Harris says own party is to blame for investigation
| • | Mayor hires outside auditors |
| • | Harris discusses 'lots of hurdles' in Q&A |
By Robbie Dingeman
Advertiser City Hall Writer
Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris said he believes members of his own party are aggressively pushing the investigation into his campaign fund-raising in "an effort to knock me out because they don't like my brand of Democratic politics."
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser
In an interview with The Advertiser on Friday, Harris talked about the investigation, the toll it has taken on his family and close supporters, and his firm belief that neither he nor any of his campaign workers has done anything wrong.
Mayor Jeremy Harris' claim that people within the Democratic Party are behind his problems has been dismissed by former party chairman Walter Heen, who called the allegation "very unfortunate."
The state Campaign Spending Commission last week asked for a criminal probe of Harris' efforts after investigators identified numerous contributions that exceeded legal limits. The commission also said some people listed by the campaign as donors said they never gave money.
The commission's action created a political storm and a public relations nightmare for Harris, who until last week was considered the practically unbeatable front-runner in the governor's race. His campaign has been wounded by the investigation and by the end of the week Harris found himself having to assert that he would not drop out of the race.
But why would people from within the Democratic Party work against the strongest candidate for Hawai'i's top political job?
"Because there are multiple factions in the old Democratic Party, and I think we saw the kind of things that can happen as a result of that," Harris said, adding that he remains committed to the governor's race. "I'm running. I'm running for governor."
He said he and his wife, Ramona, have agonized over the decision to stay in the race, especially after receiving death threats that prompted him in October to begin wearing a bullet-proof vest.
"I've been living in a bullet-proof vest for a couple months now," Harris said. "And she's been anguishing about that. Then all of this smear comes out. And we sat down and asked ourselves, you know, is it worth it? I mean, these folks are out to get us. Is it worth it? We thought long and hard on it, and we met with our minister. And we just decided yes, we're going to do everything we can to stick it out and to run the race and to fight this and we're going to go."
Harris compared his own case to that of former Congressman Cec Heftel, whose loss to John Waihe'e in the 1986 Democratic gubernatorial primary has come to be synonymous in Hawai'i political circles with dirty tricks used by Democratic Party operatives to derail a candidate. Heftel blamed the existence of an anonymous, widely-circulated report supposedly implicating him in a drug investigation as the reason he lost the primary.
While the Heftel case has previously been invoked by Republican candidates such as Linda Lingle, who say they are always on the lookout for a last-minute "smear," it is the first time it has been cited by a Democratic candidate.
"Look back at the Cec Heftel incident," Harris said. "I think the same sort of thing happened back then with the same kind of people behind it."
Former Democratic Party Chairman Walter Heen, who stepped down last year but who has been active in the party for nearly 50 years, said he doesn't think Harris' suspicions are warranted.
"I think it's very unfortunate that the mayor has now seen fit to expand some kind of conspiracy theory beyond Mr. Watada and the Campaign Spending Commission to the Democratic Party," he said.
Heen, who is supporting one of Harris' Democratic opponents, D.G. "Andy" Anderson, said he doesn't believe anyone in the party would try to discredit any Democratic candidate.
"I cannot conceive of any Democrat, of any faction who would take it upon himself or herself to start the kind of effort that the mayor seems to be ascribing to people," Heen said. "If there are, I don't know these people."
Harris declined to be more specific about those he suspects of targeting him. He has accused Campaign Spending Commission executive director Robert Watada of engaging in a political vendetta, but stops there. "Unlike Mr. Watada, I'm not going to slander people until I have the hard evidence."
During the midday interview, Harris, 51, seemed eager to get out his side of the story, but frustrated that his integrity, and that of his closest supporters, was being questioned. He was still coughing from a cold or flu that kept him home part of the previous week but seemed focused on the issues that he sees as distracting him from running the city and running for governor.
The commission's complaint names Harris; his 2000 re-election campaign chairman, Lex Brodie; treasurer Roger Liu; and deputy treasurer Peter Char. Char is an attorney. Liu is a certified public accountant.
Harris said he accepts responsibility for ensuring that his campaign staff follows the law and that his campaign has returned many questionable or excess donations to contributors during the years.
But Harris said contributors bear the bulk of the responsibility for understanding how much they can legally contribute and that there are instances when it is impossible for his campaign staff to root out illegal donations.
One of Harris' complaints is that campaign spending staff removed a software feature that alerted the campaigns when contributors gave too much, then reluctantly put it back last month after his campaign staff complained.
While the feature may be helpful, Watada said, the campaigns should still be watching over their own records.
"That still doesn't absolve the campaigns from making sure their contributions are within their limits," Watada said.
Harris also protested that his campaign had only three instances where occupations were not listed in campaign spending reports, that Republican Lingle had 172 and Gov. Ben Cayetano had 400, yet they weren't fined.
But Watada said the commission had requested occupation information on some 200 names since 1998 and the campaign had submitted a few at a time before getting the number down this month to only three remaining donors without the required occupation information.
"I don't think his story's quite straight," Watada said.
Reach Robbie Dingeman at rdingeman@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8070.
