Harris freezes campaign

•	Judge rules in favor of Harris
•	Three officials holding fast to campaign plans
	What do you think of the court ruling declaring it illegal for Mayor Jeremy Harris to serve as mayor and campaign for governor at the same time? Join our discussion

By Kevin Dayton
Advertiser Capitol Bureau Chief

Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris suspended all campaign activity yesterday while he appeals a court ruling that declared it illegal for him to serve as mayor and campaign for governor at the same time.

Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris was flanked by his wife, Ramona, and his attorney, Robert Klein, at Honolulu Hale yesterday during a press conference on the court ruling. Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser

Lawyers for Harris went to court again yesterday afternoon to prepare for the appeal to the state Supreme Court, where Harris said he is "very confident" he will prevail.

Harris did get some good news yesterday in another court when U.S. District Judge Helen Gillmor told the state Campaign Spending Commission to stop counting contributions to Harris' 2000 re-election campaign toward the $6,000 per donor limit in the governor's race.

That should allow Harris to get more money from his biggest supporters if he resumes his campaign for governor.

"I think obviously there's been a concerted effort to throw as many tacks in our path, as many stumbling blocks in the way of this campaign as possible. This is one more stumbling block," Harris said.

"We recognized early on that this was an effort to divert our attention and divert our resources to an extraneous issue, and to try to slow down the momentum of the campaign. We had no idea we would actually have to end up in the Supreme Court," he said.

On Monday, Circuit Judge Sabrina McKenna ruled that Harris ran afoul of a 1978 amendment to the state constitution that requires incumbents to resign before they run for a new office if the terms of the two offices overlap.

Until Monday's ruling, the most common interpretation of the amendment was that incumbents need not resign until they filed nomination papers for the new office, which usually is done in July of the election year.

But McKenna sided with plaintiff Russell Blair, a former state senator and former district judge, in interpreting the amendment to mean Harris should have resigned as mayor before or when he declared himself a gubernatorial candidate and filed an organization report with the Campaign Spending Commission on May 15, 2001.

Meanwhile, three other elected officials said yesterday they don't foresee an immediate effect on their campaigns from McKenna's ruling.

Lt. Gov. Mazie Hirono and City Council members Duke Bainum and Jon Yoshimura are planning to run for Honolulu mayor (Hirono and Bainum) or lieutenant governor (Yoshimura).

Yesterday's decision to suspend Harris' campaign activities makes a quick ruling from the Supreme Court critical because the campaign cannot afford to sit in neutral less than seven months before the Democratic primary for governor.

"If the Supreme Court takes months and months and months, this is going to make it pretty challenging for the mayor," said Hirono, who plans to run for mayor if Harris resigns to run for governor.

Former Supreme Court associate justice Robert Klein, who is representing Harris, said the Supreme Court could resolve the case in less than a month if it chooses, but the timing is up to the court.

Harris reported he had more than $1 million on hand at the end of last year, but said yesterday he is canceling fund-raisers on O'ahu on March 19 and on the Big Island March 21, and will hold no further organizational meetings.

Harris says the lawsuit over the resign-to-run amendment and an investigation into illegal contributions to his 2000 mayoral campaign are part of a "smear campaign" to derail his bid for governor.

Democratic Party of Hawai'i chairwoman Lorraine Akiba said Harris has "taken a very high road" by suspending his campaign activities while the case is on appeal.

"We're confident that his appeal process will resolve this issue and his position will prevail and he will be able to actively resume his campaigning," she said.

Akiba also said she doesn't think the mayor's gubernatorial run will be affected by the recent events.

"If he gets these issues resolved, people really should be focused on the issues that are important for voting for who you want to be the next governor," she said. "As far as Mayor Harris' track record as the mayor of O'ahu and all the things he's accomplished, that's something that he's obviously going to point to in the upcoming election cycle."

Harris' opponents in the Democratic primary disagreed, suggesting Harris' problems are draining away his momentum.

"It clearly changed the race," said state Rep. Ed Case, D-23rd (Manoa), who is also running for governor as a Democrat. "The combination of really a lot of chickens coming home to roost for the Harris campaign that he clearly tried to put off for a long time, I think, heightens the general public's concerns about him as a candidate."

D.G. "Andy" Anderson, another Democratic gubernatorial hopeful, said Harris knows he wants to run for governor, and should have simply resigned as mayor to remove the cloud over the campaign.

Harris said it would be "irresponsible" to resign now to focus on his campaign for governor because issues such as the city budget, mass transit and vision team projects are at critical stages.

The 1978 amendment was drafted with former Honolulu mayor Frank Fasi in mind because Fasi used his office as a platform to launch bids for governor. But Fasi said he was surprised at McKenna's ruling, noting that he waited until July in 1994 before resigning as mayor and making his final run for governor.

In a new hearing yesterday on the resign-to-run issue, Judge McKenna also made her resign-to-run judgment final, clearing the way for an immediate appeal.

McKenna also granted Harris a stay yesterday, delaying the impact of her decision until Harris can appeal to the state Supreme Court.

When she granted the stay, McKenna said that in fairness and in the public interest she wanted to preserve the status quo until the issue could be brought to the Supreme Court, where she said it belongs.

McKenna's interpretation of the resign-to-run language of the 1978 Constitutional Convention amendment differs from an earlier ruling allowing incumbents to wait until they actually file for another office before they have to quit.

Harris attorney William McCorriston said the stay means Harris legally can continue to campaign for governor now while remaining mayor, but Klein and others in the Harris camp said they will not resume campaigning until the Supreme Court has ruled.

Attorney William Deeley, who represented Blair in the suit, said the effect of the stay is not clear at this point.

McKenna will issue the final wording on her stay tomorrow .

Advertiser reporters Walter Wright, Curtis Lum and Lynda Arakawa contributed to this report.