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Lawmaker behind lone ‘no’ vote for Speaker Nakamura raises concerns about centralized power

First-year Rep. Kim Coco Iwamoto cast the lone "no" vote against Nadine Nakamura as House speaker. (Jan. 15, 2025)
Jason Ubay
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HPR
First-year Rep. Kim Coco Iwamoto cast the lone "no" vote against Nadine Nakamura as House speaker. (Jan. 15, 2025)

Lawmakers formally voted to install Kauaʻi Rep. Nadine Nakamura as House speaker. However, first-time Rep. Kim Coco Iwamoto was the lone "no" vote because she said the House rules are not being followed.

One of the main issues is Nakamura’s assignment of Vice Speaker Linda Ichiyama as a voting member on three committees: Consumer Protection & Commerce, Public Safety, and Water & Land.

Dating back to the first Hawaiʻi legislative session in 1959, the House rules say that the speaker and vice speaker will serve as ex-officio members of committees without a vote. The vice speaker can only be a voting member on the Legislative Management Committee.

“If we're not following our own rules, what does that say to the community? What does it say to our colleagues that we aren’t beholden to our own rules?” Iwamoto said.

Rep. Nadine Nakamura addresses the state House as speaker for the first time on Jan. 15, 2025.
Mark Ladao
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HPR
Rep. Nadine Nakamura addresses the state House as speaker for the first time on Jan. 15, 2025.

Iwamoto explained that the rule is important because it discourages the consolidation of power into the hands of just two powerful lawmakers.

“We should be diversifying and making sure we have a full representational democracy among all 51 members,” she said.

“We need to move away from centering power on a few because that's how pay-to-play politics thrives and that builds the climate of corruption.”

Nakamura pointed out that past vice speakers have served as voting members on committees in the past — despite it being against the rules. That’s why they will likely eliminate the rule this legislative session.

“If you look back to [former Rep.] John Mizuno when he was vice speaker, when you look back to [Rep.] Gregor Ilagan and [former Rep.] Mark Nakashima as vice speakers — all recently — they were all members of committees and they all voted,” Nakamura said. “We are going to be updating our rules to reflect that.”

The Advisory Committee on Rules and Procedure was convened to go through over 70 suggested amendments to the House rules submitted by representatives.

This comes as good government advocacy groups are pushing the House to enact rule reforms such as posting public testimony before hearings, implementing term limits for powerful committee chairs, and streamlining bill referrals so that measures with no fiscal component don't have to be heard in the House Finance Committee.

Hawaiʻi Alliance for Progressive Action Program Director Aria Castillo has been circulating a petition for these rule changes. It has garnered over 1,600 signatures and has been approved by 10 neighborhood boards.

“ We also have a new leadership and new speaker of the House with the fresh crop of House members and new leadership,” Castillo said during a press conference last week.

“We're very hopeful that it's time for the rules to change and to be ready to get the reform that we need to make the process more transparent and equitable to the public.”

House Speaker Nadine Nakamura speaks to the press on opening day of the legislative session. (Jan. 15, 2025)
Mark Ladao
/
HPR
House Speaker Nadine Nakamura speaks to the press on opening day of the legislative session. (Jan. 15, 2025)

Good government advocacy groups like HAPA, Our Hawaiʻi and Common Cause Hawaii, and lawmakers such as Iwamoto and Rep. Della Au Bellati have called for a public hearing from the Advisory Committee on Rules and Procedure as is mandated by the House rules.

“ Questions about how that committee is going to proceed are still up in the air. My hope is that, as according to the rules, there is a public hearing,” Au Bellati said at last week’s press conference.

“ I will say, as a former majority leader — and I will acknowledge this and I will take ownership of this — I believe that rule has been a long-standing rule, and … for the 18 years that I have been in the Legislature, I have never seen a public hearing or a convening of this advisory group, according to our own rules. So my hope is that there is more public discussion.”

The committee was supposed to submit the final amendments to the House on Friday.

However, Ichiyama, who chairs the Advisory Committee on Rules and Procedure, would not comment on whether there should be a public hearing, or if any amendments were actually submitted.

Ashley Mizuo is the government reporter for Hawaiʻi Public Radio. Contact her at amizuo@hawaiipublicradio.org.
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