Cayetano finds his opponent gathering more and more support from broadly liberal constituencies that have supported the Democratic Party in the last 20 years.
As he drives his campaign harder and harder in the closing days of the 1998s primary, Cayetano is forced further to the right, as Harris draws support from the left.
When Harris went on television with commercials showing him working late at night juggling the city budget so he wouldn't have to lay off any civil servants, Cayetano is forced again to defend pulling state workers out of their jobs.
Cayetano is up against the ropes as Harris ticks off the social agencies that are working with the city. Cayetano's only counter punch is to say he cut aid to the poor and sick in order to save the entire state.
There is little time for Cayetano to even worry how many of his former trusted allies in the Democratic left took a powder when it looked like he couldn't deliver for them.
Reporters covering Cayetano's campaign trace his election year Waterloo back to 1996 when the governor's efforts at organizing the state Democratic Party were buried under an avalanche of pro-Harris supporters.
Harris made a canny move early on when he picked up a number of defeated or resigned Democrats.
Back then, Harris looked like he was opening a politician's retirement home at Honolulu Hale as former state Sens. Tony Chang, Ann Kobayashi and Gerald Hagino, plus Rep. Peter Apo and former House Speaker Danny Kihano climbed on his bandwagon.
Harris also benefited from picking up some talented political operators such as former state transportation executive Cheryl Soon and grass-roots organizer Mike Amii. But at the convention the political favors were returned as Harris came with an island-wide base built on the personalities and contacts of the former pols.
Using the 1996 convention as a rallying point, Harris provided the Democrats with the leadership needed to get behind Bill Clinton's re-election campaign. The action isn't forgotten by folks in Washington.
The most startling shift toward Harris came as labor unions endorsed Harris in the 1996 mayor's race, noting that he didn't lay off any public employees, he was able to fund the collective bargaining talks and he was an enthusiastic supporter of mass transit projects.
CAYETANO, in contrast, found himself boxed in by supporting former City Councilman Arnold Morgado in the 1996 race.
As the Saturday election ends, Cayetano waits for the neighbor island voter turnout figures, hoping that a heavy turnout will blunt the Harris surge on Oahu.
In past Democratic primaries, incumbent governors have benefited from the organized support of the unionized voters on Kauai, Maui and Hawaii. But now, with sugar gone, the Big Island's economy faltering and Kauai languishing, there are few voters ready to buy the traditional Democratic promises.
That's the Cayetano nightmare that makes this weekend's Democratic convention a pivotal piece for two years' worth of elections.