State lawmakers were called back into special session in the weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to help stimulate a slumping economy, where they provided money to improve security at airports and harbors, promote tourism, and finance the construction of a new University of Hawai'i medical school in Kaka'ako.

The two-week session was remembered for its urgency and purpose, but it was unlike most of the more than two dozen other special sessions that have met since statehood. Most of the others dealt with narrower tasks, such as correcting technical flaws in spending, welfare, drunken driving and nursing home bills, reviewing nominations and, in recent years, overriding governor's vetoes.

As state lawmakers discuss a possible special session to help Hawaii Superferry, several observers said they cannot recall a comparable example where the Legislature returned to save a development project in the midst of such intense public controversy.

Maui Circuit Court Judge Joseph Cardoza is expected to rule tomorrow on whether the Superferry can resume service to Kahului Harbor while the state conducts an environmental assessment of the impact of the ferry on state harbors. Superferry executives have said that if the judge rules against them, voyages between O'ahu and Kaua'i only would not generate enough revenue to sustain the project and would force the Alakai to leave the Islands. A second ferry and voyages to the Big Island are planned for 2009.

Gov. Linda Lingle and state House and Senate leaders are waiting for the Maui court ruling before they decide if a special session is necessary. Lawmakers have said they may have enough votes to help the Superferry and believe public opinion is on their side, but the passion of environmentalists and others who want the review completed first could turn a special session into a cauldron.

The challenge for the Republican governor and the Democrats in the Legislature, observers say, would be to frame a solution that keeps the Superferry alive while minimizing the outcry from environmentalists that they are undercutting the courts.

"Consensus takes time, and I am not sure the Superferry has much time," said Jim Shon, a former state legislator.

STATE IMPACT A FACTOR

Bob Toyofuku, a prominent lobbyist advising Superferry executives, said he believes lawmakers are influenced by the potential effect on the state's business climate if Superferry leaves — and by the fact that the state Department of Transportation in February 2005 exempted the project from an environmental assessment.

The state Supreme Court ruled in August that the exemption was improper and ordered an environmental assessment, which triggered legal challenges to ferry voyages to Maui and Kaua'i.

State lawmakers also approved $40 million in harbor improvements for the project and, last session, rejected a Senate bill that would have required a full environmental impact statement while the ferry launched service.

"There's pressure on both sides," Toyofuku said. "The environmentalists are going to say, well, this thing should have been done properly. On the other side, the Superferry relied upon the state saying that (environmental law) was complied with."

John Radcliffe, another Superferry lobbyist, circulated a survey at the state Capitol last week that showed that 72 percent of people interviewed believe the Legislature should intervene and save the Superferry.

The survey was paid for by Superferry and involved 300 people weighted in proportion to the state's population, with 71 percent of the respondents on O'ahu, where support for the project is considered stronger than on the Neighbor Islands. Ten percent of the survey's respondents were on Maui and 5 percent were on Kaua'i, where protesters blocked the ferry from Nawiliwili Harbor.

"Personally, I think that the issue goes beyond the ships involved: most people in Hawai'i want to see these Islands better knitted together into a cohesive sociopolitical whole than want it to be an amalgam of separate parochial outposts," Radcliffe said in an e-mail.

HUSH-HUSH ON SESSION

But if Lingle and Democratic leaders are sure they have public opinion and enough votes in the Legislature behind them, they have been tentative about a special session for Superferry when talking publicly. Lingle, state Senate President Colleen Hanabusa, D-21st (Nanakuli, Makaha), and state House Speaker Calvin Say, D-20th (St. Louis Heights, Palolo Valley, Wilhelmina Rise), have spoken cautiously and usually only in response to questioning from reporters.

Observers say the caution may be out of deference to the courts or, in the case of House and Senate Democrats, their reticence to step into a firing line of criticism that has mostly been aimed at the governor and the Department of Transportation. Others say House and Senate leaders may not want to put Neighbor Island lawmakers or those who represent swing districts on the spot unless necessary, or inflame protesters by promising a legislative fix before the courts have ruled.

State Rep. James Tokioka, D-15th (Lihu'e, Koloa), a freshman, said a special session for Superferry under any circumstances sets a bad precedent. He said lawmakers can wait until the next regular session in January to debate any changes to environmental law.

"If the court rules that way, in my opinion, then that's the court's ruling and we have to live with that," Tokioka said. "I haven't heard one person in my district ask me to support a special session."

State Rep. Tom Brower, D-23rd (Waikiki, Ala Moana), a freshman who represents a Republican-leaning district, said he doubts any lawmaker wants the Superferry to fail.

"I'm confident that the majority of the people in my district would like to see a Superferry," Brower said.

UNUSUAL ANGER

Dan Boylan, a history professor at UH-West O'ahu, said the anger on display on Kaua'i last month when Lingle spoke at a public meeting on Superferry was unusual for the Islands and could be a sign that public opinion in favor of Superferry is not as overwhelming as some might think.

A special session to undo a court ruling against Superferry may also offend policy purists and open-government activists as well as environmentalists. Even when public sentiment is generally behind a special session, such as after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the reviews afterward are rarely unanimous. Some complained after the post-Sept. 11 session that lawmakers did not do enough to help sectors of the economy beyond tourism and gave too much emergency power to then-Gov. Ben Cayetano.

"It seems to me that both the Legislature and the governor look bad in all of this, and in a special session, you may look worse if you do in fact change everything," Boylan said.

Reach Derrick DePledge at ddepledge@honoluluadvertiser.com.