It’s no surprise that the Hawai’i Democratic Party came out strongly against holding a Constitutional Convention for the first time since 1978, a question that voters will decide in the general election.

What’s not to like about the status quo if you’re a political partisan with a “D” after your name?

Local Democrats are thriving in an environment of low voter turnout and campaign financing laws that border on legalized bribery.

The party controls 44 of the 51 seats in the state House and 21 of the 25 Senate seats, with some 40 percent of incumbent Democratic legislators running unopposed for re-election and most of the rest facing grossly under-financed challengers.

The Democratic Party and public employee unions have become an inseparable political force — and it’s not necessarily the politicians calling the shots.

It’s obviously a sweet deal that enables Democratic politicians, the unions and other lobbying friends to take care of their every desire, but it’s equally obvious that the lack of competition and accountability doesn’t serve the broader public interest.

It should be Job No. 1 of a ConCon, if there is one, to level the political playing field, make public office more accessible to competing ideas and engage turned-off voters who find no reason to participate anymore in a system stacked to keep power in the same hands.

The Democrats argue unconvincingly that the state Constitution was intended to be a stable document that should seldom be changed. If that was the case, the people who wrote it wouldn’t have required that voters be asked every 10 years whether to hold a ConCon.

The Democrats’ heavy-handed opposition to a ConCon, which includes a ridiculous estimate by the Legislative Reference Bureau that it could cost $41 million, may well backfire.

Sometimes you can  tell a lot about the merits of a proposition by who it scares the most.

We gave the Democrats grief last week, so it’s the GOP’s turn this week as we again “flASHback” on the news that amused and confused:

• John McCain decried the “constant partisan rancor” in Washington while letting it flow at his own convention by sending surrogates to bash his opponent as a “celebrity senator” and “big-government liberal.” You’d think an old fighter pilot would drop his own bombs.

• California’s GOP chairman summarized VP nominee Sarah Palin’s appeal: “She cuts taxes and shoots moose.” I guess that’s an improvement over Dick Cheney. He cuts oil deals and shoots his hunting partners.

• Palin once described the U.S. war in in Iraq is a “task that is from God.” She’d better hope not or there’s going to be hell to pay for how badly they’ve screwed it up.

• Back home, a psychiatrist said murder defendant Matthew Higa suffers from “confabulation” — the mind creating alternative scenarios to replace unpleasant realities. Sounds like the Republican angst about President Bush.

• Councilman Gary Okino says barring city leaders from spending public funds on pro-rail ads would be like sending soldiers to war without guns. Hasn’t he learned anything from Sarah Palin? If you give a politician a gun, Bullwinkle gets shot.

• The state gave away $100 million in technology tax credits in 2006 to companies that generated only 1,450 full-time jobs in Hawai’i. Must have all been CEO jobs.

• The Legislative Reference Bureau provided ammunition to Constitutional Convention opponents by claiming a ConCon could cost up to $41.7 million. Only if they plan to pay for it with technology tax credits.

• The Department of Education might cut night security at 76 schools to save money. They’ve got to find cash somewhere to send more school officials to conferences at Disney World.

• David Murdock, the billionaire owner of Lana’i, lashed out at island opponents of his plan for the state’s largest wind farm, saying he’s “giving far more to everyone in this room than you are giving to me.” His audience didn’t know whether to genuflect or confabulate.

• A bus driver was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence after frightened passengers called 911 about his erratic steering. Now we know why bus drivers hate cell phones.

And the quote of the week …

… from UH quarterbacks coach Nick Rolovich on his confidence in new starting QB Inoke Funaki:

“I don’t want Inoke looking over his shoulder. We’re going with Inoke until we feel it’s time to make a change.”

Rolo sure knows how to make a guy feel secure.

Kudos to the League of Women Voters of Hawai’i for trying to get a discussion going on a Constitutional Convention with a workshop and excellent resources on its Web site.

The question of whether to call Hawai’i’s first ConCon in 30 years will be on the general election ballot, as required by the state Constitution, but there’s been eerily little public discussion amid all the clamor about rail transit.

This is a once-in-a-decade opportunity for a close look at the structure of the state government, and we owe ourselves a good talk on the matter whether we’re for a ConCon or against.

The League of Women Voters, which opposed a ConCon last time around but is neutral this year, is holding its workshop Sept. 6 from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in the state Capitol auditorium.

Co-sponsors are the Hawaii Institute for Public Affairs and the Richardson School of Law, and speakers include constitutional experts Robert F. Williams, Anne Feder Lee and Jon Van Dyke.

You can get details at the league’s Web site. The league also has an excellent report from its study committee on the pros and cons of holding a ConCon and a hypertext copy of the Constitution.

A month ago, the question of whether or not to call Hawai’i’s first Constitutional Convention in 30 years seemed the hottest local issue likely to be on the November ballot, with Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann and other incumbent office-holders seemingly cruising to re-election with little opposition.

Now, the mayor’s races in Honolulu, Kaua’i and the Big Island are all hotly competitive, there are interesting council races around the state and it seems increasingly likely that a rail transit question will be on the O’ahu ballot.

ConCon has slipped into the background and the discussion has gone nearly silent, raising the question of whether its prospects are improved or diminished in an election that is suddenly generating excitement elsewhere.

A hot-button rail initiative, especially, would draw away attention and resources that otherwise would have gone into advocacy for or against a ConCon.

My guess is that while the new developments may mean a quieter ConCon debate, they may well increase the chances that enough voter support will materialize to call a Constitutional Convention.

According to the Advertiser’s Hawai’i Poll, partisans on both sides of the rail dispute agree by a good majority that voters should get a say on the matter, a strong showing of support for direct participatory democracy that could transfer to the ConCon question.

The embarrassing fumbling by elections officials on qualifying candidates at the filing deadline seems to be increasing the sense that something is wrong with our political system that needs to be fixed.

Whether or not a ConCon is the sexiest issue on the ballot, it remains one of the most important things we’ll decide this year.

Groups like HawaiiConCon.org will have to find ways to keep a vibrant discussion going — not only on whether to call a ConCon, but how it should be set up to assure a true citizens’ convention and not a gathering of the status quo.

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?