Posted on: Friday, May 31, 2002

Harris throws wrench into political season

Virtually every race in the 2002 political campaign may potentially feel fallout from Mayor Jeremy Harris' announcement yesterday — after some weeks in which he was curiously and uncharacteristically quiet — that he would withdraw from this year's governor's race.

For starters, a handful of candidates for Honolulu mayor now find themselves all dressed up with no place to go after Harris promised to complete the remaining two years of his term. All or most will now jump into other races.

Rumor has it, for instance, that one of the erstwhile mayoral candidates will now seek a City Council seat, while another will run either for the state Senate or Congress. The candidate who cheated the rumor mill is Mazie Hirono, who immediately announced that she's back in the Democratic gubernatorial race yet again.

Hirono had pulled out of that race to run for mayor after it appeared she substantially trailed Harris in early polls. She said then that her decision was not at anyone's behest, and that's what Harris said yesterday about his decision. Whether her multiple switches will make her appear uncertain or opportunistic, rather than a steadfast team player, remains to be seen.

In a cheerful and graceful statement yesterday, Harris attributed his decision to pull out of the race to two factors:

• He had come to believe he couldn't beat Republican Linda Lingle in the November general election. He said a poll last week put him 22 points behind Lingle. A year earlier, he said, he had led Lingle (and Hirono) in the polls. He said it is crucial for the Democrats to find a candidate able to beat Lingle in the fall, and he recognized that he wasn't it.

• He accepted the challenge raised recently by council members who charged that his budget has mortgaged the city's future. Under his continued leadership, he promised, the city will continue to provide excellent services without the "catastrophic results" forecast in budget hearings.

We hope that happens. We've been doubtful of such tactics as borrowing from the sewer fund and recruiting hundreds of people with special interests to pack hearings to lobby against budget cuts.

Only a day before yesterday's announcement, Harris emerged the victor in his battle with council budget chairwoman Ann Kobayashi, with all of the feel-good features she had sought to cut, such as new swimming pools and skateboard parks, restored to the budget. Everyone wants and likes these items, of course, but we join Kobayashi in worrying about assuming serious amounts of costly debt to make them possible.

Harris described only as "bumps in the road" the legal difficulties that stole his momentum. He had actually suspended his campaign as he awaited a favorable Supreme Court ruling that he needn't resign as mayor until he filed, as late as July 23, for governor. Similarly, he had won a key ruling allowing higher limits for contributors than those asserted by the Campaign Spending Commission.

But that commission had fined about a dozen local companies for excessive donations, and city Prosecutor Peter Carlisle is investigating further complaints.

Harris' departure leaves Democrats Hirono, D.G. "Andy" Anderson and Ed Case to fight for the opportunity to oppose Lingle in November. Or does it? The rumblings felt from political back-rooms suggest that we stay tuned.