacy — ignoring that reform-minded Democrats who don't genuflect to the HGEA support a ConCon as the first comprehensive review of state government in 30 years.

Kaua'i Rep. Hermina Morita pushed the loss-of-rights theme in an interview with the Garden Island that was posted on the House Democrats' blog.

“If we open the constitution for review at this time, it’s not to enhance any rights, it’s to take away rights,” she said, specifically citing her concern that term limits will be placed on legislators.

Such legislative self-interest is a reason freshman Rep. Della Au Belatti is one Democrat supporting a ConCon.

"I have been very disappointed in the lack of public discussion about the important decisions made by our Legislature and the inordinate amount of focus by elected folk on protecting their own office at the next election," she said in an appearance on Jeanne Mariani-Belding's blog, "The Hot Seat."

"This sense of self-preservation is only natural – but something that if unchecked or unchallenged for too long can be terribly dangerous for democracy."

ConCon opponents say no convention is needed because the Legislature has the power to place constitutional amendments on the ballot when needed; unfortunately, their amendments are as likely to serve legislators' own interests as their constituents'.

Their amendments in 2006 sought to lift judicial age limits to prevent the Republican governor from appointing a new chief justice, restrict the governor's power and expand their own in appointing UH regents and clear the way for lawmakers to get 54-percent pay raises without having to vote on them.

Any questions why we need a ConCon?

Tags: ConCon, Constitutional Convention, Della Au Belatti, Democratic Party, Hawai'i Government Employees Association

This entry was posted on Monday, May 26th, 2008 at 3:00 am and is filed under Volcanic Ash. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.