Posted on: Thursday, August 1, 2002

EDITORIAL
Campaign can survive a fund-raising deficit

Maybe it is a reflection of a slow economy. Maybe it is because Mayor Jeremy Harris soaked up so much available cash before he dropped out of the governor's race.

But for whatever reason, candidates for top office this year report that the unpleasant business of raising campaign money is going slowly.

The leader in the race is Republican Linda Lingle, who has been at it steadily since she narrowly lost the governor's race four years ago. Her reports say that she raised $1.5 million in the first half of this year and has well over $1 million in the bank.

That's way ahead of the next biggest fund-raiser, Democrat Mazie Hirono, who has around $300,000 available. Two other Democratic contenders, D.G. "Andy" Anderson and Ed Case, have relatively negligible amounts of cash on hand.

Part of the reason the Democrats are behind at this point is the vigorous fund-raising activity by Harris before he pulled out. He has more than $600,000 in the bank and has only slowly been returning it to donors.

It's a solid bet that many who coughed up once for the presumptive Democratic front-runner have been unwilling to do so again, at least until the crowded primary field has sorted itself out.

The money disparity might not mean all that much in a political sense, however. Lingle will presumably hoard most of what she has for the general on the basis that she believes she will easily get past former state Sen. John Carroll in the GOP primary.

Meanwhile, the three Democrats can focus their efforts less on image advertising and more on the issues that separate them and set them apart from Lingle.

They are talking about a lower-cost grassroots focus on the primary campaign. For voters interested in seeking out the candidates, attending forums or even visiting their virtual or actual campaign headquarters, this could be an opportunity to get closer than usual to the candidates.

And it should. The candidate who wins the Democratic primary should be the candidate who best articulates a specific vision for Hawai'i, as well as a specific game plan on how that will be achieved.

This requires a lot of thinking and work, but it does not require mountains of cash.

Once the general election is joined, if the Democratic winner has articulated the right kind of vision and plan, the money will be there. Don't worry about that.