Bus strike prompts Harris to shift gears

By Mike Leidemann
Advertiser Transportation Writer

The bus strike seems to have brought Mayor Jeremy Harris out of his political shell.

HARRIS

His higher profile is in contrast to the low-key, behind-the-desk public persona Harris has presented since he dropped out of the governor's race in May 2002 and found himself confronted by a drawn-out investigation into his campaign finances.

"It's the old Jeremy Harris we saw a few years ago," said Duke Bainum, a former City Council member and likely 2004 mayoral candidate. "Here's an issue that clearly resonates with him, and he's taking it on with vigor. It's great to have him back."

Harris says he isn't doing anything different, but he added that the past three weeks have been especially rewarding and invigorating.

"When you can do something as simple as get somebody to work on time or help a senior citizen get to their doctor's appointment, you really feel like you're making a difference," Harris said Friday.

That's clearly different than the past four months spent debating "esoteric budget issues, which isn't nearly as fun and invigorating as getting out and getting the job done personally," Harris said.

Each weekday, the mayor has been driving one of the seven-passenger vans on the Kalihi shuttle run, pulling shifts at 5:45 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., city spokeswoman Carol Costa said. When Teamsters President Mel Kahele criticized Harris for "sticking his big nose in our business," Harris shot back that "Mr. Kahele better get used to me sticking up for the taxpayers of the city."

Observers differed on whether the newfound enjoyment Harris seems to be taking in the mayor's job marks a watershed moment in the mayor's political career or a one-time event shaped by special circumstances and a topic close to his heart: mass transit.

"It's a coming out, but whether or not it's a comeback is something we'll have to see," said Neal Milner, a political-science professor at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa.

Milner earlier this year wondered whether Harris would be able to resuscitate his public image in the wake of a budget crunch, feuding with a new City Council and the continuing campaign finance investigation, which so far has not touched the mayor.

"He dropped out for a while, but you can see that he's been slowly re-emerging. This is the type of issue that he likes and one that has clearly energized him again," Milner said. Others say Harris may be relishing this particular fight with striking city bus drivers, but probably doesn't have any ulterior political motives.

"It's just his personality. He likes to be a hands-on guy, and now he's got an opportunity again. You can see that he's enjoying himself. I really don't think there's anything deeper to it than that," said Don Clegg, a former city land use director who did political polling for Harris' 1996 and 2000 mayoral campaigns.

No one suggests that Harris hasn't been working continuously behind the scenes to keep the city running, but he clearly had not been as visible to the public as he was in his first term as mayor.

Harris said that wasn't his fault.

"What I sense is that the media stopped reporting on what I do every day," he said. "In my first term, I'd be out at the project site working on a design or riding on the back of a garbage truck, and the media would be there. For the last several years, I've still been out on the project or on the garbage truck, but the media wasn't there anymore. So there was a perception that I changed, and that wasn't true."

Clegg said he thinks Harris simply hasn't had as many opportunities lately to shine for the media, and, by extension, the public.

"He's been the mayor from behind the desk for a while, and that's not his style. We used to call him the everywhere mayor, but he hasn't had so many opportunities to be out there," Clegg said. "And when he was doing what he liked, it didn't always catch the media's attention."

Some observers said they had seen earlier signs of Harris emerging from the shadows in recent months, with stepped up public efforts to promote sustainable design policies, fight dengue fever and kick-start an O'ahu recycling program.

"Personally, I don't think he ever stopped being involved, but it didn't manifest itself publicly so much," Bainum said.

"If you saw him at the big sustainability conference a few months ago, you could see he still had the ability to get quite energized," added Ira Rohter, a University of Hawai'i political-science professor. "Now he's become a public defender, standing up to the bus drivers, telling them, 'No way, Charlie Brown, am I going to give you a pay raise.'"

City Council members think the bus strike has given Harris a rare opportunity to be on the same page with people he is often at odds with.

"I think for once he feels like we're in this together on the same side," said Councilman Charles Djou, who has clashed with Harris over other issues several times this year.

Council Chairman Gary Okino said developments in the bus negotiations and strike in the past two weeks have played into Harris' hands.

"I really believed that he thought he could avoid a strike by proposing fare increases to avoid layoffs," Okino said. "Once that didn't happen, he got pulled into the strike. The mayor doesn't like conflict, but when he gets attacked, he comes back fighting. That's what happened here."

No matter how it happened, Harris seems to be winning, for now, the public relations battle with Kahele, president of the Teamsters and Allied Workers Local 996, which represents the striking bus workers.

"If his popularity was low before, it's certainly growing again, probably as an unexpected benefit from the way the strike is playing out," Okino said. "I don't think it was intentional, but that's the way it has developed."

The big question is whether Harris will choose to build on the new support to help move his political career to a new level, observers said.

"He's just been so battered for so long that there's a Greek tragedy aspect to his career. You have to wonder where he goes next," Rohter said. "Maybe this fits into some particular next step or maybe not."

"He's a pretty shrewd politician who can pick his spots and he certainly hasn't gone into this blindly," Milner added. "The idea that he's doing it for some advantage — there's nothing wrong with that. It's what politicians do."

Harris said he's not making any plans beyond the rest of his term.

"I'm not looking for any new battles, but we have a full plate — the big recycling program, expansion of Central O'ahu Regional Park and lots of exciting and challenging things. For the next year and a quarter, I'll be going full speed," he said.

Mike Leidemann can be reached at mleidemann@honoluluadvertiser.com.