Posted on: Friday, May 31, 2002

Mayor's campaign troubled from start

•	Mayor Harris withdraws from governor's race
•	Lingle says no change in strategy
•	Mayoral hopefuls left without a race
•	Hirono back in race for governor
•	Campaign investigation made 'bad publicity'
•	Democrats scramble to move into position
•	Reshaping Hawai'i's political landscape:
•	Major events in Jeremy Harris' effort to run for governor
•	Lee Cataluna: Democrats search for real leader
•	Interactive/Multimedia: Video of Harris announcement (courtesy of KHNL-News8) Do you think the mayor made the right decision? Take our survey. Join our discussion. • Submit a letter to the editor.

By Lynda Arakawa and Robbie Dingeman
Advertiser Capitol Bureau

For most of his political career, Jeremy Harris has known where he wanted to be and precisely how to get there. A deliberate, analytical politician who relies on polls and planning more than his gut, Harris isn't the kind to shrug his shoulders and simply hope for the best.

So when it came time to say why he was quitting the governor's race, Harris pulled out the numbers and said it was simple: He couldn't win.

But the numbers are simply one piece of a complex calculation that added up to a candidacy doomed by Harris' spotty and shallow support in the Democratic Party, a series of investigations and a legal challenge that knocked him off balance, and his determination to control events that were well beyond his ability to influence.

"I think he has a sense of frustration and a sense of he can't do anything right even though he's doing it right because everyone criticizes him, trying to find a political answer to what he does," campaign co-chairman B. Rick Tsujimura said. "I think he came to a point where he doesn't want to put himself and his wife through all that angst."

Indeed, when he announced yesterday he was giving up the race, Harris looked more relaxed than he had in months.

Since his early days in politics nearly 25 years ago on Kaua'i, Harris had enjoyed a relatively smooth ride, skillfully fending off challengers and establishing himself as more of an able administrator than old-boy glad-hander.

But late last year, Harris ran into his most formidable opponent ever: the state Campaign Spending Commission. A criminal investigation into his 2000 mayoral campaign, along with an unrelated court challenge that questioned whether Harris had to resign as mayor to run for governor, placed him in unfamiliar and uncomfortable territory.

"One of the things is that Harris really hasn't been attacked," said Hawai'i Pacific University Communications Dean Helen Varner, a political observer who has worked on campaigns in Texas. "As mayor he has had a lot of support. And I don't think he's ever really been under intense fire until just recently and that may have just taken the fun out of it.

"I think that he, like the rest of us, we want to fight battles that we can win, and I think all of a sudden it became apparent that he might not win this one and he felt vulnerable."

Harris' campaign attorney, Chris Parsons, said he believed constant criticism and scrutiny had taken a heavy toll on Harris.

"I don't think anyone's had to put up with the kind of onslaught he's put up with," Parsons said. "I think we underestimate the fact that these are human beings that run for these offices. ... There's an institutional process here: When you're the front-runner and you declare early, everything you do ends up under a magnifying glass."

It didn't help that the front-runner wasn't universally embraced by the Democratic Party. Some were put off by his wonkishness and his unabashed political ambition. Unlike many of the party stalwarts, he hailed from no ethnic community and had no inspiring stories to tell about working his way up from poverty. He never paid his dues in the Legislature or even on the City Council.

"Jeremy was on a whirlwind from the beginning. He took chances, he turned on people, and he was looking after his backside, and he took advantage of everything in the political world to advance his political career," said former Mayor Frank Fasi, for whom Harris worked as managing director from 1986 to 1994.

It's not clear whether Harris is now a man without a party. His withdrawal effectively wiped out the candidacies of several high-profile Democrats running for mayor, and put Lt. Gov. Mazie Hirono in the embarrassing position of having to switch races for the second time. In an Advertiser interview in March, Harris blamed his troubles on forces within the state Democratic Party who were working to "smear" him, despite the fact that he was the closest thing the party had to a front-runner.

Some members of the "old guard" in the Democratic Party sought another candidate as an alternative to Harris and threw their support behind D.G. "Andy" Anderson, a former Republican.

Harris now faces the challenge of regaining his credibility as mayor, a job that until yesterday he was ready to walk away from.

"It will have a big bearing over his future career in politics," said city Councilwoman Ann Kobayashi, who has dueled with Harris over the city budget. "He's been through hard times before."

And Harris hasn't been helped by the embarrassing political turmoil at City Hall.

Two of the Democratic City Council members who once backed many of his proposals have left office in disgrace. Councilman Andy Mirikitani retired after being convicted of federal felony public corruption charges in connection with paying his city aides employees in exchange for them kicking back a share of the money to him. Councilwoman Rene Mansho resigned and pleaded guilty to felony theft charges in state court. And then there were the city liquor inspectors accused last week of taking bribes.

Even though he had nothing to do with the legal troubles of city officials and public workers, Harris is ultimately the boss, and the incidents added to the perception that City Hall was a crooked place.

But the real troubles began in January when the state Campaign Spending Commission in January requested a criminal investigation of Harris and three leaders of his 2000 mayoral campaign after issuing fines to a number of companies that made campaign contributions that exceeded the legal limit.

Harris and his campaign officials vehemently denied wrongdoing, and Harris uncharacteristically lashed out at the head of the commission, turning a political feud into a personal one. Then, former state Judge Russell Blair filed a lawsuit charging that Harris needed to resign his city office. Harris suspended his campaign March 11, even after a judge ruled that he didn't have to.

By then, it was clear that Harris, who built his political career by leaving nothing to chance and always controlling the message, was frustrated by his inability to get his campaign back on track. He hired a damage-control consultant to deal with the media. And he became uncharacteristically unavailable, a no-show at city budget hearings where events could spin away from his grasp. He avoided public events where the media was likely to show up because he couldn't stop them from asking questions about his troubles.

The Hawai'i Supreme Court ultimately ruled that Harris was right — candidates don't have to resign until they file their nomination papers with the state Office of Elections. And the city prosecutor's office has yet to make any determination on the campaign finance complaints.

But the momentum and the message were lost. Harris never restarted his campaign.

While Harris, 52, said he is not dropping out of politics, making a run for office after withdrawing from the governor's race will likely be more difficult.

"Once you pull out, people perceive you as a quitter," Varner said. "And I think it's going to be much harder for him then to raise money and to raise support because he's kind of broken faith with his own folks. I think there's a perceptual problem, and if I were a volunteer or a donor or someone who had made a commitment to him, I would sort of feel that he has broken his commitment to me."

Advertiser staff writer Johnny Brannon contributed to this report. Reach Lynda Arakawa at larakawa@honoluluadvertiser.com or at 525-8070.