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Roth brings together McLaren and Byrne in December 1995 to examine whether Hawaii's Democratic Party runs on pay-to-play fundraising. McLaren describes the machine not as a formal structure but as a web of interlocking friendships connecting lawyers, engineers, and accountants to party insiders and state contracts. He cites journalist Ian Lind's surveys showing strong correlations between recipients of sole-source, non-competitive contracts — which McLaren estimates at 70–80% of state work — and campaign donors. Byrne recounts a specific 1989 incident: a prominent attorney used a Budget and Finance mailing list compiled by state official Yuki Takamoto to solicit $2,000 donations from businesses about to sign state contracts. Byrne's Common Cause Hawaii also forced the resignation of Ethics Commission chair Barbara Tanabe over a conflict of interest. Both guests call the Campaign Spending Commission a "lapdog." The episode closes with McLaren attributing low civic engagement to the legacy of plantation-era feudalism, and Byrne arguing that democracy requires daily participation, not just voting.
Transcript
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