Democrats to set agenda
By Kevin Dayton
Advertiser Capitol Bureau Chief
Party members have been caught up in scandals, and party leaders have battled with groups that were once their most loyal supporters. The finances of the party's apparent front-runner for governor are under investigation, and the candidate suspended his campaign for two months.
If ever Hawai'i Democrats needed a burst of energy that will jazz up the party faithful and reassure the wavering, it is now. The party and its candidates hope to get that bump from the state Democratic Convention that gets under way in Waikiki this weekend with 700 to 800 delegates expected to attend.
The convention is a largely ceremonial affair, with speeches, rallies and schmoozing, but no candidate endorsements or debates.
Above all, the convention at the Sheraton Waikiki hotel will be the time for Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris to finally stamp out any smoldering doubts that he will actually run for governor, Gov. Ben Cayetano said.
"By all measures, his silence and his lack of visibility these past 10 weeks have been strange for someone who's running for statewide office," Cayetano said. "So, at the convention, he needs to come out and come out strong."
Cayetano added: "If he's there, that's a good sign for his camp. If he's not there, then he needs to tell us what he's gonna do."
The Harris campaign did not respond last week to questions about the mayor's plans for the convention. But many in Democratic circles believe Harris will use the event for dramatic effect, restarting his campaign and capitalizing on the opportunity for television and other free media coverage.
The Harris campaign needs the boost.
In January, the state Campaign Spending Commission requested a criminal investigation of Harris and three leaders of his 2000 mayoral campaign after issuing fines to a variety of companies that made campaign contributions larger than the law allows.
Harris and his campaign officials denied any wrongdoing, but the city prosecutor's office is still reviewing the case.
Harris' campaign was put on hold in mid-March when a Circuit Court judge ruled it was illegal for him to serve as mayor and campaign for governor at the same time. That ruling was overturned by the state Supreme Court on May 7, clearing the way for Harris to continue his campaign.
Harris and fellow Democratic gubernatorial candidates Ed Case and D.G. "Andy" Anderson will confront some unique challenges as they try to rally Democrats behind them this year.
One problem will be the public worker unions, a crucial part of the Democratic party base. The unions have battled openly with the Cayetano administration over wages and benefits since the last gubernatorial campaign in 1998. Those disputes peaked with the strikes by public school teachers and the University of Hawai'i faculty union last year.
Cayetano acknowledged that many in the unions blame him personally for those disputes, but said he expects the damage to the party will be limited because he is leaving office.
"I think that, for the most part, the union members will continue to go with the Democrats, but we may lose some of that because those things were difficult," he said. "It's always difficult to seek change from the people who support you."
State Sen. Colleen Hanabusa, a labor lawyer, noted that both Harris and Case also have clashed with the public worker unions, which has distanced them from union leadership.
"To a certain extent, I think (Cayetano) laid the groundwork for this change in image, which is one of we're not in the, quote-unquote, back pockets and we took the hard positions, which is what I think these guys are going to try to run on. And it's a Ben Cayetano platform," said Hanabusa, D-21st (Kalaeloa, Makaha).
But public school teachers and other public workers can provide important political help during a campaign, and Hanabusa said she is unsure if the new "platform" will do more harm than good.
That depends on how the voting public views the efforts of Republican front-runner Linda Lingle to appeal to union members and leaders. If Lingle is seen as pandering to the unions, she may appear to the general public to be "more of a continuation of the same" rather than a radical departure from the status quo, Hanabusa said.
At the 2000 state Democratic convention, the public worker unions made their presence felt by demanding that the party include platform language that the state should grant public workers negotiated or arbitrated raises. Later, virtually all of the Democrats and Republicans in the Legislature voted in favor of hundreds of millions of dollars in public worker raises.
This year, there is no similar unifying issue for the unions. Hanabusa said she expects public worker union representatives to attend the convention but to keep a lower profile.
"They may be there, they may be making a statement, but there's going to be distance," she said.
After Cayetano barely eked out a 5,000-vote victory in 1998, the governor called the election a "wake-up" call for Hawai'i Democrats. Last December, he sounded a similar warning, worrying that Democrats would be thrown from office this year unless the Legislature began to produce.
Cayetano said the lawmakers and the party moved to deal with that crisis by passing crowd-pleasing bills to cap gasoline prices and provide prescription drugs at more affordable prices.
"They came out, finally, with a session that's in the Democratic tradition," he said.
Reach Kevin Dayton at kdayton@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8070.
