The candidates for Honolulu mayor circled the island yesterday, trying to energize their supporters and looking for every hand they could shake as the race wound down to its final hours.

Mayor Mufi Hannemann boarded a trolley and traveled from Wai'anae to Hawai'i Kai, with stops in Waipahu and Kapolei, and at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa.

City Councilwoman Ann H. Kobayashi met with supporters in the Dillingham area before walking through the Hawaiian Airlines terminal at the airport and then heading to Pearlridge for more meeting and greeting.

"I'm not tired because our supporters and volunteers really give me energy," said Kobayashi, speaking by phone on her way to Pearlridge. "Many of them say 'good luck' and 'you've gotta win'; it's really inspiring and heartwarming

Hannemann was also upbeat. "It ain't over until it's over and I am going to campaign hard all the way up until 6 p.m. tomorrow," he said. "Everything we've seen so far, the polls, the honks (from drivers), the support, everything is positive everywhere we go."

For the remaining undecided voters, here is where the candidates stand on three major issues:

RAIL TRANSIT

The candidates maintain polar opposite positions on the city's proposed $4.28 million, 20-mile commuter rail project, which goes before the voters today in a charter question.

Both have said they will respect the will of the voters on that issue.

Hannemann is an ardent supporter of the project and has marshaled backing from the state's congressional delegation. He has told the public this is the "pono" thing to do for the residents of Leeward and Central O'ahu, who deal with the worst traffic congestion on the island.

Kobayashi is against the project and promotes her EzWay plan, a $2.5 billion mix of managed lanes and elevated roadways for buses as a fiscally responsible solution to traffic congestion.

ECONOMY

Hannemann, a former executive with C. Brewer and Co. Ltd. and a former head of the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tour- ism, touts his experience as the reason he is best able to steer the city through economic adversity.

He has said his administration will focus on keeping the local economy moving by promoting transit-oriented development, supporting tourism, and forging public-private partnerships.

He has said that when markets fail and consumer confidence is low, the economy needs to be maintained with public works projects.

Kobayashi, who has served as chairwoman of the state Senate Ways and Means Committee and the city's Budget Committee, said the city needs to control the cost of doing government work. She promised not to raise taxes and fees to pay for construction or maintenance of city services.

As a City Council member, she voted against the city's current $1.9 billion operating budget and said Hannemann's administration could have trimmed more and offered greater relief to taxpayers.

Kobayashi has said she and her staff are developing a four-year economic plan for the city. She wants to pursue an idea developed by City Council chairwoman Barbara Marshall that would allow the city to draw from money set aside for vacant positions. Currently, the money covers overtime and contract hires, but Kobayashi would like to use that money to shore up services.

GARBAGE

Kobayashi says she supports the "three Rs": reduce, reuse and recycle.

She wants to close the Waimanalo Gulch landfill and identify new, affordable technology to convert the majority of O'ahu's solid waste to energy.

She believes the city's current waste-to-energy conversion facility is outdated. And she wants to explore new technology capable of converting more of the city's solid waste into reuseable goods.

She proposes offering tax incentives to "green" businesses.

Hannemann says Honolulu will still need a landfill in the short term, but that his administration is working toward coordinating energy-saving practices across departments and will implement a 25-year solid-waste management master plan that is being drafted.

Hannemann has said that when he took office, the City Council had voted to keep the Waimanalo Gulch landfill open. After conducting research, Hannemann decided that the landfill needed to remain open because closing it meant moving it to another site closer to homes in Nanakuli.

Hannemann said he hopes that after purchasing H-Power and scheduling to process an additional 300,000 tons of waste, shipping more than 100,000 tons of trash to the Mainland each year and expanding recycling, the city will be closer to a day when a landfill is no longer needed.