Gov. Josh Green canceled his annual trip to the National Governors Association meeting in Washington, D.C., on Thursday.
“In light of recent events and to ensure steady leadership for our state during this time, I have canceled out-of-state travel for this month, including my attendance at this long-planned conference,” he wrote in a statement.
When a Hawaiʻi governor physically leaves the state, the lieutenant governor becomes acting governor in their absence.
This schedule change comes after Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke became the center of a story this week involving allegations that an “influential lawmaker” accepted $35,000 in a paper bag during a January 2022 meeting.
The claim came to light during the federal bribery investigation into former House Rep. Ty Cullen and Sen. Kalani English.
“I'm not saying I am the 'influential lawmaker' in question,” Luke told HPR on Tuesday.
“What I'm trying to clarify is that we did have a meeting with Ty Cullen and another individual and his daughter. All I'm saying is we want to at least clarify that portion, but because of the reference to $35,000 in the federal document, the facts don't line up.”
She explained that at a meeting with Cullen in January 2022, lobbyist Tobi Solidum and his daughter Kristen Pae each gave Luke $5,000 in campaign contributions, which Luke failed to report to state officials. At the time, Luke was the head of the House Finance Committee and running for lieutenant governor. She did report returning both contributions in March 2022 after Cullen was charged with bribery.
Luke amended her campaign spending report over the weekend after Honolulu Civil Beat alerted her of the missing contributions. Recalling the dinner is what led her to speculate whether she was the lawmaker referred to in the federal documents, although she emphasized she never accepted $35,000 in a paper bag.
“It is very specific, but for me, the truth is all we have, and Sylvia Luke did not take $35,000 from a single individual at a meeting with Ty Cullen,” she said. “We definitely did not take $35,000 from someone in a paper bag.”
According to campaign spending reports, Solidum also gave Green a $1,000 donation on Jan. 24, 2022. Senate President Ron Kouchi and Sen. Lynn DeCoite also received $3,500 each from Solidum around the same time.
“We reviewed the last 10 years of donation reports and found that Mr. Solidum made two separate donations (of $1000) through the campaign’s online website, one in 2020 and another in 2022. Both contributions were properly recorded and reported in full compliance with campaign finance laws,” Green’s campaign team wrote in a statement to HPR on Thursday.
In Hawaiʻi, candidates for governor and lieutenant governor run separately — unlike the U.S. president and vice president.
State Attorney General Anne Lopez is still investigating the alleged $35,000 exchange.
However, the Clean Elections Hawai‘i Coalition, a group of good government organizations, has called on Lopez to appoint an independent special prosecutor.
While announcing the cancellation of his trip, Green reiterated his statement on the issue.
“As I’ve previously stated, regarding the investigation, accountability is essential — no one gets a free pass,” he wrote.
“We are in an active phase of this effort led by our Attorney General and I want to see all of the facts released to the people of our state as expeditiously as possible. This needs to be resolved for the good of our public trust.”
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