Citizens divided: The Sunshine Blog is watching a couple of interesting bills this year that seek to get around that pesky Citizens United U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

This is the 2010 decision in which the high court determined that corporations (and unions) have First Amendment freedom of speech rights and therefore can spend gobs of dough in politics.

Last week the Senate Commerce and Consumer Protection Committee took up a couple of bills that would essentially restrict corporations doing business in Hawaiʻi from electioneering activities.

Senate Bill 2471, which comes from Sen. Karl Rhoads, aims to “clarify the scope” of powers granted to corporations and other artificial entities under state law, “particularly with respect to political spending in elections and ballot measures.”

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“Corporations are not people, and do not enjoy the inherent right to influence our elections,” said Sen. Jarrett Keohokalole who chairs the Senate Commerce and Consumer Protection Committee.

It’s a good issue for Keohokalole too. In case you missed it, he’s running for Congress this year.

A related measure, Senate Bill 2829, also written by Rhoads (who, you might have heard, is retiring this year), clarifies that political spending authority “was never intended” to be among those powers and “reinforces the Legislature’s ability to redefine and limit corporate authority in the interest of public welfare.”

The bills now head to Rhoads’ Senate Judiciary Committee, where The Blog confidently predicts they will pass.

Whether they make it out of the Legislature as a whole and become law is another matter, as the Attorney General’s Office is being kind of a wet blanket here and testified before Keohokalole’s committee that Citizens United remains “the law of the land, irrespective of its merits (or lack thereof).”

Moreover, the AG wrote, “This bill also removes only speech related to elections and ballot initiatives from a corporation’s powers, while permitting a corporation to retain its ability to speak in other contexts. Such a content-based speech restriction that disfavors political speech may be subject to challenge under the First Amendment.”

Here comes the sunshine: Friday is a key deadline at the Hawaiʻi Legislature for many bills or else they’re goners. First Lateral, as it’s called, means that measures referred to more than one committee (which is most bills) must be ready to be heard in their last committee.

The Blog is pleased to report that more than a dozen sunshine bills have survived this year’s legislative winnowing, including legislation to increase the number of public officials who must file public financial disclosures, extend the period to deposit campaign spending donations without penalty, allow more time for criminal prosecutions involving campaign spending, and to switch Hawaiʻi to a “jungle primary” that would mean the top two candidates advance to the general election regardless of party.

Another bill passing the Senate Judiciary on Friday the 13th would require that the state’s chief election officer could only be fired for cause as long as that person has already passed the standard state probationary period.

Discussion of the bill raised a few sparks. Sen. Brenton Awa pressed Scott Nago, the chief election officer, on why he’s not allowing for more access to voting on election day. You know, more voter centers and the like.

That’s a county issue, the always mild-mannered Nago replied, not the state’s kuleana.

Awa, who can be anything but mild-mannered, was not satisfied. He said Nago was the same as the coach of a football team, but “our offense just continues to sputter on election day.”

That prompted Rhoads to admonish Awa for bringing up something that was beyond the scope of the bill they were hearing. Rhoads also said people could just mail their ballots in instead of waiting for hours in line. Awa countered that voting in line was an important tradition.

Unfortunately, The Blog fears there will be more long lines on election days this August and November. While the House Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs Committee has passed a bill to give the counties money so they can set up and staff more voter services centers, Rhoads killed the Senate version of the bill.

Why? Because the county clerks of Maui, Oʻahu and the Big Island told the committee it would need a lot of money to hire a lot of people to man the stations, and that they would need to have computer skills as well — a tall order to get in place in time for the Aug. 8 primary.

In other Sunshine news, the Senate Judiciary on Thursday passed a bill to set up a comprehensive public financing of elections system, as has been proposed several years running. But Rhoads expressed doubts it would pass, given budget constraints this year. Another bill, this one giving more money to the state’s existing partial public campaign financing program, also cleared the committee, however.

Another of The Blog’s favorite issues, moving to a year-round legislative session, survived the Senate Government Operations Committee. Senate Bill 2343 passed after senators agreed to trade its contents for that of Senate Bill 3216, which establishes a working group to review the topic.

The only problem is the 11-member working group would be exempt from the Sunshine Law, as the Office of Information Practices pointed out in testimony. OIP suggests amending the bill to allow a special permitted interaction group that would still have to keep the public informed via minutes and reports.

Too soon? The Blog recommends you watch this short video clip. And guess who is sitting to her left?

The House that Josh built: The governor will have yet another opportunity to fill a legislative vacancy, thanks to the resignation Friday of Rep. Daniel Holt. He will serve in the Green administration as special assistant to the chair of the Department of Land and Natural Resources beginning Tuesday.

Holt had just told us all he planned to run for the state Senate seat that Karl Rhoads is retiring from this year. So The Blog is a bit mystified about the sudden change of heart.

But DLNR probably needs some help: Deputy Director Ryan Kanaka‘ole has been serving as acting chair and director since Dawn Ching went on medical leave in late December.

Holt’s departure will trigger yet another Democratic Party search for three applicants to the House District 18 seat (Sand Island, Iwilei, Chinatown).

Josh Green has only been governor for just over three years but has been able to put at least half a dozen lawmakers in their seats.

Don’t testify and drive: A proposed ban on aquarium fishing brought out lots of passionate testimony last week from fishermen worried about losing their livelihood as well as environmental activists looking to strengthen protections for reef fish.

But a testifier who showed up on Zoom drew a few laughs. Ron Tubbs was driving and testifying, the video showing him zipping along with light poles swooshing by in the background.

“Oh my god,” one gentleman seated at the back of Room 224 said, as if he expected what would happen next.

Tubbs started talking and that’s when Sen. Chris Lee felt compelled to interject.

“If you’re driving, could you please pull over and we can come back to you in a minute,” he said.

The crowd laughed and Tubbs eventually finished his testimony after parking his car.

Just a reminder: holding or using a cellphone while driving can result in a $300 fine.