Proposing an amendment to Article V, Section 2 of the Constitution of Hawaii, relating to the Election of the Lieutenant Governor

Senate Committee on Judiciary and Government Operations (JGO) - chair: Taniguchi, vice chair: Takamine

Wednesday, February 11, 2009, 9:00 A.M. Conference Room 016

Testifier: JoAnn Maruoka, LWV of Hawaii Legislative Team Member

Click here to view SB385

Chair Taniguchi, Vice Chair Takamine, and members, The League of Women Voters would like to comment on SB 385, which would provide that a candidate for the office of lieutenant governor be formally nominated by a political party at the political party's official convention. The advantage of this change would appear to be that it considers the political realities of the relationship between the governor and lieutenant governor, especially to operate as a team. While it does not necessarily follow that they would always agree, it does seem that they would better understand (and hopefully respect) one another's positions. From this view, the rationale would seem to be that the better the operational relationship between the two top state officials, the better it is for governance of the state, and by extension, for the citizens. A disadvantage would be that should the lieutenant governor replace the governor for illness or other reasons, the voters would not have selected him or her. Thank you for this opportunity to provide comments on SB 385.