Plot twist: News stories generally are short-lived, they come and go as the next big thing happens. For instance, one day Sen. Michelle Kidani and her mental fitness to hold office was capturing the public attention and then the next (almost literally) Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke grabbed the spotlight by coming forward to say she might be the person the feds suspect of being the mystery lawmaker who the FBI recorded taking $35,000 from a bribery suspect in January 2022.
Surprisingly, rather than letting the news cycle move on as it invariably does, Luke continues to direct the political missiles at herself. Last week she sent a mass email to supporters titled “I want you to hear directly from me” laying out her side of the story including a timeline of the donations stemming from a dinner with former (convicted) Rep. Ty Cullen and and two campaign contributors who, she says, each gave her a check for $5,000. She somehow never reported the contributions until four years later after Civil Beat asked about them.
Luke followed up this week with an Instagram video earnestly reading a similar statement while imploring people to go to her website and check out the facts for themselves. The upshot: she did nothing wrong, at least not on purpose; she’s never enriched herself as a public servant; she’s never granted special favors to a campaign supporter; she’s deeply embarrassed over this whole affair.
And while The Blog and everyone else waits for the next shoe to drop possibly in the form of revelations by the attorney general (we’re not holding our breath waiting for the U.S. attorney to wrap up his investigation), Luke says she has hired a campaign compliance firm, Common Cents Consulting, to audit her past reports and make sure they are accurate. We’re looking forward to seeing that audit which we’re sure she will make public, right?
Meanwhile, Attorney General Anne Lopez has said she’s got her special public corruption investigation unit on the case looking into who the “influential state legislator” was who took the $35,000, perhaps from Cullen’s same friend. It can’t be that hard to figure out since it’s all on tape.
Gov. Josh Green has said the investigation’s findings should be made public by spring, which is pretty soon. Or perhaps it will be August, which is what Lopez allegedly told lawmakers. The question The Blog wants answered: Was the money in a paper bag or not?
Watch Luke’s new video here:
And speaking of House Speaker Nadine Nakamura, The Blog wants to make sure she remembers she still has that pesky citizen’s petition to deal with, the one with nearly 1,000 signatures filed by government watchdog Alexander Silvert (a much more fitting title than former federal public defender, that was so 2020). Silvert, following a formal process set out by the state constitution, has asked the Legislature to consider setting up a special legislative committee with subpoena powers (here’s looking at you Ty Cullen) to get to the bottom of the $35,000 potential bribery of the mystery lawmaker.
Unfortunately, the Legislature is ignoring Silvert — and thus the constitutional process it would seem.
The Senate quickly killed the petition on opening day of the legislative session but the House has yet to act. It is still shown as “offered” as House Resolution 9 and was discussed at a press conference with House leadership about a month ago.
House lawmakers in support of Silvert said at the time the measure would be referred to committee but as of now that has not happened. The Blog wonders why Nakamura seems to be just sitting on it.
Silvert, who has proven the old adage that one person can make a difference, is now advocating for a special independent prosecutor (i.e. not the attorney general who he believes is conflicted out thanks to the Sylvia Luke mess). He’s not the only one pushing for that new wrinkle.
As the session turns: And if Luke’s own actions weren’t enough to keep this story sizzling along, good-government activists are using the mystery lawmaker scandal to prod lawmakers on a number of other reforms this session.
The Clean Elections Hawaiʻi Coalition, which represents more than 40 pro-democracy groups, was front and center at the State Capitol on Monday with a lineup of speakers and chants of “Clean elections now!” and “The status quo has got to go!”
But is anybody listening? We’re nearly halfway through session and while a number of Sunshine bills have actually rolled through some of their committees, most are still awaiting the final hurdle of the House and Senate money committees, which as we all know by now is where good bills go to die.
“When a politician is busy chasing checks from the 1%, they aren’t looking at the rest of us,” Kalehua Reed, a community organizer based in Waiʻanae, told the crowd Monday. “They’re looking out for their donors.”
The Clean Elections folks are especially interested in bills that would provide public financing for candidate campaigns and restrict campaign contributions from executives and family members of contractors and nonprofit organizations that get money from the state, the venerable pay-to-play bill that has died at the last minute in the last several legislative sessions.
Evan Weber of Our Hawaiʻi rallies the faithful at the State Capitol on Monday to push for meaningful political reform. (Christina Jedra/Civil Beat/2026)
The bills took on new life in the 2023 legislative session after Cullen and former (convicted) Sen. J. Kalani English caused all that political hubbub over taking bribes from Honolulu businessman Milton Choy to sway wastewater legislation to Choy’s liking. For those keeping score at home, Choy — who died in federal custody— was convicted of bribery, too, and, get this, Choy and the man who gave Luke one of those $5,000 checks gave political donations in tandem on more than a dozen occasions in recent years.
Since 2023, three legislative sessions and two election cycles have come and gone. Evan Weber of Our Hawaiʻi, an organization opposed to big money in politics, says another cannot go by without serious reforms.
“It is an election year, and the time for excuses and delays is over,” he told the rally-goers. “The time for action is now.”
Meanwhile, speaking of bribery, the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday moved along a couple bills that would increase the penalty for bribery and make it a criminal offense to fail to report bribery by a state or county elected official.
Second chances: Gov. Josh Green has picked Dan Gluck as the next new judge on the Intermediate Court of Appeals. Gluck was up for an ICA appointment in 2021 but withdrew just as he was coming up for Senate confirmation.
Dan Gluck.Now he’ll go before the Senate again, first stop the Senate Judiciary Committee. Gluck would fill the vacancy that came when then Judge Karen Nakasone was elevated to the position of ICA’s chief judge in July 2025.
Gluck, a Harvard Law School grad, has served as a deputy corporation counsel with the City and County of Honolulu for the last four years and was named the city’s “Outstanding Deputy Corporation Counsel” in 2025. He’s perhaps better known as the former executive director of the Hawaiʻi State Ethics Commission and, before that, legal director for ACLU Hawaiʻi.
“Daniel Gluck brings a wealth of experience, dedication and integrity to this important role,” Gov. Josh Green said in the press release. “His commitment to fairness and justice has been evident throughout his distinguished career,”
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