State Rep. Bev Harbin, who has refused calls from Gov. Linda Lingle to resign over disclosures about her past, said yesterday she would run for election next year in House District 28.

Harbin had said after her September appointment by Lingle that she would only serve out the remainder of former Rep. Ken Hiraki's term next year. Media reports about her state tax debts and misdemeanor criminal convictions for writing bad checks in a landlord-tenant dispute led to requests that she resign.

In a news conference in her office at the state Capitol, Harbin scolded the media and was critical of both the Republican governor and the Democratic Party of Hawai'i for not supporting her. "Now I'm mad," Harbin said. "Everybody turned their back on me, including the governor. I said I would do this for a year just to give the district a chance to get to know its new leaders.

"We, in my age group, we are done. We screwed this place up big time. We need new young leaders. And I want to give this district a chance to find its leaders. But everybody has been so busy destroying me, who in their right mind is going to run for this stinking office?"

Harbin, a small-business advocate who joined the Democratic Party so she would be eligible to replace Hiraki, said she would stay with the party and run as a Democrat next year. But she said she would be the Democrats' "worst nightmare."

Harbin said she might change her mind about running if a young leader emerges who wants to represent the Iwilei, downtown and Makiki district. Collin Wong, a young Republican computer consultant who came within a few hundred votes of Hiraki in 2004, said yesterday he plans to run again next year. He said Harbin should step down so voters could make their choice without the distractions that surrounded her appointment.

Tom Brower, communications director for the Democratic Party of Hawai'i, hinted that Harbin could continue to be an embarrassment to the governor. "I appreciate Rep. Harbin's willingness to talk about her past," Brower said. "I know she was speaking but I kept seeing Governor Lingle's face."

Harbin said she is scheduled to meet today with House Speaker Calvin Say, D-20th (St. Louis Heights, Palolo, Wilhelmina Rise), and will ask for a special session so lawmakers could review a decision by the Hawai'i Community Development Authority to sell state land in Kaka'ako for a $650 million Alexander & Baldwin commercial and condominium project.

Harbin also wants lawmakers to create an independent panel that would review potential appointees to fill vacancies at the Legislature. The panel would recommend finalists to the governor. An aide close to House leadership said it is unlikely there will be a special session to hear Harbin's requests. The new legislative session begins in January.

Harbin said she was asked four times before her appointment whether there was anything in her past that might embarrass the Lingle administration and she believes she was honest. She said she disclosed an arrest for obstructing justice during a raid on her former auto-repair business — she was never charged in that incident — and some information about the legal troubles of family members, but did not tell the governor about her tax debts or the convictions related to the bad checks.

"It was never my intention to create a firestorm in this fourth-estate circus," said Harbin, taking a swipe at the media, "but now that you've put me there, I intend to use my life experiences of winning and losing, making right and wrong decisions, and accepting the consequences of my decisions. But rest assured that I will not become paralyzed and lose the ability to continue to take risks."

Reach Derrick DePledge at ddepledge@honoluluadvertiser.com.