Harris campaign ready to act on lost eight weeks

By Robbie Dingeman and Johnny Brannon
Advertiser Staff Writers

Mayor Jeremy Harris' stalled campaign for governor will kick into action now that the Hawai'i Supreme Court has ruled he can remain in office until July 23, his top supporters say.

Mayor Jeremy Harris' governor campaign will resume by the middle of the month. Advertiser library photo

Harris had suspended his campaign for eight weeks after a state Circuit Court judge ruled March 11 that he should have resigned when he filed campaign organizational papers 10 months before.

The high court overturned that decision in a near-unanimous ruling that he could instead remain in office until the July 23 deadline for filing candidacy papers with the state Office of Elections.

If Mayor Jeremy Harris resigns to run for governor as expected by the July 23 deadline for filing candidacy papers, the city managing director will become acting mayor. A special election would then be held in conjunction with the Sept. 21 primary election. That means the new mayor could be sworn in as early as Oct. 11.

Tsujimura said the campaign would decide its next step after Harris returned this week from a meeting in Shanghai with the Asian Development Bank, and the effort would be in full swing by mid-month.

"The down time has actually strengthened our campaign and caused people to be more dedicated and committed to this candidacy than ever before," Tsujimura said.

Yesterday's ruling came in response to a lawsuit filed against Harris by former state District Court Judge Russell Blair, who argued that the state constitution requires officials to resign from one office to run for another.

Circuit Court Judge Sabrina McKenna agreed with Blair in a March 11 decision, but granted a stay of enforcement that allowed Harris to continue campaigning while he appealed to the high court; Harris voluntarily put his campaign on hold March 12 and postponed several fund-raising events.

In a 16-page ruling, the Supreme Court found that "a public officer becomes eligible as a candidate for another public office at the time he or she files nomination papers for the second office.

"Therefore, he or she must resign from his or her present office before filing nomination papers for the second office, if the term of the office sought begins before the end of the term of the office held."

Chief Justice Ronald Moon wrote the opinion, with the concurrence of associate justices Steven Levinson, Mario Ramil and Paula Nakayama. Associate Justice Simeon Acoba Jr. agreed with most of the ruling but expressed concern that oral arguments had not been presented in the case.

Since a "resign-to-run" amendment was proposed by the 1978 Constitutional Convention and approved by voters, many candidates have remained in office until filing nomination papers. None had been challenged in court until this year.

Blair yesterday said he had no regrets about filing the suit and was pleased it had clarified the point at which a candidate in Harris' position must resign. He said he had no plans to pursue the issue further.

Harris could not be reached for comment. The front-running Democratic gubernatorial candidate has complained that the lawsuit was one of a series of stumbling blocks thrown in his path for political reasons.

The Supreme Court decision was the latest in a string of victories for Harris.

In March, U.S. District Judge Helen Gillmor ruled that the state Campaign Spending Commission could not count contributions to Harris' 2000 mayoral re-election campaign toward the $6,000-per-donor limit in the race for governor.

Last month, Campaign Spending Commission Executive Director Robert Watada withdrew his complaint that the Harris 2000 campaign had spent money for purposes other than that election and had donated more than $100,000 to the Democratic National Committee without reporting it to the state.

The city prosecutor's office is still investigating another complaint by Watada: that Harris' 2000 campaign circumvented donation limits by attributing them to people who never contributed.

Tsujimura acknowledged that several campaign officials had been interviewed by investigators, but said he was confident all would be cleared of wrongdoing and that the probe would not harm Harris' chance of winning in November.

Though Harris refrained from campaigning while the Supreme Court case was pending, the campaign continued to accept money from supporters. Tsujimura said he did not know how much had been collected.

Yas Kuroda, a political science professor at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa, said Harris has enough time to regroup.

"Obviously it hurt, but I don't think it's a fatal incident," he said.

Kuroda said there was a risk that campaign workers who had been gearing up may have become discouraged when Harris halted the effort, and may have drifted off.

Another potential problem, he said, is that voters may have absorbed the fact that Harris is involved in a legal controversy, and yesterday's ruling might not wipe the slate clean. "Even if he clears his name afterward, the doubts may linger on in the minds of the voters," Kuroda said.

Nonetheless, Harris appears to enjoy a heavy advantage in the Democratic primary, Kuroda said, in part because his $1 million-plus campaign fund dwarfs his opponents'.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Linda Lingle said the court's legal interpretation came as no surprise, but that wasn't really the point.

"I think it's an ethical question about politicians keeping their word, and something Jeremy will have to answer for in the primary election — and if he gets through that, in the general election," she said.

When politicians ask the voters for support, the voters "expect you to carry that out, rather than 100 days later say, 'Well, I didn't really want this office, I want another office,' " Lingle said.

"I think he has no momentum now, and he has this budget crisis going on in the city, and he still has his campaign spending issues to deal with."

Gov. Ben Cayetano said he didn't understand why Harris had suspended his campaign, because the court had ruled that he was free to continue.

"Having run four statewide races myself, there's not a day to lose when you run on a statewide basis," Cayetano said. "You need to get going, especially on the Neighbor Islands, where he is not as well known as he may be on the island of O'ahu."

Advertiser Staff Writer Kevin Dayton contributed to this report.

Reach Robbie Dingeman at rdingeman@honoluluadvertiser.com and Johnny Brannon at jbrannon@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8070.

Correction: If Mayor Jeremy Harris resigns to run for governor as expected by the July 23 deadline for filing candidacy papers, the city managing director will become acting mayor. A special election would then be held in conjunction with the Sept. 21 primary election. That means the new mayor could be sworn in as early as Oct. 11. A previous version of this story was incorrect.