Hawaii Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke announced today that she will not seek re-election this year, following months of speculation that she is the subject of a state Attorney General investigation into allegations of a powerful lawmaker accepting an illegal campaign donation.

“This weekend, after a long discussion with my family and close friends, I decided not to seek re-election to a second term as Lieutenant Governor,” Luke said in a written statement.

“It was a difficult decision. Serving the people of Hawai‘i has been an honor, and my family has always been supportive of my passion for this work. But the last three months have been difficult, making the rigors of campaigning exceptionally burdensome for my family. While I have always been a fighter, I cannot tolerate the toll that they are paying.

“I intend to continue doing the job I was elected to do, offering my best effort to the people of Hawai‘i every day.”

On Jan. 20, the state Department of the Attorney General said it was opening an investigation into the unnamed politician who was mentioned in a separate federal corruption probe and allegedly accepted $35,000 in a paper bag.

The state Attorney General’s decision to investigate was a reversal for the office, which weeks earlier said it would wait until a federal public corruption investigation was complete. But on Jan. 16, the U.S. Department of Justice told state officials that it would provide the state with “evidence concerning an alleged incident involving an unnamed ‘influential state legislator who is alleged to have accepted approximately $35,000 in funds” in 2022, according to a news release from Attorney General Anne Lopez’s office.

Four days later, Gov. Josh Green and Lopez announced that they had “jointly determined that a state investigation into this matter” is in the public interest.

On Feb. 9, Luke told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser  Opens in a new taband other media that she may be the subject of the investigation but she insisted she did not do anything illegal nor accept $35,000 in a paper bag.

The transaction involving the unknown politician was recorded at a January 2022 dinner by former state Rep. Ty J.K. Cullen, who was working as an FBI informant after he and ex-Senate Majority Leader J. Kalani English were arrested by the FBI for taking bribes from Milton J. Choy, the late owner of a Honolulu wastewater company who was controlling their work.

Cullen and English won’t say who took the money or reveal the people responsible for giving it. English was sentenced to 40 months in federal prison in July 2022 and Cullen received a 2-year sentence in April 2023. Cullen received less prison time than English because of his “substantial assistance” to the U.S. Department of Justice.

The corruption of Cullen and English and the ongoing federal public corruption investigation has tarnished the state Legislature. Lawmakers in both chambers publicly declared ahead of the Jan. 20 start of the 2026 session that they didn’t take the money and don’t know who did.

The declarations came after retired Federal Public Defender Alexander Silvert petitioned state lawmakers in the first week of January to convene a committee with subpoena and contempt powers to investigate the matter involving the unnamed lawmaker and donors. Silvert mailed the petition and letters to lawmakers to House Speaker Nadine Nakamura, Senate President Ron Kouchi and every state legislator individually. The petition had over 929 verified Hawaii signatures.

In 2022, Luke was the state representative representing Makiki area and chair of the powerful House Finance Committee when she won a tight race to be the Democrat Party’s lieutenant governor nominee.

During the fallout from the English-Cullen scandal earlier that year, Luke told the  Opens in a new tabStar-Advertiser Opens in a new tab, “I am meticulous about reporting them, as I believe the public has a right to know who is contributing. Contributions should not affect policy decisions. My policy decisions are based on what is best for the taxpayers of our state.”

After Luke acknowledged in February that she may be the target of the Attorney General’s investigation, the Hawaii Campaign Spending Commission said it was investigating Opens in a new tab whether she violated state law when she failed to report $16,000 in campaign contributions.

On Feb. 7, Luke amended her 2022 campaign spending records to report $10,000 in donations that she said she returned to two people tied to Cullen in March 2022, and a $6,000 donation from another businessman which she had kept. Those donations had not been reported to the commission due to a campaign oversight, she said.

The cloud over Luke this year provided an opportunity for Kauai Mayor Derek Kawakami, who announced last month that he would run for the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor Opens in a new tab. Kawakami was first elected mayor in 2018 and will serve out the remainder of final term this year.