One of the notable news bits from the legislative session has been the passage of a Senate bill that would ban what is often called “dark money.”
If signed into law, it would be the first state in the nation to limit corporate influence in elections.
A 2010 Supreme Court decision called Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission found that companies can donate to campaigns.
Critics say it sets the stage for shady influence on local and national elections.
The bill passed unanimously in the Hawaiʻi State Senate last week and received a single “no” vote in the House.
State lawmakers credited work by the Center for American Progress for inspiring the new legislation. The center is a liberal think tank founded by former President Bill Clinton’s chief of staff, John Podesta.
Tom Moore is a senior fellow for democracy policy at the Center for American Progress. Moore spoke with The Conversation about the national plan to take down Citizens United.
He says once the bill passed in Hawaiʻi, he breathed a sigh of relief.
Interview highlights
On dark money in Hawaiʻi and across the country
TOM MOORE: Dark money is corrosive. This is money that is spent independently of parties and independently of candidates, by independent spenders. And because of Citizens United and some cases that came after it, it can be spent without any disclosure of who is paying for it, and as long as they're not coordinating with the campaigns, it can, in an unlimited amount, come from absolute billionaires just dropping it all in one place and having it all spent in one place. And the dark money groups and the super PACs (Political Action Committees) that they work with do provide the most corrosive political communications in our system, because they're not accountable at all. … And no matter who's spending it, whether progressives are spending it, or conservatives are spending it. It damages people's faith in our democracy because they don't know who's talking to them. They don't know who's trying to buy their elections. They don't know what's going on. And what they really feel more than anything else is that their voice doesn't matter, and that is the most corrosive effect of all of that.
On criticism surrounding the “dark money” bill
MOORE: Well, I think in the floor debate on Friday, it was pointed out that this is what states do. If this is the only way to make progress against dark money after Citizens United, that is what states should be doing, and that is their job in our federal system, to press these kinds of things to be the laboratories of democracy and try innovative things. It could be a little bit expensive for Hawaiʻi if they lose. I have not put this forward to lose. This is not a demonstration bill. This is not a messaging bill. This is out there to win, and I think it will.
On what would Hawaiʻi residents feel if this bill goes into effect
MOORE: At the end of the day, what the bill does is assures that every dollar in Hawaiʻi's politics is from a human being, that it's disclosed, and that it was voluntary. And that is a huge improvement from what we have right now.
It is still possible that a billionaire could come in and drop a gigantic amount of money into a super PAC, but they can't launder their money through a dark money group. First, if they're going to do it, their name has to be attached to it. And for the last 16 years, in the Citizens United era, that has not been what we've seen. Mostly, very wealthy folks who want to drop their money in politics hide their names through the dark money groups. … But it gets rid of dark money entirely, and it should allow for folks to work across the aisle more, because there's somebody. One of the worst things about dark money is not just that you could spend a lot of dark money against somebody, it's that you can threaten to spend a lot of dark money against somebody. And then when you do that, you don't even need to raise the money. You could just say it. But that's the kind of threat that has legislators looking over their shoulder and saying, like, ʻLook, if I do too much compromising across the aisle here, I'm going to have some dark-money funded extremists from either side going after me in my primary. And so I'm not going to do that.' And this takes that out of the equation altogether.
If this is signed by the governor, and if this is upheld by the courts, I think the day that that happens, or the day that the Supreme Court decides not to grant cert, or something along those lines, then every state legislator in the country is going to get 500 calls for their constituents saying, ‘I want you to do this now.’ It is incredibly brave and forward-thinking for Hawaiʻi to do this. And it took a huge amount of work among legislators and community activists to get it done, and I really think it will pay off.
This story aired on The Conversation on May 12, 2026. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. Hannah Kaʻiulani Coburn adapted this interview for the web.
