City prosecutor Peter Carlisle said he has resigned from the Hawai'i Republican Party because he wants to have no party affiliation when he runs in the nonpartisan mayor's race.

Carlisle, a Republican for a number of years, said he resigned from the GOP about six or seven weeks ago, shortly after he announced he will run for mayor when Mayor Mufi Hannemann leaves office.

Hannemann's term ends in 2012 but he has organized a committee to raise money for a possible run for governor in the Democratic primary next year.

Carlisle said he will run in either 2010 or 2012. "I'm running for a nonpartisan (seat) and I want it to be a nonpartisan race," he said.

"The idea is everybody's welcome and partisan politics aren't going to be any part of decision-making for me if I'm fortunate enough to be elected mayor."

Carlisle would not publicly commit to a political party in 2006 when he was considering a run for Congress in urban Honolulu's 1st Congressional District. But he attended the GOP's Lincoln Day that year and later was co-chairman of the state Republican convention.

Gov. Linda Lingle and other top Republicans courted Carlisle. "How fortunate we are that when he decided to align with a political party — Peter Carlisle chose us," Lingle told Republicans at the state convention in 2006.