State Sen. Karl Rhoads will resurrect a bill that would establish a comprehensive campaign financing system intended to help attract a more diverse pool of political candidates.

The system would give grants to qualifying candidates who are able to demonstrate sufficient support from voters.

If a candidate for the Hawaii House of Representatives, for example, can find 200 contributors to donate $5 each to their campaign, the state would kick in $50,000.

The funding formula would vary depending on the race, with candidates for governor and lieutenant governor able to be provided as much as $2.5 million.

The core purpose of the comprehensive financing bill is to make more candidates more competitive against incumbents and brand-name politicians who are invariably backed by businesses, unions and other deep-pocket special interests.

“This bill makes it so that you don’t have to worry about the donors as much,” said Rhoads, adding that politicians too often are pressured to keep donors happy. “You just worry about the voters. And I think that’s ideally what the situation should be.”

The bill does not yet have a number nor a draft, but Rhoads said it closely resembles Senate Bill 1543, which he introduced in the 2023 session. Although that measure had broad support, it was killed by the chairs of the House and Senate committees without explanation in the waning days of session.

Rhoads, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, is cautiously optimistic that the new bill will fare better in the session that starts next week. If approved, the public financing system would be in place for the 2028 elections and funded through an appropriation of $30 million.

The 2024 Legislature will likely be dominated by legislation focused on responding to the Maui wildfires in August, which will involve lots of money. But Rhoads said $30 million is a relatively modest expenditure in a state budget that is around $19 billion.

Backers of the so-called “clean elections” bill describe it as major campaign finance reform.

Rhoads spoke about the bill Wednesday at a forum at the Capitol sponsored by the Clean Elections Hawaii Coalition, which says it represents dozens of local organizations working to advance “a pro-democracy agenda in our islands and help end the corrupting influence of big money on our politics.”

The groups include Common Cause Hawaii, which has been at the forefront of “good government” initiatives at the Legislature.

Colin Moore, a political scientist at the University of Hawaii Manoa who moderated the forum, called the bill “one of the most important” before the Legislature.

“The idea behind this is simple,” he said. “It’s that with this bill, it’s possible to really stop this connection between donors and the behavior of legislators. And that’s really what we’re talking about here.”

In states that have similar programs such as Connecticut, Maine and Arizona, the financing systems increase the diversity of candidates, in particular drawing people who are younger and from less traditional backgrounds.

Moore said there is evidence of greater voter turnout because the system “makes voters feel less cynical” about the connection between money and politics.

“The reality is that representation matters,” said state Rep. Jeanne Kapela, who will introduce the companion bill in the House this session. For her, that especially includes greater representation of women, Native Hawaiians and working-class people.

“This is about ensuring that so many different people that oftentimes don’t have their voices heard in the Legislature will have their voices heard,” said Kapela. “When you have legislators who are catering to corporate interests, catering to their donors interests, they are not caring to the public’s interest.”

Rhoads said the bill is not “a panacea to all our ills.” If passed into law, public financing of elections would not stop donors from giving generously to candidates, for example. But the publicly funded candidates could not take that money while enrolled in the grant system.

The senator noted that the state’s current partial public financing of elections has not been successful. While David Ige, a fairly obscure state senator, was able to defeat incumbent Gov. Neil Abercrombie in 2014 using partial public financing, he soon switched to accepting major donations.

Dawn Morais Webster, a community activist who attended the forum Tuesday, said lawmakers should not wait until 2026 to implement comprehensive public financing.

“We needed this like yesterday,” she said. “If we’re serious about grassroots representation, if we are serious about honoring Native Hawaiian rights as they are enshrined in the Constitution, then we should move full speed ahead with passing this bill sooner, not later, because we need to hear the voices. I mean, there’s so much cynicism and disappointment within institutions right now.”

Rhoads said it was too late for the 2024 elections since candidates are already raising money. But he said he was open to the possibility of 2026, should there be a sufficient groundswell of support.